Australia’s annual bible of the country’s best bottled grapes, the Halliday Wine Companion, has named Hunter Valley institution Brokenwood as its Winery of the Year for 2026. Founded 40 years ago by critic and winemaker James Halliday, who retired last year, aged 86, The Companion is the bestselling and definitive guide to Australian wines, wineries… Read more »
Fun fact: A Xero user on ASX-listed accountancy platform’s 2nd top tier of $100 a month would need to subscribe for nearly 21,000 years to cover the cost of CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy’s annual pay packet. Luckily, Xero (ASX:XRO) has more than one customer. As the company’s remuneration committee chair, Susan Peterson, outlined at the… Read more »
Design platform Canva has revalued itself at $65 billion, up 14.5% on just six weeks ago, as employees look to sell their stakes in a secondary share sale. The confirmation from cofounder Cliff Obrecht came after news leaked earlier this week that VC investors Blackbird and Square Peg had increased the valuations to $US42 billion… Read more »
ASX-listed Kogan.com has written off $46.3 million in goodwill from its $122 million acquisition of Kiwi online retailer Mighty Ape nearly five years ago. The announcement of the non-cash impairment comes ahead of next Monday’s FY25 results release. The value of goodwill associated with the acquisition was $46.3 million in June 2024. Mighty Ape’s focus… Read more »
Pet Circle cofounder Mike Frizell is stepping down as CEO after 15 years of leading the business and will replace Airtree’s Craig Blair as the company’s chair. Former Woolies ecommerce exec Alistair Venn, who joined the business as chief operating officer five months ago, will step into the CEO role Frizell cofounded Pet Circle in… Read more »
Original startup community hub Fishburners is revamping how it supports founders as it moves out of the Sydney Startup Hub, announcing new locations, plus several new products and programs to improve access to networking and connections. CEO Majella Campbell said the new Fishburners model comprises four key products, designed to bring founders together in specialised… Read more »
Sunshine Coast-based laundry solution The Laundry Lady, has ended 13 years of bootstrapping to raise $1 million in Seed funding for international expansion. The round was led by Brisbane investor and Techniche chair Karl Jacoby with support from Brisbane Angels, AngelLoop, AI ethicist Dr Catriona Wallace, and several local angel investors. The Queensland government’s Female… Read more »
Competition watchdog the ACCC has struck a deal with Google over anti-competitive behaviour in a deal with Telstra and Optus to pre-instal Google Search on Android mobile phones, agreeing to a $55 million penalty. The deal now needs to be ratified by the Federal Court, which will decide if the penalty is appropriate. Google co-operated… Read more »
Whole-body MRI scans startup OneMRI, cofounded by Dr Vu Tran and Andrew Barnes from edutech Go1, has banked $2.5 million in a Seed raise. A panapoly of investors joined the round, including OIF, TEN13, Antler, Salus, AfterWork, Archangel, Black Sheep Capital, Prtnr, Tribe Global, and Larsen Ventures, as well as clinicians and radiologists. Tran and… Read more »
Melbourne scaleup CyberCX is potentially a unicorn following plans by professional services giant Accenture to acquire the six-year-old cybersecurity platform in a $1 billion-plus deal. CyberCX was founded in 2019 by former Optus Business boss John Paitaridis and Alastair MacGibbon, the former Australian government cyber security tsar. It was created from the merger of a dozen smaller… Read more »
Cryptocurrency platform Block Earner has raised $8 million in a Series A amid its ongoing battle with the corporate regulator ASIC. The round was led by Hong Kong crypto investor CMCC Global’s Titan Fund, and supported by Sydney VC King River Capital at a $75 million valuation. The fintech previously raiseed a $7 million Seed… Read more »
ASX-listed technology investor Bailador Technology Investments made a net profit after tax of $19.3 million, with two startups DASH and Updoc, leading the way The company (ASX:BTI) declared a final dividend declared of 3.6 cents per share fully-franked, for an annualised grossed-up yield of 8.1%. The portfolio return was 7.8% after all fees and tax.… Read more »
New York online health multinational Teladoc Health (NYSE: TDOC) has acquired Victorian healthtech startup Telecare, in the first exit for LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund. The deal closed last Friday, August 8, with the terms undisclosed, but Teladoc Health said it’s expected to be immaterial to its 2025 financial results. Telecare developed Australia’s leading virtual care… Read more »
An Australian built and operated cube satellite has won the SmallSat Mission of the Year award at the AIAA Small Satellite Mission of the Year Awards in Salt Lake City, USA. The Waratah Seed-1 – Australia’s first ‘rideshare’ satellite – launched 12 months ago and beat 10 rival finalists from global space experts includes NASA, the… Read more »
Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar said he wouldn’t mind if others took the $60 billion tech company’s intellectual property without paying for it if it leads to better software. The Tech Council of Australia chair, who stepped down as Atlassian co-CEO last year, but remains on the board, has been advocating for changes to Australian copyright… Read more »
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