Simon Thomsen

Simon has been editor of Startup Daily since 2019.

He hosted the Startup Daily show on streaming service ausbiz.com.au from 2020 to 2023.

He was previously associate editor of Business Insider Australia, a national restaurant critic, editor of The Good Food Guide, and newspaper proprietor during a 30-year career in journalism and publishing.

He's also an investor in early stage startups.

Simon chaired the environment committee of industry lobby group Australian Business Ltd's (now NSW Business Chamber) during the Kyoto agreement era, debating cow farts with mining execs.

Funding

Contactile grabs $268,712 federal commercialisation grant for its ‘human touch’ robotic gripper

- June 23, 2025 2 MIN READ

Contactile, a deep tech startup giving robotics the subtlety of human-like touch, has scored $268,712 from the federal government under its Industry Growth Program The matched funding will go towards the the commercialisation of its tactile sensor-enabled smart robotic gripper. Contactile’s patented tactile sensor array has created a smart gripper measures 3D deflection, force, vibration, torque,… Read more »

Funding

‘Everything is awesome’: NSW budget sprinkles nearly $80 million on the tech sector

- June 23, 2025 6 MIN READ

The NSW budget, announced tomorrow, includes nearly $80 million of new funding in response to the recently released Innovation Blueprint. The third Labor budget from treasurer Daniel Mookhey is the first time the Minns government has made a notable, yet modest, investment in the startup and tech sector. For comparison, the recent South Australian budget… Read more »

Sally-Ann Williams
People

Sally-Ann Williams calls time as Cicada Innovations CEO

- June 18, 2025 2 MIN READ

Deep tech evangelist Sally-Ann Williams is wrapping up her leadership of Cicada Innovations after six years. Williams, previously head of R&D at Google Australia, signed on in mid 2019, and has transformed the veteran Sydney incubator, steering it deftly through the pandemic and expanding operations to Western Sydney and Melbourne. “This has been one of… Read more »

Business

Australians will finally get a taste of cultured meat startup Vow’s quail product

- June 18, 2025 2 MIN READ

Sydney startup Vow will finally get to serve its cultured quail meat products in Australia following approval from regulatory authorities that it’s safe to eat. The food safety authority, FSANZ, spent two years picking at Forged, Vow’s cell-based meat created from Japanese quail, including a second round of public consultation late last year.  Meanwhile, the… Read more »

Business

Hot founder tip: check your WhatsApp messages for Canva billionaires looking to buy your startup

- June 18, 2025 2 MIN READ

VCs might be used to cold calls from startups seeking cash, but as takeover offers go, the WhatsApp MagicBrief cofounder George Howes received from Canva’s billionaire cofounder Cliff Obrecht was unexpected. Howes was at Sydney airport last month ready to move to the UK and launch his advertising tech platform there when the request to meet… Read more »

Climate Tech

Expat Australian’s US-based bushfire detection startup lights up $68 million Series B

- June 17, 2025 2 MIN READ

A US startup used extensively by Australian authorities to detect bushfires has raised a US$44 million (A$68m) Series B. The round for Pano AI included an undisclosed level of secondary share sales, with the surveillance platform claiming to have raised A$138m (US$89m) in its five-year-old lifetime. New investor Giant Ventures led the raise, supported by… Read more »

Cyber security

A cybersecurity founder who had a $100 million exit is back with a new idea and a $9.2 million Seed round from Paladin Capital

- June 16, 2025 2 MIN READ

Serial cybersecurity entrepreneur Michael Watts is back with new startup, kicking off a proactive cloud security platform, Circumvent, with US$6 million (A$9.2m) Seed round from Paladin Capital Group. Watts was previously founder and CEO of Cloud Conformity, which Paladin backed in 2018 with a US$3.1 million Series A. The following year the startup was acquired… Read more »

money tree
Business

StrongRoom sells for $3 million – and now the games begin

- June 13, 2025 4 MIN READ

StrongRoom AI will live on under new management with Queensland pharmacy entrepreneur Joe Zhou acquiring the Melbourne healthtech startup from the administrators in a deal finalised late on Thursday. The sale follows a last minute battle for control of the business last week when an early investor, InterValley, and one of the company’s cofounders, make… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

Data centre giant NextDC is building a $2b billion digital tech campus in Melbourne

- June 12, 2025 2 MIN READ

ASX-listed data centre business NextDC (ASX:NXT) will build a $2 billion tech hub in Port Melbourne as part of the Victorian government’s Fishermans Bend Innovation Precinct. Named M4, it will be purpose-built for sovereign AI, high performance computing (HPC), advanced manufacturing and deep tech, with three core components: an AI factory to support NVIDIA’s Blackwell and… Read more »