Four years after it launched, New Zealand VC fund Phase One has fully deployed its NZ$2.1 million (A$1.94m) early stage fund into 14 tech startups, including five (36%) with female founders. The fund, launched in April 2021, following the establishment of its early stage incubator community in 2020, the attracted GD1 as its anchor investor… Read more »
Comparison site Finder is closing down its crypto trading platform, Wallet Ventures, after four years, signing a deal with Swyftx to transfer users to the digital assets exchange. Wallet Ventures (formerly Finder Wallet) offered customers access to 18 cryptocurrencies through the Finder App. It launched in 2021 Finder notified customers on Wednesday, saying it will… Read more »
Tech Council of Australia chair Scott Farquhar has another board to run since stepping down as Atlassian co-CEO, taking on a role close to his heart as chair of the global social impact movement Pledge 1%. Farquhar was one of the founding members of Pledge 1% started in 2015 via the Atlassian Foundation. Pledge 1%… Read more »
An R&D finance fintech based on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast has raised $2.3 million towards a $25 million fund to lend as non-dilutive capital to Australian startups. Founder Alex Knight moved home to Coolum three years ago to raise a family, having previously worked at crowdfunding platform VentureCrowd and debt financier Tractor Ventures, having also invested… Read more »
Blackbird has added another unicorn to its portfolio, but unlike Canva, has come late to the party with plans to tip $60 million into fintech Airwallex. The AFR reports that the VC is signing on for an unannounced capital raising for Airwallex, ahead of plans to go public in the next 12 months. Airwallex last… Read more »
Mohit Midha, cofounder and CEO of Hoogly was at Blackbird’s Sunrise last week, tired but unable to stop smiling after global recognition for his employee engagement startup in California and London. The fact that he set out to also raise $500,000 and now has $1 million with 10 days left before he closes his latest… Read more »
Share in US-listed Atlassian (Nasdaq: TEAM) are down around 10% over the past week, at one stage dipping below US$190 following a 17% plunge when the Australian workplace software company released its March quarter earnings with another loss alongside longer-than-expected fourth-quarter guidance. Q3 revenue was up 14% on 12 months ago to US$1.4 billion, with… Read more »
Robyn Denholm was on stage Blackbird’s Sunrise when the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published news that Tesla, the company she’s chaired since 2018, was on the hunt for a new CEO. The basketball-loving-and-owning Australian, a Blackbird director, was talking to Sydney Kings and Boomers coach Brian Goorjian about the lessons from sport for leadership and… Read more »
Eucalyptus cofounder Tim Doyle has revealed that the best way to get a job at his health startup is to solve his dildo problem. He wants you to slide into his LinkedIn DMs to solve the “dildo mountain” he has in a warehouse – the result in a pledge in his startup’s early days. Doyle… Read more »
Probably the last time the NRL talked about testicles was 12 years ago when former Souths forward Sam Burgess copped a two-match ban for a “squirrel grip” tackle on a Melbourne Storm player. But this weekend, as the rugby league fans gather for Magic Round in Brisbane, medical researcher and entrepreneur Saara Jamieson from Cool… Read more »
Scaleup Mediafund has backed financial services comparison scaleup Finder and ASX-listed life insurance specialist NobleOak in its latest media-for-equity investment swap. The fund provides companies with advertising and paid media from its $15 million third fund – the value of discounted advertising inventory provided by the fund members – spanning publishers, outdoor advertising firms and… Read more »
A Melbourne startup cofounded by two 24-year-old former university students has banked $1.5 million in pre-Seed funding. The raise for Fluency was backed by HammerTech cofounder Bradley Tabone, Archangel Ventures, and Singaporean VCs 1MX.ai and Orvel Ventures. Best mates and self-taught developers Finnlay Morcombe and Oliver Farnill, a former Swinburne engineering student, launched Fluency in 2023,… Read more »
Showpo founder Jane Lu knows what it’s like to ride the rollercoaster of startup life better than most. The only child to Chinese-Australian parents, she was living up to their expectations with an accounting career at the Big 4 consultancy firms. But it wasn’t her cup of tea, so Lu left to launch her first… Read more »
The husband of Australia’s first “Aussie” astronaut, Katherine Bennell-Pegg, has been appointed the new director of space at the South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC). Campbell Pegg has spent 15 years in the space industry across five countries, and was most recently assistant director for satellite engineering at Optus. He’s worked in leadership positions across government,… Read more »
Facebook’s Australian arm saw revenue grow by $110 million to $1.46 billion in 2024, but its greedy parent company gobbled up all of that additional revenue in service charges according to regulatory filings. The 20-year-old social media is barely profitable in Australia, just getting by on margins similar to the restaurant industry, at 3.2%, according… Read more »
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
