The success of leading Australian fintechs such as Judo Bank, MoneyMe, Airwallex and Afterpay has landed the country in the top 10 nations for fintechs according to a new global ranking of the ecosystem. Australia ranked eighth in the Global Fintech Index City Rankings 2020, which evaluates fintech ecosystems in more than 230 cities across… Read more »
Robyn Denholm, the Australian businesswoman who’s now global chair of Elon Musk’s tech company Tesla, wants everyone in her homeland to embrace risk and is worried the nearly three decades of uninterrupted economic growth has made people complacent. Denholm (pictured above), who grew up in the western Sydney suburb of Milperra and rose to… Read more »
The annual report into Australia’s startup ecosytem predicts 3 new unicorn tech companies in 2020 The sector created 4,500 jobs last year from $2 billion in investment While later stage investment is booming, concern about a decline in both the number and levels of investment in early stage startups is growing Founding locally creates high… Read more »
Tech organisation ACS (previously known as the Australian Computer Society) is committing $5 million towards a new early stage tech investment fund and is now on the hunt for other investors to join the scheme. ACS President Yohan Ramasundara (pictured above) announced the fund in his closing address at the Reimagination Thought Leaders’ Summit… Read more »
Tech association ACS has produced a report on the way forward in a world of data sharing, outlining a basis for balancing the need for governments and business to share information while maintaining citizens’ privacy. The Privacy Preserving Data Sharing Frameworks report, released at ACS’s Reimagination Thought Leaders Conference in Melbourne today, concluded Australia should… Read more »
Return on investment means different things to different people, especially when in terms of outcomes, and Impact Investment Group (IIG) is rewriting the rules in terms of the success of its investments. IIG is best known to the startup sector for its VC investment arm, the Giant Leap Fund, launched in 2016. It’s an impact VC… Read more »
Freelancer boss Matt Barrie sees sinister motives behind the Morrison government’s plan to ban cash payments greater than $10,000, believing it’s part of a plan to end the cash economy altogether. In a detailed submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics inquiry into the proposal to ban large cash payments, Barrie says the move… Read more »
Women-only ridesharing app Shebah set a record for Australian crowdfunding when it raised $3 million earlier this year. Equity crowdfunding platform Birchal has announced plans to host a secondary market to trade unlisted crowdsource-funded (CSF) shares from next year. Birchal has pioneered equity crowdfunding in Australia, having raised more than $16 million in 26 successful… Read more »
Welcome to Tuesday. It’s now 3 weeks to Christmas. Here’s what’s happening in tech. 1. Paul Bassat’s Square Peg backs offshore fintech Melbourne VC firm Square Peg Capital has made its first big international bet in a Singapore fintech, less than a year after raising a record AU$340 million fund with global ambitions.… Read more »
Lena Söderberg, the Swedish grandmother who inadvertently became tech’s “original sin”, holding her 1972 Playboy photo. Welcome to Monday. We need to talk about Lena. 1. How Playboy set the standard for women in tech In the early ’70s, a Swedish model, Lena Söderberg, was a Playboy centrefold. When a bunch of engineers –… Read more »
Wonde CEO and co-founder Peter Dabrowa. UK education technology venture Wonde has raised $2.6 million from Australian VC funds, led by Tempus Partners, as part of its local roll out. The software integration and data privacy venture is the nexus between third-party education app developers and a school’s database or Student Information System (SIS)… Read more »
Order fulfillment venture Shippit has raised $5.35 million in an oversubscribed pre-series B round to expand in Asia and Australia. The five-year-old Sydney SaaS startup, which began as a shipping platform for fashion and homeware boutiques in inner-city Surry Hills has doubled it transactions over the last 12 months to more than two million… Read more »
Venue booking startups Spare Workspace and Venuemob have merged to create a wide-ranging event, meeting and training space booking platform. The new venture will be known as Spare Group. Spare Workspace was launched in 2015 by Jake Dimarco (pictured above) for businesses to book meeting and training spaces online, with around 2000 spaces available by… Read more »
1. Stirring, not shaken Massive congrats to Yarra Valley gin distillery Four Pillars (that’s the team pictured above), which has just been named International Gin Producer of the Year at the 50th Annual International Wine and Spirits Competition in London. Startups come in many shapes and forms. This one launched in 2013, co-founded by three… Read more »
The Crowe crew cleaning up following bushfires around Nana Glen. Photo: Russell Crowe It all started with a sooty Rabbitohs hat. Hollywood superstar Russell Crowe nearly lost his rural property on the New South Wales mid-north coast in the recent, devastating bushfires that have burnt out hundreds of homes Australia-wide. On Friday morning, 147… Read more »
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