Startup founders at CEBIT Happy Halloween! If you’re looking to scare investors, apparently an Adam Neumann costume is Silicon Valley’s go to for 2019. 1. A social media watershed moment? https://twitter.com/jack/status/1189634360472829952 Twitter’s boss, Jack Dorsey, just errr, trumped Mark Zuckerberg. More on that here. 2. North Korean hackers put malware on a PC… Read more »
Tom Cowan and Bruce Buchanan Rokt, the seven-year-old e-commerce marketing startup has raised US$48 million (AU$70m) in series C, led by local investment firm TDM Growth Partners. The funds will used to accelerate R&D, as well as giving early investors the chance to realise some of their investment without co-founder and CEO Bruce Buchanan heading to… Read more »
Twitter will ban political advertising globally from next month, with founder and CEO Jack Dorsey arguing that the current regime has “significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle”. We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought.… Read more »
Sydney’s Central railway station as Atlassianstan. Artist’s impression: Urban Growth NSW. Happy Wednesday everybody. Hello from the startup pitch fest at CEBIT Australia in Sydney. We’ll bring you the results tomorrow 1. Who wants to spend $17 a month on Apple AirPods? To paraphrase Robin Williams, Apple products are god’s way of saying… Read more »
Google is being taken to court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which has accused the global tech giant of misleading consumers about its use of their personal location data. It’s believed to be the first legal action in the world on the issue as tech companies comes under increased scrutiny by… Read more »
Muso co-founders Alan-Jin, Brandon Crimmins and Jeremiah Siemianow. Photo: supplied Muso, an online marketplace app for emerging musicians find live gigs, and help venues recruit new talent has raised $1.5 million in seed funding. The support came from Investible a new impact investment fund Alberts Impact Capital, created by the legendary music publishing business Alberts (who… Read more »
A Netflix subscription costs between $120 and $240 a year. But when you buy one in Australia, paid in Australian dollars, for the Netflix Australia service, the seller is actually a Dutch-based subsidiary of the US-listed global streaming giant. The money goes straight to the Netherlands, which may partly explain why the company paid just… Read more »
Hello and welcome to Monday. Here’s how the week starts. 1. Behind the Faraday Grid implosion Faraday Grid, a Scottish energy tech startup led by former ACCI board member and Australian economist Andrew Scobie, blew up in August, just months after WeWork’s ousted founder, Adam Neumann, put US$30 million (AU$44m) into it, valuing the… Read more »
Liven co-founder Grace Wong The Australian Senate’s Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology released an issues paper this week ahead of its inquiry into the sector. The committee will look at the size and scope of the opportunity for Australian consumers and business arising from financial technology (fintech) and regulatory technology (regtech); barriers… Read more »
ACS members have voted to become a company in major overhaul of the organisation’s governance. The association for Australia’s technology profession held a Special General Meeting to vote on the changes today with 75.1% of eligible voting members backing the plan to move to change the governance and the organisation’s name to the ‘Australian Computer… Read more »
Geoff Moore, Tony Nikolakopoulos and Jay Grant from Reel House Productions. Movies sell a certain magic – a champagne for the eyes, yet for the most part the industry is more 4-litre cask wine. An Australian film production company Reel House Productions believes there’s still a fortune to be made making films as streaming services invest… Read more »
Carbar CEO Des Hang (right) with his co-founders Davie Saw, Kenneth Teh and Richard Chen. Source: supplied Carbar, the vehicle subscription service backed by insurance giant IAG, has moved into fleet purchase, buying the cars of Sydney property tech startup Propper. Propper is continuing to use the cars via subscription, with founder and CEO Ash… Read more »
Thursday time. And The Neumann Show episode CLXXVI. 1. WeWork set to cut 4000 staff A day after details of SoftBank’s whopping US$9.5 billion WeWork bailout, which includes a $1.7bn golden parachute to the pilot who crashed the co-working plane, founder Adam Neumann, it looks like 4000 staff, around 30% of the 14,000 employees… Read more »
Redbubble CEO Barry Newstead. Photo: supplied ASX-listed online marketplace Redbubble, which sells t-shirts, mugs and art by independent artists, has seen its revenue jump 37% to AU$70 million in the first quarter of FY2020, posting a massive turnaround in its profitability on 12 months ago. Shares in the business (ASX: RBL) have doubled in value… Read more »
Logistics giant WiseTech’s battle with Chinese short-seller J Capital, which claims the tech unicorn exaggerated profits and revenues, went another round today with CEO and founder Richard White (pictured above) calling the allegations “self-serving” and rejecting them all in a second, detailed response to the ASX. “WiseTech rejects the claims of financial impropriety and… Read more »
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