A Kiwi startup that wants to make kids love maths as much as playing Roblox has raised NZ$1.5 million (A$1.35m) in pre-Seed funding. The round for Polymath was co-led by Blackbird’s NZ office and fellow Aotearoa VC GD1. The app gamifies maths for kids, underpinned by an algorithm that adapts learning moments to each child’s progress.… Read more »
The former head of product at Kayla Itsines’ fitness app Sweat has launched his own startup, raising $600,000 in pre-Seed funding for a booking site for caravan parks and campgrounds. ParkBooker.com is the brainchild of Josh Volk and will go live later this week. The round was backed by Singapore fund Rising Tide Investment, Turo… Read more »
A startup hoping to chip away at China’s dominance in copper production with a new low-cost way of extracting it from low-grade resources has raised $1.05 million in a Seed round. Banksia Minerals Processing (BMP) was spun out of University of Queensland and has been backed by UniQuest, and IP Group, and grant funding from the… Read more »
Car subscription startup Carbar could be a little more public after nine years, having made a takeover bid for ASX-listed rival Carly. The non-binding agreement to merge was announced just before market close on Friday. It will see Carbar acquire all of Carly Holdings Ltd (ASX: CL8) for $160,000 in cash and around $3.64 million worth… Read more »
Battery storage tech startup Allegro Energy has scored a $1.85 million federal government grant to bring its battery technology to mass production. The Newcastle-based startup is one of five early stage tech companies funded under the $400 million Industry Growth Program. Allegro Energy has developed water-based Redox Flow Batteries (RFB) to store renewable energy. The… Read more »
Sydney clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical startup AdvanCell, which is developing innovative cancer therapeutics, has raised US$112 million (A$178m) in a Series C. The round was co-led by US-UK fund SV Health Investors, Sanofi Ventures, Abingworth, and SymBiosis. Additional support came from existing investor Morningside, alongside new investors Tenmile, Brandon Capital, and others. Founded in June 2019, AdvanCell was… Read more »
Atlassian will join the likes of Red Bull and biotech company BWT as team sponsor in Formula 1 in a long-term deal with British team Williams Racing. Atlassian Williams Racing will debut in Australia in mid-March with the first race of the 24 round 2025 season. Under the partnership, Atlassian is title partner, technology partner… Read more »
Sydney healthtech startup Harrison.ai has raised AU$179 million (US$112m) in a Series C as it looks to expand in the US The round was co-led by Aware Super, ECP and existing supporter Horizons Ventures, the VC firm of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. The federal government’s $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund announced its $32 millions… Read more »
A B2B product management startup cofounded by Canva and Atlassian alumni, and developed in the Y Combinator accelerator program, has raised $3.5 million in Seed funding. The round for Sydney startup Index was led by Blackbird and Bain Capital Ventures. Mary Meeker’s California VC Bond also chipped in along with Y Combinator, Linktree cofounder Alex… Read more »
ASX-listed WiseTech Global’s billionaire founder Richard White has been subject to more two confidential complaints , from an employee and supplier, the company conceded on Monday following media reports of more allegations of inappropriate conduct. “These are being considered in the ongoing Board Review,” the logistics software company said in a statement to the market.… Read more »
US businessman Dana White has a net worth of around A$800 million. As CEO and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) his salary tops A$30 million annually. His good friend, Donald Trump, rocked up to UFC 309 in New York last November with Elon Musk in tow. Last month White joined the board of… Read more »
The Victorian government’s $2 billion investment fund, Breakthrough Victoria has appointed Rod Bristow as its new chief executive officer. Bristow previously spent four years as CEO of early stage and climate-tech VC Investible, building out its Asian presence, and as well as raising a $32 million climate tech fund a $51.6m 2nd early-stage fund, and a new… Read more »
AI can be useful, but it’s a long way from being as useful as a paralegal or associate when it comes to case law, as a NSW immigration lawyer found out recently, to his detriment. The lawyer, who cannot be named, has been referred to the complaints watchdog, the Office of the NSW Legal Services… Read more »
Diversity and gender equality might be a dirty words in some political and business circles right now, but not for AirTrunk founder and CEO Robin Khuda, who sold his 9-year-old data centre business last year for $23.5 billion. The freshly minted billionaire, who arrived from Bangladesh nearly 30 years ago as a teen to study… Read more »
DeepSeek, the hedge fund-backed Chinese version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has been prohibited on Australian government-issued systems and devices following a risk assessment by the Department of Home Affairs. Department secretary Stephanie Foster issued a Protective Security Policy Framework direction on Tuesday saying “the use of DeepSeek products, applications and web services poses an unacceptable level… Read more »
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