Back in 2016, around the time LaunchVic was kicking off in Melbourne, Dave McManus left the city for Silicon Valley, determined to become a startup founder. Now he’s back in Victorian capital and the founder of Lightning Ventures has plenty of stories to tell and advice to share on episode 40 of Startup 360. Explaining… Read more »
This week’s funding round-up features a rewards platform for small businesses, a New Zealand agritech company that is tackling methane emissions, a medtech startup pioneering a non-invasive bladder-health treatment, and an edtech venture that is helping ease the admin burden for schools and educators. Keep reading to learn more about Pay.com.au, Ruminant Biotech, Australis Scientific… Read more »
In the eyes of big AI companies such as OpenAI, the troves of data on the internet are highly valuable. They scrape photos, videos, books, blog posts, albums, painting, photographs and much more to train their products such as ChatGPT – usually without any compensation to or consent from the creators. In fact, OpenAI and… Read more »
Indian online gaming platform Zupee has acquired Sydney AI startup Nucanon in a deal reportedly worth $5 million. Nucanon began life as Stori in 2022, with pre-Seed funding from Antler and high profile US investor Jason Calacanis via his LAUNCH Fund. The startup rebranded in 2023 when it raised $500,000 in a Seed round led… Read more »
Ahead of the TechStars Sydney ‘Demo the Future’ evening on December 8, Startup Daily is profiling the 12 startups and their founders in the 2025 cohort. Our next profile is Juxtabyte – a startup helping companies realise the value in their critical data and how to reuse this smartly. Juxtabyte Founder: Hugh Le One-liner: Juxtabyte… Read more »
Australia’s climate tech sector now employs more than 7,000 people across more than 730 startups and scaleups, which attracted $680 million in venture funding in 2025. The analysis of local sector and its momentum and growth feature in the 2025 Australian Climate Tech Industry Report, released today by Climate Salad founder Mick Liubinskas. “This report… Read more »
Two teenagers are taking the federal government to the High Court. They argue the ban on social media accounts for under-16s is unconstitutional because it interferes with free political communication. The ban is due to take effect on December 10. Will the High Court challenge make any difference? What does the law do? Due to… Read more »
Tasmanian climate tech startup Sea Forest was embraced by investors, with its shares closing up 12.5% on debut after listing on the ASX. The seven-year-old scaleup raised $20.5 million at $2 per share for a market capitalisation of $112.1 million, and rose as high as $2.42 before closing at $2.25. Sea Forest (ASX:SEA) was founded… Read more »
Valve sure knows how to blow up the internet. Less than a couple of weeks, stories are still flowing thick and fast about every available ounce of information on Valve’s new gaming machine. The latest? It’s confirmed (more or less) that it won’t bundle a new Valve original game, like Half-Life, with the device. For… Read more »
Here we go again. Private school fee letters for 2026 are arriving, and for many families the numbers are confronting. Many schools appear to be lifting fees by something between 5 – 7%. For financial advisers, these costs have shifted from being background noise to a central conversation in financial planning. As fees rise faster… Read more »
Ochre Ventures, the first Australian VC solely focused on First Nations entrepreneurship, has reached a $30 million first close on the $100m target for its first fund. The VC has already made its first five investments, including veteran First Nations-owned construction and facilities management business PSG Holdings; video games maker MicroProse, which generated $5m in… Read more »
New Zealand tech veteran Blackpearl Group crossed The Ditch on Tuesday for a dual listing on the ASX. Blackpearl (NZX: BPG) (ASX:BPG) listed at A$0.95 per share having raised NZ$15.1 million las month, but ended its debut down 7.41% at A$0.875 for a market cap of A$83m. Blackpearl is built around Pearl Engine, a data… Read more »
A new government-funded body will assess the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI), fulfilling a promise made by Labor prior to the last election The Australian AI Safety Institute will evaluate emerging AI capabilities, share information and support timely actions to address potential risks. Industry, innovation and science minister Tim Ayres said in a joint release… Read more »
Blackbird’s come-to-Jesus moment six months ago, when it tipped $60 million from its 2022 follow-on fund into Airwallex, is now being pitched to the VC’s investors as its rising star. Details from the annual Blackbird Ventures investor day were leaked to Capital Brief’s Bronwen Clune, and included details of Canva’s performance, with the VC flagging… Read more »
If you’ve been in the workforce for more than about five minutes, you’ve met them: The boss who thought the title automatically made them brilliant – and would like you to know about it – the same one who called “urgent” meetings that could have been an email, or could have waited until next week. The… Read more »
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