Sydney Startup Hub shuts down today, after seven years, thanks to the NSW government. And right now it’s clear that when it comes to startups, the government couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery, to use one of the more polite versions of the idiom. Another way of explaining it is that they’ve bombed the… Read more »
Welcome to our new weekly round-up of Australian startup raises, in a collaboration between Startup Daily and our sister publication, SmartCompany. The last week of August features 5 startups spanning vaccine delivery, logistics and cross-border payments, which collectively raised $95.45 million. (A shoutout to our cousins across The Ditch too, where the former Kiwi TikTok… Read more »
A $42 million project to put an Australian-designed and built lunar explorer on the Moon will be realised by the end of the decade. NASA has confirmed the Roo-ver will make the 384,000km trip from Earth as part of its Artemis Moon exploration program, via NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services by 2030. The Roo-ver, 20kg semi-autonomous… Read more »
Episode 28 of Startup 360 is a little different, with cohost Simon away at a company offsite and Majella busy with the Sydney Startup Hub closure. So we’ve picked out two of our favourite interviews of the last six months to shine a light on them once again. Irish-Australian teenager Liam Fuller starred on Startup… Read more »
Quantum infrastructure software startup Q-CTRL has been awarded to contracts worth $38 million (US$24.4m) under the US Department of Defense agency DARPA’s Robust Quantum Sensors (RoQS) program. The funding is for Q-CTRL’s quantum sensing technologies in high-performance military vehicles, in a collaboration with Lockheed Martin. Engaging Q-CTRL’s solution comes as GPS becomes increasingly vulnerable to… Read more »
A pet food startup making dog treats from feral buffalo in the Northern Territory (NT) has banked around $30,000 to develop the idea thanks to the NT government’s Innovation Grants program. Peco Pet Food makes Buff Jerky and Buff Jellies treats for dogs. The startup will expand its range to Buff Bites an all-natural gelatin… Read more »
Going global is often seen as a rite of passage for many Australian scaleups as it can provide the company with access to new overseas markets, a broader pool of investors or the ability to attract and retain key talent from around the world. During this period of growth, founders often focus on product-market fit,… Read more »
An Australian compliance training company has been accused of turning the laptops of its workers into listening devices to surveil them while they worked from home. Online compliance training provider Safetrac deployed employee monitoring software earlier this year that recorded the audio and screens of some of its workers, which picked up online team meetings… Read more »
US artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, is looking to open a base in Sydney by the end of 2025. The company behind ChatGPT, now worth around A$750 billion, has been busy signing local deals over the past 12 months, including with UNSW and most recently, the Commonwealth Bank, as well as ramping up its lobbying efforts… Read more »
Vector Capital will acquire Showpad and fold it into Bigtincan—taken private in April—under the Showpad brand, uniting two revenue enablement leaders as analysts flag rapid, AI-driven consolidation in a market tipped to reach US$12.7bn by 2030.
A new $1m-plus competition from City of Moreton Bay and UniSC will hand one scale-up a five-year rent-free headquarters at UniSC’s Moreton Bay campus with fit-out and concierge support, with finalists pitching at a February 2026 gala.
UQ has crowned its 2025 Entrepreneurship & Innovation Award winners and unveiled new scholarships for student founders, as MyHive, Polinate, Kolmi and My PlantCo showcase how the university’s pipeline is converting ideas into high-impact startups.
Akula Tech has joined Australia’s space cohort in orbit, launching its Nexus-01 AI payload on SpaceX via Dhruva Space’s LEAP-1 as Esper’s OTR-2 hyperspectral imager rode along.
Sydney’s Eyes of AI has secured a $2.2m CRC-P grant toward a $6.7m project to build Perio-Detect, an AI-powered, contactless periodontal screening tool with Data61 and the University of Sydney.
Alfred Travel’s AI app generates structured trip itineraries and plans to reward users with tokens, but the bootstrapped startup still faces tough competition from incumbents and giant LLM players.
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