Australian-founded AI infrastructure startup Firmus Technologies is heading to mainland Australia with a $73.3 billion plan in partnership with CDC Data Centres and Nvidia to build four more AI data centres in capital cities. The initial deal for Project Southgate – the plan to build an AI data centre in Tasmania – is worth $4.5 billion,… Read more »
By the time I slipped into the packed SXSW Sydney expo theatre, the crowd was already deep in discussion. On stage, Dave Lemphers, cofounder and CEO of Maincode, sat alongside Dr Catherine Ball, steering one of the most grounded, technical and groundbreaking conversations of the festival: the debut of Matilda, Australia’s national large language model.… Read more »
Over the last couple of years, Canva has pushed hard into generative AI. It has become one of Australia’s best startup success stories. Yet, it’s another younger local AI player that is getting more spend from customers globally in the space.< Last week, Andreessen Horowitz’s new ‘AI Apps 50: Where Startups Spend on AI‘ list… Read more »
An AI-based “cloud waste” startup has raised $3 million in pre-Seed funding to help companies save billions on their cloud costs. The round for Optimaze was led by Arconic and The Innovation Club. The Sydney startup is currently in private beta, with a waitlist for preview access to the software. The funding is to expand… Read more »
Lucent, founded by 22-year-old Alisa Wu, has raised A$2 million in a quickly oversubscribed pre-seed to build behavioural datasets for browser agents, and will base itself in San Francisco over the next year.
Blackpearl has brought Wilson Asset Management and other Australian funds onto its register via an oversubscribed placement, using proceeds to settle the B2B Rocket deal and ready the company for a late-November ASX debut.
AWS has announced the 40 global startups chosen for its 2025 Generative AI Accelerator. The eight-week program, now in its third year, is designed to help early-stage startups scale foundational generative AI technologies.’ Participants will receive up to US$1 million in AWS credits, mentorship, and access to AWS’s full AI technology stack. “The pace of… Read more »
Sydney legal practice collaboration and CRM platform Nexl has raised US$23 million (A$35m) in a Series B. The round was led by Dave Yuan’s US growth equity firm Tidemark Capital. Philipp Thurner, former head of innovation at Gilbert and Tobin, and now based in New York, founded Nexl in 2018, pivoting in 2021 to help law… Read more »
The electrification boom of the 1920s set the United States up for a century of industrial dominance and powered a global economic revolution. But before electricity faded from a red-hot tech sector into invisible infrastructure, the world went through profound social change, a speculative bubble, a stock market crash, mass unemployment and a decade of… Read more »
Balancing the merits of artificial intelligence with the risks it poses to workers and creatives is a debate which rages on, all while major US tech companies ramp up their public relations campaigns — warning of the emergence of “two-tier” economies without greater AI take-up. Amazon recently laid out its vision for a future Australia… Read more »
Melbourne scaleup Heidi Health has raised US$65 million (A$98m) in a series B, just seven months after banking nearly $27m in a Series A top up. The round was led by New York hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen’s VC arm, Point72 Private Investments, supported by exiting backers including local VC Blackbird, and US funds… Read more »
Australian creatives should be properly compensated when their copyrighted works are used to train artificial intelligence models, prominent musicians, writers, and industry groups told a Senate committee hearing last Tuesday. Artists fronted the inquiry as Australia’s Productivity Commission consults on whether a new “fair dealing” exception should be introduced to allow local companies to use Australians’ copyrighted… Read more »
Indi, an AI-powered co-pilot app helping parents of children with complex care needs, has raised $1.46 million. The round was led by Giant Leap and supported by Antler, along with several strategic angel investors. The capital will be spent on talent to accelerate platform development and expand partnerships with allied health clinics and families. Indi… Read more »
A Brisbane startup hoping to unleash the unrealised productivity gains of workplace artificial intelligence has raised $2.3 million in pre-Seed funding to help people refine ideas and inspiration using AI. The round for Enhance Labs was led by Blackbird Ventures with support from QIC Ventures. Enhance was cofounded by former Amazon engineer Haziq Nordin, former… Read more »
RecordPoint, an Australian AI and data governance scaleup trusted by regulated enterprises globally, has launched RexCommand, a free tool designed to help businesses tackle one of the fastest-growing risks in tech: shadow AI. With AI adoption soaring, new data from Anagram shows 78% of employees are already using AI tools at work—often without approval. RecordPoint CEO and… Read more »
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
