Brisbane-based specialist defence technology venture capital firm, Beaten Zone Venture Partners, has secured more than $10 million in commitments, to call first close on the fund. The figure takes the fund to its final condition for ESVCLP (Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnerships) status, with its first capital call underway this week. Founder and… Read more »
A former New Zealander worked in Australia as a lawyer, before giving it up to found an AI-powered legal tech startup, has raised a $25.5 million (US$16m) Series A\ Min-Kyu Jung was a corporate lawyer sick of the time-consuming and manual process required for contract reviews. So he left the law, taught himself to code,… Read more »
SydneyAI startup Lorikeet has raised another US$9 million (A$14m), just four months after pocketing a $7.3 million Seed round. This time Blackbird led the round, joined by existing investors Square Peg and Kim Jackson’s Skip Capital. The raise values the business at $100 million. Lorikeet was founded in mid-2023 (originally as Optech) by US-based former… Read more »
Westpac hit the EFT button on $10 million for the online legal services scaleup Lawpath, and plans to entice business customers by offering them subscriptions to the legal compliance platform. The bank’s acting business and wealth boss Peter Herbert, said the exclusive partnership will give startups and small-to-medium sized businesses access to affordable legal services,… Read more »
A health app focused on tracking the menstrual cycle to deal with issues such as endometriosis has raised $1.7 million to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) health assistant for women. The round for Ovum was led by impact VC Giant Leap, supported by Antler, Victoria and Robyn Denholm’s Wollemi Capital, Nakatomi Venture Studio, LaunchVic’s female… Read more »
Venture capital alternative Lighter Capital has extended another $30 million fund offering non-dilutive funding to startups, with the Victorian government and iPartners, The 15-year-old revenue-based financier, originally from New York, launched in Australia in 2021, and was subsequently backed by Invest Victoria, the state government’s investment attraction agency, and iPartners, with an initial $30 million fund.… Read more »
You can argue over the state of investment for women until the (100% female) cows come home – surprise, surprise, it was shit again in 2024 – but there’s other data in The State of Startup Funding Report 2024 that suggests all is not well in the state of venture capital. More than half (55%)… Read more »
Mimecast cofounder and angel investor Peter Bauer has led a $2 million Seed round for superannuation industry regtech Nuj as part of a $4 million equity and debt deal for the startup. Nuj, founded in 2020 by Matthew McKenzie, is a data platform and insights engine positioned between superannuation funds and the regulator, delivering real-time insights… Read more »
Diag-Nose.io, a Melbourne, biotechnology startup using artificial intelligence (AI) to help people breathe more easily, has raised $3.15 million in Seed funding. The round was led by state government investment fund Breakthrough Victoria, which chipped in $800,000. Other investors include Radar Ventures, Specialty Physician Associates, an international syndicate of physicians from leading hospitals including Houston… Read more »
An expat Australian scaleup using in-store advertising to bolster retail sales has raised US$25 million ($40m) in a Series B. The raise for 13-year-old Melbourne-founded, Dallas-based Qsic was led by UK investment firm Hedosophia. The platform, cofounded began as a music streaming service in pubs and clubs in 2012, and is now responsible for the… Read more »
New Zealand’s most active venture capital firm, Icehouse Ventures, has closed its second growth fund, with NZ$122 million (A$111m) in commitments to back later-stage scaleups. The record raise for Growth Fund II, closed at the end of 2024, and will be used to back up to 20 Kiwi tech scaleups, with several investments already made.… Read more »
MyGigsters, a fintech the helps gig economy workers track their income and spending to build financial security, has raised a $1.1 million Seed round. It leverages real-time data on earnings, expenses and work history, alongside advanced analytics, to provide hyper-personalised insights for people to improve their financial wellbeing. The fintech launched in 2022 with pre-Seed… Read more »
A Sydney startup pioneering the use of artificial intelligence to analyse medical scans to rapidly identify potential diseases such as cancer, even before clinicians spot them, has taken on $32 million from the federal government’s signature National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) as part of a planned $100 million+ Series C. Harrison.ai has trained generative AI… Read more »
New Zealand EV charging startup Kwetta has raised A$15.8 million (NZ$17.5m/US$10.5m) in a Series A to tackle grid optimisation in the European market to power up electric buses and trucks. The round was led by the Kiwi outpost of Sydney fund Blackbird, with support from Clean Energy Finance Corporation-backed Virescent Ventures, Icehouse Ventures, and existing… Read more »
Spoony, a social app designed to help neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled people, has raised $1 million in pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Antler, NDIS provider Melba Support and Trampoline, with support from former Mable COO Piroska Bisits-Bullen. Spoony emerged from the Antler program in mid-2024, cofounded by CEO Nicholas Carlton and CTO… Read more »
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