A Canberra plastics recycling startup has raised $100 million in a Series A+ as it looks to take its technology to Asia. Samsara Eco, a spin-out from Australian National University, launched in late 2021 as a partnership between the ANU and CSIRO-backed Main Sequence Ventures. It set out to address the fact that less than… Read more »
ESG credentials startup Klean has raised $725,000 in a pre-Seed round led by Prtnr Ventures, the new VC founded by Wayne Gerard, a former Queensland chief entrepreneur. Klean was founded in late 2022 by Shan Vahora to address the concerns of the 70% of Millennial and Gen Z consumers who say they care about the… Read more »
Sydney quantum startup Diraq has topped up its Series A2 top up with another US$7 million (A$10.5m) for its Series A-2. The fresh funds come just four months after Diraq bolstered its Series A in February with an extra A$23 million. That first tranche of the A2 follows US$20 million in a Series A in… Read more »
Document analysis firm Affinda has banked $10 million in a raise that has doubled its valuation in just 18 months as it ramps up its artificial intelligence capabilities. Affinda bootstrapped for its first decade before raising $12.9 million in 2022 at a $60m pre-money valuation. The fresh cash landed from the same investors at twice… Read more »
A deep tech startup looking to turn Nikola Tesla’s vision of wireless power transmission into reality has banked $2 million in follow-on funding. The round for Aquila was led by Alua Group, supported by existing investors Blackbird and Icehouse, who backed a $3 million Seed round 12 months ago. Aquila was cofounded by 24-year-old Billy… Read more »
Fast-rising food brand Naked Rivals, which began life as a side hustle for husband-and-wife founders Andrew and Kate Gordon just 18 months ago, has raised $3 million from angel investors. The Sydney couple developed Naked Rivals during their third pregnancy in October 2022, while still in their full-time day jobs in financial services. Trying to… Read more »
A proptech startup used by governments and leading property developers has raised $5 million. Six-year-old Archistar was backed by existing investors NAB Ventures and Kim Jackson’s Skip Capital, with PEXA chair Prabhat Sethi also chipping in. The startup has now raised $40 million since it was founded in 2018, including $6 million in April 2021… Read more »
An ad tech platform that helps publishers monetise product mentions has raised $4 million in a Series A as it looks to ramp up its global ambitions. The round for Linkby was led by investors Perennial Private Investments, with existing backer OIF Ventures, which led Linkby’s $5 million Seed raised in early 2022 also going again,… Read more »
Corporate regulator the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has issued its first interim stop order over a crowd-sourced funding (CSF) campaign. ASIC intervened in the raise for Hirehood, an hire marketplace for holiday items such as surfboards, bikes and baby equipment, on the VentureCrowd platform. The regulator’s concern is over the structure of shares… Read more »
Supply chain integration platform Switchboard has raised $1.5 million from a consortium of early-stage VCs to digitise logistics. The Sydney startup was backed by Archangel, AfterWork, Investible, Skalata, Startmate, TEN13, and The Fund. Founder and CEO Hugh Dixson launched Switchboard in August 2022, having previously worked at road freight backfill startup Ofload in M&A, setting… Read more »
Mind mapping startup Omniscient has raised US$60 million (A$89m) in a Series C as it uses artificial intelligence (AI) to decode the human brain. The raise was backed by mining magnate Gina Rinehart and existing investor Will Vicars, the billionaire chief investment officer at Caledonia. The five-year-old startup previously raised $40 million in a Series… Read more »
I speak to hundreds of Australian founders every month from all backgrounds pursuing a wide range of businesses. However, there is one unifying view from them all: how hard it is to raise the necessary capital to scale and grow. There’s a counter-intuitive irony here; historically, the best venture returns have come from the vintages… Read more »
Internet of Things agriculture scale-up Farmbot Monitoring Solutions has exceeded its capital raising plans by 50% to bank $4.6 million as it looks to ramp up its US presence. The round, originally targeting $3m, was backed by existing investors Telstra and Macdoch Ventures, among others. Telstra first joined the cap table a decade ago when Farmbot… Read more »
Documents compliance checking startup Atticus has banked $10.84 million in its first external raise, with VCs Blackbird and Kim Jackson’s Skip Capital buying in. The Melbourne legal tech – named after the To Kill a Mockingbird lawyer – was founded in 2017 recovering corporate lawyer Saul Wakerman and former Palantir software engineers Misha Wakerman and… Read more »
Sydney biotech startup Psyslo has banked a fresh Seed round worth US$8 million (A$12m) as it relocates to the US. It’s Psylo’s second major Seed round, having previously banked a A$5 million Seed raise in late 2022 on top of an initial $1.1m 12 months earlier as the company emerged from Startmate. The latest round… Read more »
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