The tanneries of Fez, Morocco
Funding

Textiles dyeing climate tech startup Xefco raises $10.5 million Seed extension

- April 30, 2024 2 MIN READ

Sydney startup Xefco will ramp up its Victorian presence after raising $10.5 million in a Seed extension. The round was CSIRO-backed VC fund Main Sequence Ventures, with support from Virescent Ventures for the government-backed Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which chipped in $2.5 million, plus existing shareholders Investible and Voyagers Climate-Tech Fund in Xefco’s Seed investment round.… Read more »

Sean Law and Tom Sawkins
Funding

Outdoor adtech startup Doohly banks $500,000 pre-Seed to speed up digital ad execution

- April 29, 2024 2 MIN READ

Outdoor advertising startup Doohly has raised $500,000 in a pre-Seed round. The raise was backed by Melbourne VC Skalata along with Archangel Ventures, with the funding earmarked to expand Doohly’s digital-out-of-home (DOOH) offering. The startup is an end-to-end programmatic ecosystem for DOOH advertising, combining an independent content management system (CMS) with native integrations to a programmatic… Read more »

Deeligence, Elena Tsalanidis and Justin Hansky
Funding

Alice Anderson fund backs AI-based legaltech startup in $1 million pre-Seed round

- April 26, 2024 2 MIN READ

A legal tech startup cofounded by two lawyers has raised $1 million in pre-Seed funding, backed by LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson fund for female founders. Deeligence, founded by Elena Tsalanidis and Justin Hansky, is using artificial intelligence to tackle legal due diligence. They conceived the idea for the startup after realising that most law firms are still… Read more »

RayGen Resources CEO, Richard Payne
Funding

Solar power startup Raygen generates $51 million in Series D

- April 23, 2024 2 MIN READ

Victorian solar generation and thermal storage company RayGen has kicked off a Series D raise with $20 million from Breakthrough Victoria alongside a US$20 million (A$31m) follow-on investment from NYSE-listed SLB, as part of plans to expand offshore.  RayGen uses proprietary photovoltaic solar modules that generate nearly 2,000 times more power than traditional photovoltaic systems… Read more »

Lance Qian and Jing Chen
Funding

Small business marketing startup WorkRex bags $220,000 pre-Seed raise

- April 23, 2024 2 MIN READ

Melbourne startup WorkRex has raised $220,000 from early stage VC Skalata for its all-in-one customer marketing platform for small business.  Cofounders Jing Chen, Lance Qian, and Myron Liu – an optometrist, ex-McKinsey consultant, and software engineer respectively – developed the platform after a deep dive into how small-to-medium-sized are struggling to keep up with growing… Read more »

Prep, Sean Miller and Mathieu Jamet
Funding

B2B food distribution marketplace Prep serves up $200,000 pre-Seed round

- April 18, 2024 2 MIN READ

Food distribution startup Prep has raised $200,000 from Melbourne VC Skalata to connect major food retailers, corporates and restaurants with emerging food brands. Prep enables food producers and brands to efficiently scale B2B distribution – anywhere – for a low margin. The platform integrates with a producer’s existing ordering systems, and is five times more… Read more »

Business strategy

A VC explains how to avoid the most common mistake founders make – raising too much too early

- April 15, 2024 4 MIN READ

Away from the VC mega-round headlines or the hard stories of founders who can’t raise capital at any price, is the solvable problem of how much money a new founder should raise. I’ve participated in hundreds of investments where founders have opted for different answers to this question, and watched the consequences unfold over the… Read more »

Rehan D'Almedia
Politics

FinTech Australia calls for capital raising and trade support ahead of federal budget

- April 15, 2024 2 MIN READ

FinTech Australia is calling on the Federal government to address the challenging capital raising environment for startups and renew its support for Austrade’s effort to promote our local sector abroad. In its pre-budget submission tabled ahead of federal treasurer Jim Chalmers announcing his 2024 Budget on May 14, FinTech Australia CEO Rehan D’Almeida said the… Read more »

Honey Insurance, Richard Joffee
Funding

Insurtech startup banks $108 million Series A

- April 8, 2024 < 1 MIN READ

Three-year-old insurtech startup Honey Insurance has raised $108 million in a Series A that’s lured in US investors Founded by entrepreneur Richard Joffe, cofounder of US-based Park Assist and Stella.ai, Honey launched in 2021. It raised a record $15.5 million in a Seed round led by underwriting partner RACQ and other institutional investors, including AGL,… Read more »