Melbourne AI-based education startup Teacher’s Buddy has raised $1.85 million in Seed funding to tackle teacher burnout. The round was led by Giant Leap, supported by Flying Fox Ventures, Co Ventures, Exhort Ventures, Saniel Ventures and Soul Capital. Teacher’s Buddy was founded in 2024 by Matt Abraham and Ben Sze, cofounder of school content and… Read more »
After give years of self-funding, sexual wellness brand Normal has turned to crowd-sourced funding (CSF) platform Birchal for its first external raise. Normal, cofounded by sex coach, author and educator Georgia Grace and ex-McKinsey consultant and social scientist Lucy Wark, is Australia’s top female-founded sexual wellness brand, offering products to help people, especially women, have… Read more »
Freelancer marketplace Airtasker has completed a $10 million equity capital placement led by US radio and podcast giant iHeartMedia, powering the Australian company’s overseas marketing effort. The deal will help Airtasker — the Sydney-based platform connecting customers to freelance gardeners, bartenders, accountants, and beyond — compete for publicity against global rivals like Upwork and Fiverr. The… Read more »
Solar power startup MetroElectro has raised $1 million from its existing investor, Singapore climate tech VC Wavemaker Impact. The alongside the equity raise, the Melbourne startup, founded in 2024 by Lloyd Heinrich, also secured a $4 million debt facility from Ecotone Partners. Wavemaker previously backed MetroElectro’s $1.03 million pre-Seed round in May 2024. Heinrich will… Read more »
Australia’s startup sector has seen a huge week of dealmaking. Firmus came in clutch on Friday morning with a massive $500 million raise just two months after it raised $330 million, making it one of the largest tech rounds announced this year. In total, eight companies pulled in $572.12 million across AI infrastructure, biotech, renewable… Read more »
Artificial intelligence data centre startup Firmus Technologies has trebled its valuation to $6 billion after raising another $500 million, just two months after banking $330 million in a deal with Nvidia. After setting out to build an AI data centre in Tasmania, the Singapore-based company announced a $73.3 billion plan, Project Southgate, with AI infrastructure also… Read more »
Australian entrepreneur Ned Dwyer has reason to celebrate, after Great Question, the San Francisco-based startup he co-founded in 2020, raised $20 million (US$13 million) in venture capital investment. And the Series A round has also prompted Dwyer to reflect on his experiences as an expat in Silicon Valley, and what has changed since for fellow… Read more »
Rage Biotech, a therapeutics startup tackling chronic inflammatory disease, has raised $29 million in a Series A. The round was led by IP Group Australia and super fund Hostplus, with support from existing investors including Monash Ventures. The funds will go towards first-in-human clinical trials for Rage’s nasal therapy to treat inflammatory lung diseases The… Read more »
A Sydney AI-powered ecommerce startup focused on customer satisfaction during delivery – known in the trade as WISMO (Where is my order?) – has raised $2.3 million in pre-Seed funding. The round for Keeyu was led by Rampersand, with support from Archangel, Startmate, Empress Capital, Exhort Ventures, Sydney Angels, Southern Angels, and others including Marketplacer’s… Read more »
A Sydney startup looking to reduce methane emissions from livestock has raised $11 million in a Series A. The round for Number 8 Bio was led by Kiwi VC Icehouse Ventures with support from existing backer Main Sequence, as well as Japanese climate VC One Innovators joining the cap table. Japan is Australia’s second largest… Read more »
The hardest lesson I’ve learned about raising capital is that there’s no such thing as the right investor — only the right capital stack. Every time we started raising for Goterra’s next phase, the advice was the same: find your lead investor, fill the round, move fast. That playbook hasn’t changed much, even as the… Read more »
Medical technology was a major theme in startup funding this week, with Synchron and Lumonus AI raising hundreds of millions for their forward-thinking solutions. We also counted funding deals from Australian startups that have found new ways to clean ships, improve cattle breeding, provide gifts, and support parents and carers of neurodivergent children. Keep reading… Read more »
Gold Coast AI workforce startup Zeligate has raised $500,000 in a Seed round. The deal California B2B early-stage VC DNX Ventures, which also has an office in Tokyo and principal based in Australia, making its first local investment. Zeligate will look to raise a Series A in 12 months to end 2026. Founded in 2023… Read more »
Cytophenix, an infection management medtech using rapid antimicrobial susceptibility tests to quickly identify effective antibiotics for patients, has raised $1.3 million in pre-Seed funding. Founded in 2023 by a team of expert researchers, clinicians, and engineers, including Dr Kieran Mulroney, Dr Christine Carson, Sherief Khorshid, Teagan Paton, James Telders and Tim Inglis, Cytophenix is a… Read more »
The federal government’s $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) has invested $54 million in Australian founder Brain-Computer-Interface (BCI) medical devices company Synchron as part of a US$200 million (A$305m) Series D. Synchron was spun out of University of Melbourne by cofounders Dr Tom Oxley, Prof Nicholas Opie, and Dr Rahul Sharma in 2012. The company is… Read more »
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