Google has announced a $1 billion investment in Australia over five years, bringing with it thousands of new jobs, along with ‘digital infrastructure’ to help businesses in the post-COVID recovery period. Prime Minister Scott Morrison amicably shook hands with Google Australia Managing Director, Mel Silva, at Google’s newly-expanded offices in Sydney, less than a year… Read more »
Have you ever stopped to wonder just how much your mood is connected to the food you eat? Well, WIRL co-founders Alicia Holmquest and Bree Pagonis, who are also dietitians, have and are now pioneering a way to improve people’s mental health using food. A growing body of scientific research and years of industry experience… Read more »
Earlier this week, the International Space Station (ISS) was forced to maneouvre out of the way of a potential collision with space junk. With a crew of astronauts and cosmonauts on board, this required an urgent change of orbit on November 11. Over the station’s 23-year orbital lifetime, there have been about 30 close encounters… Read more »
Welcome to Ignition Lane’s Weekly Wrap, where they cut through the noise to bring you their favourite insights from the technology and startup world. Ignition Lane works with ambitious business leaders to apply the Startup Mindset to their technology, product and commercialisation problems. This wrap goes out free to subscribers every Saturday. Here’s their review of the week. … Read more »
Remember those LinkedIn posts of early 2020: scores of workers letting the world know they’d been let go or stood down, as companies cut their headcounts in response to the Covid downturn? Cue the emergence of opportunistic employers with an immediate need for resources offering short term contracts at cut price rates? What a difference… Read more »
Google is being fined €2.4 billion (A$3.8 billion) for hindering competition in the EU after a 2017 decision has been upheld on appeal by the general court of the European Union. This is a saga dating back over 15 years, in which the European Commission has been accusing the tech giant of using its search… Read more »
* Antler bolsters the Australian startup ecosystem with 18 early-stage investments, bringing the local portfolio to more than 60 companies Antler has ramped up its presence in Australia following 18 new investments from the firm’s AU$46m Fund 1. Over the last five months, the local Fund has invested in 18 newly minted Australian startups, built with… Read more »
Be worried about the right things at the right time. I took this photo on an ancient four-prop 30 seat passenger plane in Tonga. It looked a bit like an old DC3 (it wasn’t) with the old-fashioned metal riveted skin and the only other time I’d flown in something like that was in Kenya. Obviously… Read more »
As it hits new highs, there is no shortage of bold predictions about Bitcoin reaching US$100,000 or more. Often these are based on not much more than extrapolations by people with vested interests: the price has gone up a lot so it will keep going up. If it gets above its previous high, it must… Read more »
Researchers are working to head off the collapse of cryptocurrency markets that, experts warn, could happen when quantum computers become strong enough to break the encryption underlying Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies – estimated to come by 2035. That timeline represents an existential threat for Bitcoin and its ilk, which rely on mathematical encryption so… Read more »
The Morrison government will announced its long-awaited electric vehicle strategy, coinciding with COP26 climate change talks underway in Glasgow. The new policy contains some welcome new funding, but is largely notable for what it omits. In a welcome move, the government has allocated an additional A$250 million for electric vehicles, primarily aimed at charging infrastructure.… Read more »
During one of my recent office hours, I was asked by a founder about how to best prepare for their first formal board meeting. While the two founders had previously held informal board meetings and separate sessions with an advisory board, this would their first meeting with external board members. The fast-growing startup had recently… Read more »
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced last week that it will allow its customers to buy and sell cryptocurrency through its app, in the first move of its kind by a major Australian bank. If Australia’s biggest bank is willing to offer unregulated products like crypto to their customers and take on board a high… Read more »
After demonising Labor’s policy on electric cars before the 2019 election, the federal government has put electric vehicles at the centre of a new “Future Fuels and Vehicles Strategy” to be released by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday. The policy puts another A$178 million into the government’s future fuels fund, bringing it to $250… Read more »
Marc Andreessen’s prophetic declaration that ‘Software is eating the world’ turned out to be spot on with its prediction of how industries have been impacted by the sudden emergence of consumer-oriented technology. While it is common to be looking at technology’s disruptive effects on physical businesses, there are other industries that have adopted technology in… Read more »
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