Events

The Indigenous Australian Datathon is on the hunt for startups and entrepreneurs to help solve real-world challenges in Traditional Owner communities

- September 3, 2024 3 MIN READ

The Indigenous Australian Datathon (IAD), which combines with knowledge of traditional owners with the cutting edge of tech, returns to Cairns in November The IAD is an annual community and technology workshop, hosted at James Cook University’s Ideas Lab and spearheaded by software quality engineering consultancy, KJR, now in its fourth year. Ambitious startups, creative… Read more »

Funding

Linktree, Culture Amp and Up founders back ‘Canva for data’ startup WhyHive in $600,000 pre-Seed

- August 26, 2024 2 MIN READ

Data analysis startup WhyHive has raised $600,000 in a pre-Seed round. The company’s first raise comes after six years of bootstrapping and was led by Skalata Ventures, with support from Culture Amp’s Jon Williams, Linktree’s Alex Zaccaria and Up Bank’s Dom Pym. The Melbourne startup describes itself as “like Canva, but for data: easy to… Read more »

Canberra
Data

Why this weeks changes to the Consumer Data Right are great news for tackling climate change and the cost of your power bill

- August 16, 2024 3 MIN READ

This week’s passing of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Consumer Data Right) Bill 2022 by the Australian Parliament has reignited discussions about its potential to drive positive change. While concerns about complexity, data quality, low consumer uptake, and high implementation costs persist, the government’s commitment to extending and simplifying the CDR by focusing on high-value use… Read more »

Funding

Kiwi grocery shopping insights app MenuAid rebrands as Appetise after swallowing NZ$4 million pre-Series A

- August 15, 2024 3 MIN READ

New Zealand meal planning and grocery shopping app MenuAid has rebranded to Appetise after raising NZ$4 million (A$3.6m) in a pre-Series A. The raise was backed by Kiwi VC Icehouse Ventures and OIF in Australia. As part of the rebrand, Appetise’s consumer app is moving to a free model, cutting its $4 weekly subscription, while… Read more »

artificial intelligence advertising
AI/Machine Learning

The real reason retailers are replacing staff with AI bots is not because they’re cheaper, but for customer data

- May 7, 2024 4 MIN READ

You might have seen viral videos of Wendy’s drive-thru customers in the United States ordering their fast food from the firm’s generative AI bot Wendy’s FreshAI. Most show a very human-like transaction punctuated with cries of amazement at how fast, accurate and polite the system is. While the system and others like it are in… Read more »

Google Incognito
Global tech

Turns out Google kept private browsing data to sell – but will now delete it as part of a class action settlement

- April 3, 2024 3 MIN READ

Google has agreed to delete data collected on users while they were in private browsing mode and properly inform them of how “incognito” this service actually is as part of a class action lawsuit settlement. Google-owner Alphabet settled the class action lawsuit, brought on by users of its Incognito private browsing mode in 2020 late last year,… Read more »

Knight Rider, KITT
Data

Connected cars are starting to snitch to insurers about your driving habits

- March 16, 2024 3 MIN READ

Carmakers including Kia, Subaru, Mitsubishi and General Motors are providing details of owners’ driving behaviour to insurance companies, leading many drivers to report surges in car insurance premiums despite industry claims that the transmitted data (‘telematics’) helps good drivers pay less. The revelations have stoked a PR firestorm after the New York Times related the experiences of… Read more »

Retail shop window
Funding

Afterpay cofounder backs his brother’s retail data startup in $2 million Seed round

- September 12, 2023 2 MIN READ

Merchandise data startup Flagship has raised $2 million in a Seed round to help retailers to make better data-based decisions of maximising product appeal for in-store shoppers The round led by Sydney VC Tidal Ventures, with support from Afterpay’s billionaire cofounder Nick Molnar, backing his brother Simon’s startup play. Macdoch and Co Ventures, NRL player Luke… Read more »

data
Cyber security

The 5 simple questions every founder needs to ask to keep their startup cybersafe

- April 18, 2023 3 MIN READ

As a victim of data breaches from well-known Australian companies, I have come to realise the importance of cybersecurity. It is alarming to see that even after such data breaches, banks and utilities still ask for personal information that is publicly available and already compromised. This makes one wonder if these companies are doing enough… Read more »

data in glasses, surveillance
Politics

Australian authorities love asking Big Tech for user data – 4x more than the global average

- March 23, 2023 2 MIN READ

Australian politicians have another way to brag about the nation being a global leader, although they probably won’t – it’s all about being a surveillance state. A new report on data surveillance from VPN provider Surfshark, reveals that government requests for user data from big tech companies by local law enforcement and other agencies are four… Read more »

Gender Pay gap
Workplace

Australian companies must make their gender pay gap data public under new laws

- February 10, 2023 3 MIN READ

Australian businesses are on notice. The gender pay gap within large Australian companies will be made public under legislation introduced this week by the federal government. The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023 was introduced to the Senate by Minister for Women Katy Gallagher on Wednesday afternoon. Under the legislation,… Read more »

Funding

Investible plants $500,000 in pre-Series A for Queensland agtech startup DataFarming

- November 7, 2022 2 MIN READ

Queensland agtech startup DataFarming has raised $500,000 in a pre-Series A round led by Sydney VC Investible. Cofounded in 2017 by serial entrepreneurs Tim and Peta Neale, DataFarming help unlock the value of farm data for agronomists and farmers. The business services more than 120,000 paddocks across 28,000 farming enterprises – 40% market penetration in… Read more »

cyber hacking
Politics

The Optus data breach shows why Australia needs mandatory disclosure laws

- October 20, 2022 3 MIN READ

The Optus data breach, which has affected close to 10 million Australians, has sparked calls for changes to Australia’s privacy laws, placing limits on what and for how long organisations can hold our personal data. Equally important is to strengthen obligations for organisations to publicly disclose data breaches. Optus made a public announcement about its… Read more »