In more than a decade of covering Australian startups – nearly seven years as Startup Daily editor – one notable aspect of dealing with the sector is unlike any other I’ve encountered in 30 years of journalism. As LP Hartley wrote in The Go-Between: “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”… Read more »
More Australian founders turn to Startup Daily when they want to know what’s going on than any other news site in Australia. The site, founded in 2012 and now in its sixth year under editor Simon Thomsen, has seen its readership grow steadily over the past three years to become number one in the annual… 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 »
ASX-listed jobs platform Airtasker (ASX:ART) has cut a new media-for-equity deal with 4 Ventures, the VC arm of Channel Four Television, worth £2.5 million (A$5.1m). The media inventory deal for its British subsidiary, Airtasker UK, is the third as the business hit a gross marketplace volume annualised run rate (ARR) of more than $21 million… Read more »
Happy horse’s birthday! The way the cofounders of podcasting community engagement startup Dome met is positively old-school in an era of swiping left and right. Sophie Greiner and Bella Filacuridi met at an International Women’s Day event in Sydney, and the mutual love for the pop culture podcast Shameless launched their friendship. Six months later,… Read more »
For decades, brands were defined by size, market share or legacy. But in 2025, those markers are no longer the be-all and end-all. What separates leaders from laggards today isn’t whether they’re big or small, it’s whether they’re static or dynamic. Enter the ‘challenger mentality’, where brands are rewriting the rulebooks, not just in product… Read more »
Two leading Australian business publishers are joining forces to expand their coverage of startups and the SME sectors. Melbourne-based Private Media, publisher of SmartCompany, has acquired the assets of Sydney-based Pinstripe Media, which includes 4 media brands – Startup Daily, Business Builders, Flying Solo, and consumer finance focussed Your Money & Your Life – as… Read more »
In October last year, the world’s richest conspiracy theorist, Elon Musk, announced plans for a robotaxi, the Tesla Cybercab. Production would begin he said “in 2026”, before correcting himself to “before 2027”, because “I tend to be a little optimistic with timeframes”. That observation is an understatement inversely proportional to Musk’s wealth. So it wasn’t… Read more »
Big tech companies would have to either do deals with news organisations to help fund journalism or pay a charge to the Australian government, under a new plan announced by the Albanese government on Thursday. The new plan follows the Morrison government-era system introduced in 2021 known as the news media bargaining code, which saw… Read more »
ASX-listed music and media company Vinyl Group is broadening its publishing portfolio yet again, acquiring the city guides site Concrete Playground in a deal worth $5 million. Vinyl (ASX: VNL) has signed binding Heads of Agreement to acquire the 15-year-old digital lifestyle brand for $3.5 million in cash and $1.5 million in Vinyl shares, with… Read more »
Law firm Maurice Blackburn is wading into an issue that’s vexed the federal government, competition watchdog the ACCC, as well as the media, investigating a potential class action against Google for alleged anti-competitive conduct in Australia’s digital advertising market. The idea is likely to be tempting to publishers Google has not struck deals with under… Read more »
Disrupt Radio, the Melbourne media startup that launched in 2023 with a focus on entrepreneurship, but ran out of money to pay its staff within 12 months, is hoping to secure enough funding to return to live broadcasting in November. The Australian reports that founder Benjamin Roberts said negotiations for new capital are ongoing. “In… Read more »
“You’re too small for PR”. I’ve heard this many times during my career in public relations agencies. And it’s the biggest BS. It’s something some agencies tell businesses, often startups, that don’t meet their client profile. But these businesses may be too small for that particular agency – or any agency – they probably won’t… Read more »
Expect to hear a lot more about Airtasker on the Kyle & Jackie O show in 2025 after the casual jobs marketplace inked a $5 million investment deal with radio company ARN Media (ASX: A1N). It’s the second such investment by a media brand in the last fortnight, with Airtasker (ASX: ART) signing a similar… Read more »
A senior marketing exec from Canva and Eucalyptus has struck out on his own to launch a media strategy startup. Matt Rossi left his role as head of growth at Eucalyptus to found Oodle, saying it will offer media strategy and buying for growth-oriented brands, with a focus on helping internal marketing teams build conviction… Read more »
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