Multi-currency payments startup Paytron has raised a $4.35 million seed round as it launches it product for the SMB market. Australian VC fund Carthona Capital and Germany’s Picus Capital were the major backers in the raise. Co-founders and former banking execs Jaco Veldsman and Francois Henrion set out to address the pain point of small… Read more »
It’s no secret that when it comes to superannuation, Australian women continue to suffer undue and persistent disadvantage. A series of structural inadequacies and varied dynamics over the course of a woman’s life can, and in many cases do, lead to superannuation poverty. The concept of compulsory superannuation was designed with a full-time worker in… Read more »
Most of us benefit every day from the fact computers can now “understand” us when we speak or write. Yet few of us have paused to consider the potentially damaging ways this same technology may be shaping our culture. Human language is full of ambiguity and double meanings. For instance, consider the potential meaning of… Read more »
Stackla, the social media marketing startup that had a near-death experience in 2019 when it was blocked Facebook and Instagram, has been sold to Finnish e-commerce platform Nosto. The terms and conditions of the acquisition were not disclosed. Facebook’s move against Stackla, which built its business on user-generated content amid a crackdown following the Cambridge… Read more »
The manufacturing world is facing one of its greatest challenges in years — a global shortage of semiconductors — and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight any time soon. According to Acer, one of the world’s largest laptop manufacturers, companies will still be affected by this shortage until at least the first… Read more »
Two Aboriginal health service providers on the Eyre Peninsula have trained Indigenous staff to provide IT support with help from another First Nations company. The Yadu Health Aboriginal Corporation in Ceduna and the Nunyara Aboriginal Health Service in Whyalla have chosen New Future IT from Darwin to train Indigenous workers to cover their internal IT… Read more »
Supermarket giant Woolworths is creating its own fintech startup by spinning out its payments business, Wpay, as a stand-alone venture offering end-to-end payment solutions to merchants outside the group. Woolworths is the nation’s fifth largest processor of card payments, worth more than $50 billion annually across more than 1.3 billion transactions. The move pushes Wpay… Read more »
Australia needs to continue to expand its innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem to strengthen our economy, grow our industries and to produce new jobs. Government has focussed on research endeavours and need to commercialise academic IP. This presents one path to delivering innovation, but not the only way that universities are supporting Australia’s entrepreneurial eco-system and… Read more »
A cyber attack on US meat processing company JBS Foods, which owns the brands Hans and Primo, forced the closure of 47 facilities around Australia on Monday. The attack was confirmed by JBS Australia CEO Brent Eastwood who spoke to industry news site Beef Central, saying he was unsure how long the outage would last. In a… Read more »
The forced closure of customer contact centres during the coronavirus pandemic delivered a silver lining for Cloudwave, which has raised $2m in a series A to expand into Asia and the US. The oversubscribed $2m round was led by Moelis Investment Bank, supported by Singapore-based VC fund Vulpes Investment Management. The cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup… Read more »
VC firm Hatcher+ and Wholesale Investor will invest A$10 million in 50+ startups The fund will use deep learning to invest in promising technology companies through to series A The fund will partner with leading incubators, accelerators, and research groups. Australian investment platform Wholesale Investor has launched a joint venture plan to raise A$10 million… Read more »
Following the success of several virtual events during COVID, Mum’s & Co is back with the third iteration of its annual Be MPowered conference. This year’s event will adopt a new format that will connect mumbitious entrepreneurs around the nation. The conference will take place on June 2 and features an inspiring line-up of business-owning… Read more »
The rise of meal delivery services over the last 12 months has been led by women, more than men, new research reveals. More than a quarter of the population – 5.5 million people – have had their food brought to their door in 2020 according to new data from Roy Morgan Research, with a clear… Read more »
US investment giant Andreessen Horowitz has led a $10.3 million (US$8m) investment in a Sydney startup tackling better workplace communication. Pyn was founded by Joris Luijke, the former VP of People at Atlassian and Squarespace, and CultureAmp co-founder, Jon Williams. The startup launched last year and raised a US$2.1m pre-seed round led by Accel Partners,… Read more »
Xero’s Australia and Asia managing director, Trent Innes, has called time on his eight-years leading the ASX-listed venture. The cloud-based accounting platform’s executive GM of global sales, Joseph Lyons, will step up to the MD role to start the new financial year on July 1. Innes will remain in the business until September to oversee… Read more »
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