Online retailer Kogan.com is buying New Zealand competitor Mighty Ape for $122.4 million. Mighty Ape’s focus is on gaming, toys and other entertainment categories, and the category leader and is expected to generate revenue for full year FY21 (to 31 March 2021) of around AU$137.7 million, with a gross profit of AU$45.7 million and EBITDA… Read more »
The South Australian Department for Trade and Investment is hosting a series of four live Q&A webinars focusing on the space industry, its future and possibilities. Starting on Thursday, 3 December with a discussion around Australia’s space edge, with the Australian Space Agency’s Deputy Head Anthony Murfett, the panel of local experts will talk about… Read more »
COVID-related travel restrictions and the sudden drop in tourism provided an ideal natural experiment to examine the impact of shifts in the supply of short-term rental accommodation. Our research, released today, found even modest reductions in Airbnb listings, as owners switched to longer-term rentals, increased supply of these properties. The result was lower local rents.… Read more »
Fintech Limepay has tapped its investors for another $21 million, just seven months after raising $6 million. The company, which offers retailers a white label buy-now-pay-later solution, launched the pre-IPO raise in October shortly after signing on games retailer EB Games as a client. The platform is built on the technology of US payments fintech… Read more »
Shouta, a new gifting app for small presents – think sending someone a coffee or beer – launched today. The idea emerged during the Covid-19 lockdowns with co-founders Carly Shamgar in Sydney and Nick Redwood in Melbourne collaborating to develop a “fun yet meaningful way to show friends and family that they were thinking of… Read more »
Gilmour Space Technologies, the Gold Coast-based startup building lower-cost hybrid rockets for launching small satellites into low earth orbits from 2022, has signed its first international deal for launch and orbital logistics with US rocket venture Momentus. The multi-million-dollar partnership will see the two companies share launch services, with Momentus buying at least one of… Read more »
The former Flexigroup, now rebranded as Humm, the name of its BNPL product, is launching a US line of credit, marketed as a BNPL solution in the highly competitive US market in a joint venture with fellow ASX-listed fintech Douugh. The proposed JV will result in “Douugh powered by humm” as a “BNPL” solution involving… Read more »
Airtasker founder and CEO Tim Fung has invested in the boat and yacht rental startup, Flotespace’s seed round raise, and will join the company as an advisor. The size of the round has not been disclosed and involved multiple investors. Sydney-based Flotespace the ‘Airbnb for boat experiences’ is a concierge service for boat and yacht… Read more »
Sydney software startup Elenta has closed has oversubscribed seed round less than six months after launching, raising $1 million. The corporate learning venture, which launched in June through Antler Australia’s Sydney accelerator program. Having given the brand-new venture a pre-seed investment, Antler followed on with the seed round, which was also backed by Black Nova Group… Read more »
Aconex co-founder Rob Phillpot has backed Melbourne-based builder software company Buildxact in a $6 million raise, 12 months after his fellow co-founder became an investor in the nine-year-old startup. Jasper returned to back the latest round. Buildxact creates software for residential builders for estimating and job management. The cloud platform streamlines the building process from… Read more »
The South Australian and Victorian governments have announced, and New South Wales is considering, road user charges on electric vehicles. This policy has drawn scorn from environmental advocates and motor vehicle lobbyists who fear it will slow the uptake of less-polluting vehicles. But, from a longer-term transport policy perspective, a distance-based road user charge on… Read more »
Melbourne-based tech startup Pearlii, a world-first dental app for check-ups, has raised $1.25 million in seed investment from some of Australia’s most prominent investors, including Roger Allen and Justin Liberman. Founder and CEO, Dr Kyle Turner has developed artificial intelligence technology to scans a Pearlii user’s dental photos to check for common problems such as… Read more »
Sydney startup AMSL Aero has built a battery-powered Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft with a cruising speed of 300kmh that could hit the skies as an air ambulance in 2023. The Vertiia eVTOL prototype, developed in conjunction with University of Sydney researchers and Australian aeromedical company, CareFlight, can travel at twice the speed… Read more »
US tech pioneer Vint Cerf, the man dubbed “father of the internet” for his work co-designing TCP/IP protocols, has backed his employer, Google, in its fight against the Australian government’s plans to make tech giants Google and Facebook pay media companies for using their content. Cerf, who has worked for Google as a vice president and… Read more »
An app to maximise your tax refund and a startup that wants to turn renters into homeowners are among four startups pitching for a $150,000 investment today as part of the x15ventures Xccelerate program. x15ventures is the Commonwealth Bank’s venture building entity and this is the second Xccelerate program following on from two sisters Frances… Read more »
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