Jeanette Cheah’s edtech startup HEX has forged a partnership with the Toyota Community Trust to launch Highway to STEM, a free program that demystifies STEM career pathways for female and non-binary students from regional schools. The project will offer free STEM career training to 1000 students across Australia. HEX founder and CEO Jeanette Cheah said the… Read more »
Troubled Victorian medical device startup Seer Medical has been placed in voluntary administration amid a product recall and legal battle with its ousted cofounder. Lindsay Bainbridge and Andrew Yeo from Pitcher Partners Melbourne were appointed administrators on January 6 following a pre-Christmas board meeting where the medtech’s directors voted to hand over the books. Pitcher… Read more »
Billionaire Richard White topped up his bank account in the December quarter, selling more than $440 million worth of shares in WiseTech, the logistics software company he founded 30 years ago. The sale represents less than 1.5% of his holding in WiseTech (ASX: WTC). White sold 3,564,742 shares across 31 days of on-market trading between… Read more »
Matt Vitale, the CEO and cofounder of Birchal, has stepped down from his leadership role and away from the business, saying he was “a bit broken” after eight years of building the pioneering crowdfunding platform. Techstars boss Kirstin Hunter will take on an advisory role as CEO transition lead in the interim, Birchal chair Adam… Read more »
FinTech Australia has released its formal position on the RBA’s review of merchant card payment costs and surcharging, advocating for an approach which keeps competition high but does not place an outright ban on surcharging. The view was formed after months of consulting with the peak body’s member base of over 400 companies and commissioning… Read more »
Can artificial intelligence (AI) tell whether you’re happy, sad, angry or frustrated? According to technology companies that offer AI-enabled emotion recognition software, the answer to this question is yes. But this claim does not stack up against mounting scientific evidence. What’s more, emotion recognition technology poses a range of legal and societal risks – especially… Read more »
Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci, who departed the grocery retailer in February with a $24 million golden handshake, not long after vacating the chair during a notorious Four Corners interview about grocery prices, has put some of that windfall to use backing a $2 million Seed round for a startup taking on Salesforce’s Slack and Meta’s… Read more »
A nine-year-old startup creating no code software platforms for the construction sector has raised $27.5 million in a Series A. The round for Sitemate was led by Blackbird, supported by fellow existed investors Shearwater Capital and Marbruck. The cash will go to product and engineering as well as expanding its go-to-market presence and customer base… Read more »
A Brisbane startup developing wearables to monitor hydration in people has raised $8 million from a range of sports stars and others. The round for WearOptimo was backed by healthcare providor Aspen Medical and former F1 driver Mark Webber, existing investors, as well as 1990s Newcastle Knights star Adam ‘Mad Dog’ MacDougall, who went on… Read more »
Victorian startup agency LaunchVic has added four new directors to its board as it gears up for 2025 with a revised focus. They are: Charlie Day: CEO of Monash University spinout Jupiter Ionics and former CEO of Innovation & Science Australia . Chaman Sidhu: Former Chief Legal and Company Secretary roles at Xero, Envato, and… Read more »
Schools-focused digital skills e-learning platform in Grok Academy has survived a near-death experience following allegations of inappropriate behaviour by its founder and former CEO, is rebuilding under the ownership and management of Adelaide’s KIK Innovation. KIK, which delivers the tuition-free coding school 42 Adelaide, stuck a deal to acquire Grok Academy last month. It came… Read more »
The Victorian government’s controversial $2 billion venture fund has been embroiled in an unfair dismissal case launched by the cofounder of one of its portfolio companies. Seer Medical founder Dr Dean Freestone launched Federal Court action against the company he helped launch and Breakthrough Victoria earlier this year, alleging he was forced out of the… Read more »
Startup builder Beanstalk Ventures recently harvested the first crop of agtech startups from its latest program, the Drought Venture Studio, a 12-week program backed by the federal government’s Future Drought Fund. Eight startups and their leaders were selected for the recent Innovation Showcase, whittled down from 24 chosen for the inaugural program from among 200… Read more »
The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) has gone into Christmas shopping mode, investing nearly $50 million in two days in two tech companies, today announcing $22.5 million for 12-year-old sovereign cloud data security company Vault Cloud. The equity investment comes just 24 hours after leading a $50 million raise for Adelaide IoT and satellite maker… Read more »
Twelve-year-old Melbourne EV charging business Jet Charge has raised $72 million after a year-long funding hunt, securing Mirova, an affiliate of global asset manager Natixis, as its lead investor. Existing backers the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), RACV (the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria) and Kilara Capital also hit the EFT button once again. Mirova’s… Read more »
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