Kiwi startup Kiki is hoping that its plan to be bigger than Airbnb will have more luck in London after it was forced to shut down in New York due to the city’s subletting laws. It’s also a case of 4th time lucky for the Blackbird-backed startup, which has previously opened, and closed, in New… Read more »
The grand New York experiment for New Zealand rental accomodation startup Kiki is over, with cofounder Toby Thomas-Smith announcing he’ll end his Big Apple ambitions for a second time. “The beginning of Kiki’s intense fire in NYC,” as he described it 13 months ago, is being snuffed out by regulation, he says, announcing the decision… Read more »
In 1949, a wildfire broke out in a place called Mann Gulch, a remote area of Montana. A team of 15 smokejumpers, highly-trained wildfire fighters, were flown into the area, and parachuted onto an otherwise inaccessible mountainside to begin hemming in the flames. Almost as soon as the team hit the ground, the wind changed,… Read more »
Last year Blackbird Ventures made a massive bet on a New Zealand rental accommodation app, just six months after it had turned down a $200,000 pitch for cash. In August 2023, Blackbird instead tipped $7 million into a A$9.5 million Seed round for Kiki. The startup’s cofounder Toby Thomas-Smith, said Blackbird’s New Zealand partner, Samantha… Read more »
2020 has been the year of the unexpected; the year of the ‘pivot’. We’ve seen world-class chefs provide home deliveries, gin distilleries making hand sanitiser and high fashion brands creating life-saving PPE. Businesses may have been forced to adapt quickly, but it was the innovative and creative responses that delivered new ways to meet the… Read more »
Software that supports the world’s best athletes is undergoing a makeover to support staff working from home. First created to help elite athletes manage their training, the software is now finding its way into home offices as its South Australian creator launches a new platform for corporations dealing with COVID-19 distancing. Lumin Wellbeing is a… Read more »
Two South Australian companies that have previously worked together to produce luxury speakers are collaborating to manufacture face shields to fill local shortages. Kyron Audio is world-renowned for producing extreme high-fidelity dipole loudspeaker systems for the luxury market and was due to exhibit its wares at Sydney’s 2020 Hi-Fi Show last weekend. But the cancellation… Read more »
Developing an online B2B marketplace to help architects sell their imagery to product suppliers is Sydney-startup Bookmarc.
“Shortly after our consumer launch, the reality that everything was going to be infinitely harder than we had anticipated started to sink in.”
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
