There’s a cage fight-like quality to Employment Hero cofounder and CEO Ben Thompson’s campaign against one of his investors, Hostplus, but it appears the $100 billion industry super fund is not enjoying the show. In fact, in Hostplus’ view, Thompson is lowering the tone of Australian corporate life and unless he brings back a bit… Read more »
Brisbane solar battery startup Redback Technologies has handed its books to voluntary administrators. McGrathNicol were appointed administrators of Redback Operations Pty. Ltd on March 5, as the company was in Sydney exhibiting at the Smart Energy Expo. Redback continues to trade as the administrators seek expressions of interest for the sale or recapitalisation of all… Read more »
Disrupting a $3.5 trillion industry is difficult. Just ask fintechs like Cannon-Brookes-backed Spaceship, Superhero, and Verve Super. Australia’s superannuation industry gets a $362 billion compulsory cake from fees – more than $30 billion annually – and wants to eat it all too. Treasury put out a consultation paper titled Securing Australians’ Superannuation late last year… Read more »
Small business lender will disappear from the ASX within months following a $74 million takeover bid from the Melbourne-based Salter Brothers Tech Fund. While the offer of $0.45 cents a share is a 22% premium on Prospa’s (ASX:PGL) closing price of $0.37 cents on Monday, it’s a far cry from when the business listed at… Read more »
Brisbane enterprise software scaleup Octopus Deploy has acquired a US rival, Codefresh, in a deal worth reportedly worth US$28 million (A$42.6m). It’s the first major acquisition by the quiet achiever of the Queensland tech scene, one of the largest privately-held companies in the DevOps ecosystem. While no figure was mentioned in the announcement, media reports… Read more »
Financial comparison site Finder has cut its workforce by 17% in a fresh round of redundancies, the third major staffing reduction in the past 12 months. Around 60 people have lost their jobs globally in the latest cuts. It may be the fourth time HR handed out redundancy notices in the past year, with SmartCompany… Read more »
Sydney startup AMSL Aero, which has designed and built a Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft powered by hydrogen, has sold its first 10 aircraft to a commercial client. Aviation Logistics, which operates spanning regional passenger services, charter, freight and aeromedical flights, paid deposits on 10 aircraft, with the option to buy 10 more,… Read more »
Open banking facilitation startup Adatree has been acquired by Sydney small business payments provider Fat Zebra for an undisclosed sum. The Sydney regtech platform was the first early-stage startup approved to take part in Australia’s open banking system as Accredited Data Recipient (ADR) for the Consumer Data Right (CDR). Adatree helps fintechs gain access to… Read more »
Imagine there is a public speaking square in your city, much like the ancient Greek agora. Here you can freely share your ideas without censorship. But there’s one key difference. Someone decides, for their own economic benefit, who gets to listen to what speech or which speaker. And this isn’t disclosed when you enter, either.… Read more »
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published information from Facebook whistleblowers, alleging Facebook (which is owned by Meta) deliberately caused havoc in Australia last year to influence the News Media Bargaining Code before it was passed as law. During Facebook’s news blackout in February 2021, thousands of non-news pages were also blocked – including important… Read more »
Food delivery tech company DoorDash has signed a pioneering agreement with the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) that sets out safety and fairness standards for gig workers. Amid ongoing legal battles by global tech companies over the employment status of gig economy workers, the first-of-its-kind agreement between an Australian union and a delivery platform sets out… Read more »
Send, a 10-minute grocery delivery app, has been placed in voluntary administration less than 12 months after in launched, in an ominous sign for the rapid grocery delivery market. Matthew Kucianski and Matthew Jess of Worrells were appointed Voluntary Administrators of Send App Pty Ltd, on Tuesday this week. The company has around 300 employees… Read more »
In a surprise capitulation, the board of Twitter has announced it will support a takeover bid by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person. But is it in the public interest? Musk is offering US$54.20 a share. This values the company at US$44 billion (or A$61 billion) – making it one of the largest leveraged buyouts… Read more »
Meal home delivery marketplace ChefPrep has raised $3 million in a Seed round. The raise was led by Artesian Ventures and Global Founders Capital. Additional backing came from Yellow Brick Road chairman Mark Bouris, Circular co-founder Yaniv Bernstein and Hungry House founder Graeme Horne. Founded in May last year by Elle Curran and Josh Abulafia,… Read more »
Elon Musk has bought influential social media company Twitter for $61.5 billion (US$44 billion) after a month-long siege that saw Twitter on the brink of diluting its shares to keep Musk away. Current Twitter shareholders will be paid $75.80 (US$54.20) per share in an agreement that Musk has framed as a win for free speech.… Read more »
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