If, like this writer, you’ve had time on your hands, felt mischievous and decided to take on scammers with a meandering conversation to slow them down, you’re going to love what a Sydney startup is doing with Australia’s biggest bank. Sydney cyber-intelligence startup Apate.ai has teamed up with the CommBank to create AI-powered “victim bots”… Read more »
Australia has one of the world’s most capital-efficient startup ecosystems analysis of the local venture investment market reveals, creating bigger and better tech companies for fewer dollars. The Australia Venture & Startup Report 2025, from Sydney VC Side Stage Ventures in collaboration with Dealroom and AWS, set out to benchmark the performance of local venture… Read more »
Gaby Rosenberg, the cofounder of millennial investment fintech Blossom is among several women honoured in the annual FinTech Australia Finnie Awards for 2025. Rosenberg, was named Emerging FinTech Leader, while Anna Hawter, deputy CEO of small business lender Lumi, is Outstanding FinTech Leader of the Year, in the ninth annual awards. Hawter was the 2024… Read more »
Adelaide VC Eastend Ventures has secured $10 million in commitments for its debut fund, which will be the first in South Australia as an Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership (ESVCLP). The $50 million Eastend Ventures Fund 1 intends to invest in up to 30 early-stage, high-growth, business-to-business (B2B) startups across South Australia, Western Australia… Read more »
News emerged this week that Canva was looking at another secondary share sale, worth up to US$500 million (A$762m) with its valuation increasing by more than 15% to US$37 billion (A$56.2bn). It seem surprising with a US listing on the Nasdaq expected as soon as 2026. But in breaking the news The Information reported that… Read more »
Nominations for the 3rd annual Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards are now open. The 2025 Best in Tech awards are once again feature AWS Startups as the major sponsor, with Vanta as supporting partner. This year there are 14 awards, including the always-popular Most Innovative Startup, as well as Startup of the Year. Several… Read more »
Just two months away from hundreds of startups and founders being forced to move out of the Sydney Startup Hub, there’s still no clear vision from the NSW government about what the move to Tech Central will look like. While the government has yet to publicly announce a new location, Startup Daily understands that tenants… Read more »
The NSW budget has put a price on moving everyone out of the Sydney Startup Hub in the CBD to Tech Central 2km away: $5 million. That cost represents around 13% of the funding for Tech Central announced by treasurer Daniel Mookey in Tuesday’s budget. A line item in Budget Paper 3 on infrastructure spending… Read more »
Advisory firm Meliora founded by former media executive Clive Dickens, has moved into venture capital, backing three AI startups in Australia in a partnership with student-focused fund. NextGen Ventures. Meliora Ventures, the company’s investment arm, has deployed around $1.5 million in total, including for two European generative AI startups with a business focus, Dublin’s Quickfind… Read more »
A $25 million bet on fintech DASH has proved lucrative for ASX-listed venture fund Bailador Technology Investments (ASX:BTI), with the VC announcing a 59% uplift to $44.7m. The increase is the result of a new yet-to-be announced raise for the Sydney fintech, which has been signed at a 59% increase in DASH’s valuation. DASH is… Read more »
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 »
Veteran WiseTech director Charles Gibbon will leave the board next month, after 19 years, with major shareholder Michael Gregg also departing after less than a year into his second stint at the company’s AGM. The changes bring the board turnover in 2025 to six directors amid a power struggle involving former CEO and founder Richard… Read more »
Fintechs often complain quietly, lest they cop blowback, than one of the things that’s slowing the roll out of the Consumer Data Right (CDR), aka Open Banking, is that the major banks are dragging their feet. Well, the competition watchdog thinks so too, and National Australia Bank (NAB) has copped $751,200 in penalties after the… 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 »
Sydney startup Vow will finally get to serve its cultured quail meat products in Australia following approval from regulatory authorities that it’s safe to eat. The food safety authority, FSANZ, spent two years picking at Forged, Vow’s cell-based meat created from Japanese quail, including a second round of public consultation late last year. Meanwhile, the… Read more »
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