Canberra
AI/Machine Learning

OpenAI just won a 2nd Australian government contract after being the only company invited to bid

- October 23, 2025 3 MIN READ

OpenAI is steadily embedding itself in the Australian government, with the US tech giant winning its second contract without any competition as the public sector is encouraged to embrace public generative AI tools. The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) last week issued new guidance recommending agencies and departments be encouraged to use public generative AI tools… Read more »

Sydney, storm
Business

A computer scientist explains why cloud computing infrastructure needs to change after the AWS crash

- October 22, 2025 3 MIN READ

The world’s largest cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), experienced a major outage that has impacted thousands of organisations, including banks, financial software platforms such as Xero, and social media platforms such as Snapchat. The outage began at roughly 6pm AEDT on Monday. It was caused by a malfunction at one of AWS’ data… Read more »

Business

ANZ bank kills off another startup investment – consumer data insights platform DataCo

- October 21, 2025 2 MIN READ

ANZ has shut down another startup backed by 1835i, the bank’s former VC fund, which it also terminated earlier this month,  DataCo Technologies, developed inside the 1835i Creation Lab, helped businesses collaborate safely on customer data sharing. Its closure follows the shutdown of fintech Cashrewards last month, despite a $100 million investment and the sale of… Read more »

Redactive AI co-founders Lucas Sargent, Andrew Pankevicius and Alexander Valente.
AI/Machine Learning

Ex-Atlassians score an exit for their AI data security startup after just two years

- October 21, 2025 2 MIN READ

Melbourne data security engineering platform Redactive AI has been acquired by pan-Pacific data management firm RecordPoint. The startup, cofounded by ex-Atlassians Andrew Pankevicius and Alexander Valente, plus AI Engineer Lucas Sargent, exits after just two years in business. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Their goal was to tackle the missing AI engineering… Read more »

Rehan D'Almeida
Business

FinTech Australia says the government needs to include digital tech, including AI and cybersecurity, in its R&D Tax Incentive review

- October 20, 2025 2 MIN READ

FinTech Australia has warned that financial and other digital technologies risk being unintentionally excluded from future innovation funding unless explicitly recognised in the federal government’s current Strategic Examination of Research and Development (R&D). The fintech peak body argue its case in a submission to the R&D review’s expert panel, led by Tesla chair Robyn Denholm,… Read more »

Ron Conry and Sam Ringwaldt
Business

Cheque-in: 6 startups banked $13.4 million in funding this week

- October 17, 2025 4 MIN READ

After last week’s $211 million raised across six startups – that largely to Heidi Health’s $98m Seris B as well as details of Octopus Deploy’s 2024 $45.6m round emerging, mid October seems more normal, with six Australian companies collectively raising a collective $13.4m. The biggest raise came from GXE, which secured $3.3 million in Series… Read more »

Firmus founders
AI/Machine Learning

Green-powered AI data centre plan goes national with $73.3 billion project across 4 Australian capitals

- October 16, 2025 2 MIN READ

Australian-founded AI infrastructure startup Firmus Technologies is heading to mainland Australia with a $73.3 billion plan in partnership with CDC Data Centres and Nvidia to build four more AI data centres in capital cities. The initial deal for Project Southgate – the plan to build an AI data centre in Tasmania – is worth $4.5 billion,… Read more »

 Holly Cardew Mike Angell 
Business

4 years after a record $13m Seed raise, Blackbird-backed ‘ultimate wishlist’ shopping app Carted shuts down

- October 15, 2025 2 MIN READ

E-commerce startup Carted will close next week, four years after raising $13 million in one of Australia’s largest seed funding rounds and pledging to change how people shop online. The Carted wishlist app, which informs shoppers when coveted items go on sale, will close on Wednesday, October 22. “We’ve loved building Carted with you, but we… Read more »

Jamie Hall and Steve Hind
AI/Machine Learning

Why Lorikeet is one of Australia’s most important AI startups – and now outshining Canva

- October 13, 2025 2 MIN READ

Over the last couple of years, Canva has pushed hard into generative AI. It has become one of Australia’s best startup success stories. Yet, it’s another younger local AI player that is getting more spend from customers globally in the space.< Last week, Andreessen Horowitz’s new ‘AI Apps 50: Where Startups Spend on AI‘ list… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

Around 30% of your cloud spend is wasted – and this startup just raised $3 million, pre-Seed, to tackle the problem

- October 13, 2025 2 MIN READ

An AI-based “cloud waste” startup has raised $3 million in pre-Seed funding to help companies save billions on their cloud costs. The round for Optimaze was led by Arconic and The Innovation Club. The Sydney startup is currently in private beta, with a waitlist for preview access to the software. The funding is to expand… Read more »

Octopus Deploy, Sonia and Paul Stovell.
Business

Cheque-in: 6 ANZ startups banked a whopping $211 million in funding this week

- October 10, 2025 4 MIN READ

Two Australian startups moved closer to unicorn status this week, after revealing new funding rounds that gave their valuations a healthy boost. This week’s funding round-up is led by Heidi Health’s $98 million Series B round and Octopus Deploy’s $45.6 million investment, although the latter was secured in 2024. They are joined by four other Australian and New… Read more »