ASX-listed defence tech scaleup DroneShield has made hay while its shares shine, raising $120 million from institutional and sophisticated investors at $1.15 a share. Shares in the Sydney-headquartered US tech business (ASX: DRO) have been on tear over the last seven months, climbing from $0.31 cents in mid-December 2023, the $1 April and then a… Read more »
The iLAuNCH Trailblazer program has thrown another $1 million into the kitty to fund the commercialisation of university research for the space industry. The federal government-backed program will see the iLAuNCH Accelerator offer seed funding grants worth between $10,000 and $100,000 for proof-of-concept demonstrator technologies with commercial potential. Applications are now open for the fund,… Read more »
A fintech tackling one of the toughest pain points of going on holidays – having to book so far in advance for cheaper fares, and finding the money at the time to do it – has raised one of 2024’s biggest Seed rounds, taking on its first external capital after six years of bootstrapping. The… Read more »
The federal government’s Boosting Female Founders (BFF) grant program was secretly killed off in the federal budget, with only two-thirds of the $52 million allocated spent. The program’s end with $17 million still in the kitty was reportedly the result of an internal review by the federal Department of Industry, Science, and Resources (DISR) that… Read more »
A startup that checks in on how well university students are learning has been accepted into the University of California, Berkley’s SkyDeck accelerator program, banking US$200,000 (A$305k) as part of the deal. Sindy Labs is the brainchild of former University of Melbourne medical student Benjamin Arya, Taha Ansari and Oliver Cucanic. They founded their startup… Read more »
Shareholder engagement platform InvestorHub topped up last year’s Series A with an extra $4 million. The new round was led by existing backer EVP, with follow-on investment from Archangel Ventures and Flying Fox Ventures too. It takes the total value of the Series A to $9 million after an initial $4 million in May 2023,… Read more »
Australia may get the world’s first quantum computer by 2027, but within 12 months, PsiQuantum plans to build a second one in Chicago after scoring another massive government funding deal. The California startup’s latest cash injection of US$500 million (A$760m) over 30 years, funded by the Illinois government, Cook County, and the City of Chicago… Read more »
Four space research projects at the University of South Australia (UniSA) have received $18 million in funding as part of the $230m iLAuNCH program. The funding coincides with the opening of a new Advanced Manufacturing Metal 3D printing facility at VPG Innovation, in Adelaide’s Camden Park. The 3D printing machines can produce titanium and nickel… Read more »
Business lending fintech Fundabl has raised $3.2 million in an equity round as it looks to increase its venture debt business as alternative capital for startups. Fundabl was founded by Ethan Singer and David Salkinder in 2021 before launching in March 2022, going on to raise $16 million in a mixture of equity and debt… Read more »
Three years after selling A Cloud Guru for $2 billion, cofounder Sam Kroonenburg is back in early-stage startup land with an AI-based adtech and $5.5 million in Seed funding to kick it off. His new play is Cuttable, an automated content marketing agency that’s like Canva-for-ads, so users can create digital advertising rapidly, at a lower… Read more »
The global space economy is expected to be worth forecast to be worth $2.7 trillion with a decade, so the NSW government has decided to get in on the action with $500,000 in grant funding. The new NSW Space+ Program grants have been launched ahead of an estimated 10,000 delegates heading to Sydney in September… Read more »
Workplace talent management platform SeenCulture has raised $1 million in a round backed by LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund for female founders. The software startup helps management make smarter, fairer and faster decisions around employee issues such as promotions, performance/pay reviews, and team design. Founded in 2023 by psychologist Nikki Tugano, it currently serves more than… Read more »
Medical staffing platform Go Locum, which connects doctors with temporary roles in regional and remote areas, has raised $350,000 in Seed funding from Darwin VC Paspalis. This round will support the software startup’s international expansion plans and the launch of an app to streamline locum (fill-in doctor) recruitment in Australia. Go Locum was founded by… Read more »
New Zealand building management proptech Tether has raised NZ$655,000 (A$592k) as it expands into the Australian market and Europe. The startup managed to avoid venture funding, securing backing from high net worth individuals on three continents as part of its global focus. In May 2023, Tether raised NZ$844,050 via crowdfunding platform Snowball Effect, taking the… Read more »
US private equity has swooped into Australia to back construction site safety platform HammerTech in a $105 million (US$70 m) raise. Californian investment firm Riverwood Capital has backed the Melbourne startup as it eyes off a larger slice of the US building market. HammerTech is a cloud-based performance and productivity platform for the building industry… Read more »
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