Fast-rising food brand Naked Rivals, which began life as a side hustle for husband-and-wife founders Andrew and Kate Gordon just 18 months ago, has raised $3 million from angel investors. The Sydney couple developed Naked Rivals during their third pregnancy in October 2022, while still in their full-time day jobs in financial services. Trying to… Read more »
The media depicts a depressing state, but is this painting an accurate picture? The 60 funds we surveyed (please let us know if we missed yours) 1835i, Black Sheep Capital, Folklore Ventures, Macdoch Ventures, Shearwater Capital, Tenacious Ventures, Airtree, Brandon Capital, Galileo Ventures, Main Sequence, Side Stage Ventures, Giant Leap, Marbruck Investments, Significant Early Venture… Read more »
Breakthrough Victoria, the state government’s $2 billion tech investment fund, is backing California-based Liquid Instruments with $15 million to bring the test equipment manufacturer to Melbourne. The 10-year-old firm, headquartered in San Diego, began life in Canberra, and builds cutting-edge test and measurement instruments used by engineers, scientists, and students, which can be reconfigured, saving… Read more »
A proptech startup used by governments and leading property developers has raised $5 million. Six-year-old Archistar was backed by existing investors NAB Ventures and Kim Jackson’s Skip Capital, with PEXA chair Prabhat Sethi also chipping in. The startup has now raised $40 million since it was founded in 2018, including $6 million in April 2021… Read more »
You might think government debt is bad, but it actually plays a crucial role in modern finance. Back when he was treasurer, Peter Costello famously declared that April 21 2006 would be known as Australia’s “Debt Free Day”. On this day, he proclaimed, the Commonwealth would eliminate its net debt and “pay off the mortgage”.… Read more »
An ad tech platform that helps publishers monetise product mentions has raised $4 million in a Series A as it looks to ramp up its global ambitions. The round for Linkby was led by investors Perennial Private Investments, with existing backer OIF Ventures, which led Linkby’s $5 million Seed raised in early 2022 also going again,… Read more »
Corporate regulator the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has issued its first interim stop order over a crowd-sourced funding (CSF) campaign. ASIC intervened in the raise for Hirehood, an hire marketplace for holiday items such as surfboards, bikes and baby equipment, on the VentureCrowd platform. The regulator’s concern is over the structure of shares… Read more »
Victorian startup The Leaf Protein Co has raised $850,000 in a pre-Seed raise as it looks to join the race for palatable meat alternatives. The round was led by the Breakthrough Victoria-backed University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund, Loyal VC and LaunchVic’s recently launched agtech sidecar fund, the Hugh Victor Mckay Fund. Previous investors include… Read more »
Supply chain integration platform Switchboard has raised $1.5 million from a consortium of early-stage VCs to digitise logistics. The Sydney startup was backed by Archangel, AfterWork, Investible, Skalata, Startmate, TEN13, and The Fund. Founder and CEO Hugh Dixson launched Switchboard in August 2022, having previously worked at road freight backfill startup Ofload in M&A, setting… Read more »
Mind mapping startup Omniscient has raised US$60 million (A$89m) in a Series C as it uses artificial intelligence (AI) to decode the human brain. The raise was backed by mining magnate Gina Rinehart and existing investor Will Vicars, the billionaire chief investment officer at Caledonia. The five-year-old startup previously raised $40 million in a Series… Read more »
Internet of Things agriculture scale-up Farmbot Monitoring Solutions has exceeded its capital raising plans by 50% to bank $4.6 million as it looks to ramp up its US presence. The round, originally targeting $3m, was backed by existing investors Telstra and Macdoch Ventures, among others. Telstra first joined the cap table a decade ago when Farmbot… Read more »
Documents compliance checking startup Atticus has banked $10.84 million in its first external raise, with VCs Blackbird and Kim Jackson’s Skip Capital buying in. The Melbourne legal tech – named after the To Kill a Mockingbird lawyer – was founded in 2017 recovering corporate lawyer Saul Wakerman and former Palantir software engineers Misha Wakerman and… Read more »
Sydney fintech Bridgit has raised $14.2 million in a Series A as the non-bank lender looks to offer bridging loans to homeowners moving house. The round was led by existing investor OIF. Bridgit, founded in 2021 as TechLend, previously raised $7.5 million two years ago in a round co-led by OIF Ventures and Perennial Partners.… Read more »
Australian disability tech accelerator Remarkable has ramped up its venture side, and is now looking to back startups in disability, ageing and health, from Seed to Series A. Remarkable is the startup venture arm of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance (CPA), founded in 2016 by Pete Horsley. Over the past 8 years Remarkable has helped 120… Read more »
The Victorian government is doubling the size of its early-stage agtech fund to $2 million. The extra $1 million for the Hugh Victor McKay Fund, run by LaunchVic, follows the initial $1 million commitment revealed last year. The fund offers up to $200,000 to early-stage Victorian agtech startups, so the new funding doubles the potential… Read more »
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