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 »
Sydney legal practice collaboration and CRM platform Nexl has raised US$23 million (A$35m) in a Series B. The round was led by Dave Yuan’s US growth equity firm Tidemark Capital. Philipp Thurner, former head of innovation at Gilbert and Tobin, and now based in New York, founded Nexl in 2018, pivoting in 2021 to help law… Read more »
ASX-listed jobs platform Airtasker (ASX:ART) has cut a new media-for-equity deal with 4 Ventures, the VC arm of Channel Four Television, worth £2.5 million (A$5.1m). The media inventory deal for its British subsidiary, Airtasker UK, is the third as the business hit a gross marketplace volume annualised run rate (ARR) of more than $21 million… Read more »
Enterprise software scaleup Octopus Deploy, which bootstrapped for 11 years, before a $220 million raise in 2021 took on $US30 million (A$45m) in fresh capital from its existing and only investor, New York VC Insight Partners, ahead of a major acquisition. The new funding was secured in 2024 before the Brisbane business spent $43 million… Read more »
Wellington startup PAM (Personal Administration Manager) has raised NZ$570,000 (A$502k) in the first close of its Seed round to help parents deal with the life admin of raising a family. Initial support was led by Flying Kiwi Angels, with participation from Icehouse Ventures, Even Capital’s Sarah Park, Easy Crypto founder Janine Grainger, Foggy Valley, Wainot… Read more »
Melbourne scaleup Heidi Health has raised US$65 million (A$98m) in a series B, just seven months after banking nearly $27m in a Series A top up. The round was led by New York hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen’s VC arm, Point72 Private Investments, supported by exiting backers including local VC Blackbird, and US funds… Read more »
Australian-born, US-based OpenSolar has banked US$20 million (A$30m) in a fresh raise as it looks to expand its AI implementation in the renawables design and sales platform. The raise was backed by existing investors Titanium Ventures – the former Telstra VC fund – and London- and Copenhagen-based 2150 Sustainability Fund, as well as Google, and… Read more »
The new $5 billion Net Zero Fund, announced last week as part of the Federal government’s plan to meet a 61% -70% emissions reduction target, could be the most important lever Australia has to accelerate our transition to net zero. But unless it is designed to take risks and back first-of-a-kind climate innovations, we risk… Read more »
Startup funding activity has continued to hold steady this week, with nearly $53.5 million announced across sectors including agtech, energy, AI, health and fintech. Oh, and Limoncello. Leading the pack is Queensland-based SwarmFarm Robotics, which has banked $30 million to ramp up production of its autonomous farm robots and expand overseas. SwarmFarm Robotics: $30 million The… Read more »
Queensland agtech startup SwarmFarm Robotics has secured $30 million in Series B funding to ramp up production of its autonomous SwarmBots and expand into North America. The round was led by European agtech investor Edaphon, with participation from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), QIC and Artesian Capital. The CEFC contributed $7 million through its… Read more »
Cloud-based insurance software-as-a-service scaleup Javln has raised A$6 million for its Australian expansion. The round was led by boutique fund manager Microequities Asset Management and alongside crossing The Ditch, will be used for R&D and entry into other markets New Zealand entrepreneur Dale Smith founded Javln in 2011. It simplifies clients, policies, claims, and document management… Read more »
Liftwomen the female-focused crowdfunding platform, has raised $1.3 million as it looks to expand into Asia. The raise was led by Singapore VC Braxton Capital Ventures with support from former Alibaba Australia boss Maggie Zhou and former AXA chair Asia Gordon Watson. The cash injection is earmarked to Asian expansion, especially Hong Kong and China,… Read more »
Australia has launched the Australasian Space Innovation Institute to cut foreign reliance and speed up space commercialisation. A new not-for-profit space organisation has launched at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney. The Australasian Space Innovation Institute (ASII) aims to speed up the use of industry research, strengthen Australia’s own space capability, and deliver tangible benefits… Read more »
Indi, an AI-powered co-pilot app helping parents of children with complex care needs, has raised $1.46 million. The round was led by Giant Leap and supported by Antler, along with several strategic angel investors. The capital will be spent on talent to accelerate platform development and expand partnerships with allied health clinics and families. Indi… Read more »
A Brisbane startup hoping to unleash the unrealised productivity gains of workplace artificial intelligence has raised $2.3 million in pre-Seed funding to help people refine ideas and inspiration using AI. The round for Enhance Labs was led by Blackbird Ventures with support from QIC Ventures. Enhance was cofounded by former Amazon engineer Haziq Nordin, former… Read more »
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