The founders of Wisr, Sythetix and Zip are among the backers in a $2.3 million raise for investment technology startup Fresh Equities. The round was led by Archangel Ventures, and includes Flying Fox Ventures. Zip co-founders Larry Diamond and Adam Finger, Wisr CEO and founder Anthony Nantes, and Synthetix Coin founder Kain Warwick, are now… Read more »
Plant-based protein startup v2food has raised A$72 million in series B-plus with Europe’s largest impact investment fund, Astanor Ventures leading the round. The latest capital injection is to ramp up expansion into China and Europe and scaling its manufacturing. The plant protein joint venture between Hungry Jacks billionaire Jack Cowin and the CSIRO, previously raised… Read more »
The NSW government is offering to new funding schemes to help startups commercialise ideas to address impacts of Covid-19. The new $6 million R&D Fund targets innovative products developed by NSW businesses. Proposals to scale R&D products will be assessed by a panel of judges with expertise in commercialisation, venture capital, academia, government and industry.… Read more »
Performance monitoring and assurance platform Operata has raised $2.2 million in a seed round to help call centres in the shift to remote working operations. Sydney VC Tidal Ventures led the seed funding supported by Black Nova, Flying Fox Ventures and prominent angels. The Melbourne software startup, founded in 2018 and already profitable, has bootstrapped… Read more »
Welcome to Giant Leap’s Small Steps, a newsletter offering global insights and news on the impact startups landscape. We’ll be sharing an edited version with Startup Daily readers every fortnight. Giant Leap is Australia’s first impact venture fund, and they use this newsletter to surface the ideas and businesses that intrigue and inspire them and… Read more »
Foodbomb, a produce wholesale marketplace for the hospitality sector, has raised A$4.5 million in a series A The round was backed by EVP, Athletic Ventures, Aura Ventures, Tony Gandel’s family investment vehicle, Tahmedia, and Platform Advisory Partners. It’s EVP’s third investment in the business since 2019. The raise will enable the four-year-old startup to expand… Read more »
Hospitality jobs and training platform Barcats has raised $2.4 million amid the ongoing disruption to the sector caused by pandemic lockdowns. Existing investors, including business journalist Ross Greenwood and Computershare founder Chris Morris once again backed the latest, round, with the Colonial Leisure Group owner raising his stake in the four-year-old startup from 7.25% to… Read more »
Marketplace startup Warrp has extended its seed funding window to the end of August as the company’s new user signups jumped 138% in July. The startup is in discussions with prospective seed funding partners after receiving competitive interest from investors and has decided to keep expressions of interest open over the next month. The seed… Read more »
Melbourne software startup Programa has raised $2 million in a seed round. The raise was co-led by Sydney VCs Equity Venture Partners (EVP) and Investible. Programa’s cloud-based software converts tasks that might take designers two days to complete into jobs that take just minutes, bringing interior designers and architects out of the spreadsheet age and… Read more »
Customer communications startup Pendula has landed a $6.75 million round just three months after setting out to raise $5 million. The raise was led by MA Financial Group – previously known as Moelis Australia – and supported by existing backer Equity Venture Partners, as the business eyes overseas expansion and will be used to improve… Read more »
Employee engagement platform Culture Amp has raised US$100 million (A$135m) in a series F that doubles the tech startup’s valuation to $2 billion in just two years. The fresh round gives the business a US$1.5 billion (A$2.02bn) valuation, double its worth since 2019’s US$82 million (AU$121m) in series E. The raise was led by TDM… Read more »
Australian investors poured $47 million into companies through crowd-sourced funding (CSF) in the 2021 financial year – double the FY20 figure – as the sector continues to boom. Funded!, the third annual report into Australian CSF capital raising, prepared by market leader Birchal, reveals how quickly the sector is growing, with the number of CSF… Read more »
The co-founders of fintech unicorn Airwallex, are launching an early-stage venture capital fund to invest invest in tech startups supporting the payments platform. The fund, named Capital 49, plans to raise US$200 million (A$270m) through the Airwallex founders and other investors. Capital 49 has completed investments in two fintech firms. The VC is planning to… Read more »
Finance-for-kids fintech Spriggy has raised a $35 million Series B round led by NAB Ventures. Perennial Value Management also invested, with previous backer, Grok Ventures, the family investment vehicle of Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife, Annie, also topping up the piggy bank. Grok led the $12 million Series A round in 2019 as… Read more »
Venture capital firm King River Capital says it has completed the first close of its second fund (KRC Fund 2) with US$95 million (A$128m) committed. The VC says backers in its second fund include tech entrepreneurs and execs from leading local tech companies such as Xero and AfterPay, as well as family offices such as… Read more »
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