Green energy finance provider Brighte has raised $100 million to move into energy retailing. The $100 million round was led by Grok Ventures, the family investment company run by billionaire Annie Cannon-Brookes and her husband Mike. Founder & CEO Katherine McConnell said the fund will be used in three key areas: acquiring more solar households,… Read more »
Small business-focused neobank Judo had raised $280 million in a series D round. The company did not disclose its backers in the latest series, but the raise comes seven months after a $230 million series C and values the bank at $1.6 billion, an uplift of 60% on the May figure. Confirmation of Judo’s raise… Read more »
The push for diversity in venture capital is long overdue but like a lot of diversity campaigns, First Nations people are being overlooked by investors in Australia. As founder of the world’s first Indigenous Accelerator, I reached out to venture capital firms operating in Australia to conduct research into how much or more accurately, “how… Read more »
Afterpay will receive an early Christmas present next week, joining the elite S&P/ASX 20 Index of the 20 largest companies by market capitalisation on December 21, alongside the likes of Coles, CBA, Rio Tinto, BHP and CSL, as the company’s share price continues to soar The fintech (ASX: APT) now has a market cap of… Read more »
Square Peg Capital has closed its fourth generation fund, raising $600 million. Super funds HostPlus and AustralianSuper led the raise with the Commonwealth Bank also signing up alongside alternative investment management firm Roc Partners. The fresh raise takes the VC firm’s total committed capital to $1.4 billion in a year that saw Square Peg return… Read more »
The Victorian government’s startup support arm, LaunchVic, has invested $300,000 new venture debt fund targeting bootstrapped revenue-positive startups. The LaunchVic agreement with Tractor Ventures is a new way of working for LaunchVic with the funds being provided as a loan rather than a grant. LaunchVic CEO, Dr Kate Cornick said the launch of the new… Read more »
Multitudes, a software platform to manage and improve culture and performance, has raised NZ$2.4 million (AU$2.2m) in a seed round to build their beta product. Blackbird Ventures led the oversubscribed round alongside former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, and Culture Amp co-founder Jon Williams. Multitudes uses workplace data to give managers insights and coaching to create… Read more »
Melbourne-based NextGen Funds Management has launched the country’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Fund. The fund, for sophisticated investors, will invest in a mixture of debt and equity in ventures ranging from startup to pre-IPO. NextGen Funds Management Head of Distribution Samuel Mullavey said the fund will take a sector-neutral approach in areas are where AI… Read more »
Nothing excites investors and markets more than an emerging technology predicted to transform the way we live and work. Cloud accounting, NFC payments, mobile phones and social networking have all been this transformational force. Others have been hailed as the next big thing, to then plateau abruptly, or even fade into obscurity. Amazon’s Kindle is… Read more »
Square Peg Capital has led an $18 million round into a three-year-old medtech startup that’s like Tinder for clinical trials, matching researchers with patients. Paul Bassat’s fund led a $6 million series A into HealthMatch, founded by a UNSW med student, in late 2019 following a five-day crash course into the startup, and then joined… Read more »
Order fulfilment venture Shippit has raised $30 million in a series B round to expand in Asia and Australia. The round was led by New York based investment fund Tiger Global Management, which earlier this year closed an oversubscribed US$3.75 billion private-equity fund to invest in private tech companies. Germany’s Global Founders Capital was also… Read more »
Telehealth venture Coviu has raised $6 million in the wake of the company’s growth during the coronavirus pandemic. The round was backed by Equity Venture Partners, with investment director Daniel Szekely joining the board, alongside the Giant Leap Fund from Impact Investments, the CSIRO’s VC fund, Main Sequence Ventures and the Medical Angels investment group.… Read more »
So much is written about the startup journey, but we don’t often talk about what comes next once you’ve left the business that has consumed so much of your life. When a founder launches a startup, they’re often laser focused on the problem they are trying to solve. In my case, following a chat with… Read more »
Inventory forecasting software StockTrim achieved international sales in the UK, Australia and US immediately after launching in 2017. It’s been growth ever since, and in 2020 the Kiwi company pitched for seed funding to scale up. StockTrim came out successful – oversubscribed, in fact. The fund raise required three in-person pitches, seven Zoom pitches and… Read more »
Fintech Limepay has tapped its investors for another $21 million, just seven months after raising $6 million. The company, which offers retailers a white label buy-now-pay-later solution, launched the pre-IPO raise in October shortly after signing on games retailer EB Games as a client. The platform is built on the technology of US payments fintech… Read more »
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
