Over the coming weeks ahead of the TechStars Sydney Demo the Future evening on December 8, Startup Daily is profiling the 12 startups and their founders in the 2025 cohort. We kick things off with AI clinical note taking platform VetNotes. Startup: VetNotes Founder: Mitch Sigley One-liner: AI Scribe for Veterinarians What’s the problem… Read more »
Waymo is talking to local regulators about trialling the company’s self-driving taxis in Australia, as the autonomous vehicle company begins lobbying governments around the country. Owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, Waymo describes itself as the “world’s first autonomous ride-hailing service” and says its vehicles have completed 10 million driverless rides in five US cities,… Read more »
Last week, OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT Atlas, a web browser that promises to revolutionise how we interact with the internet. The company’s CEO, Sam Altman, described it as a “once-a-decade opportunity” to rethink how we browse the web. The promise is compelling: imagine an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that follows you across every website, remembers your… Read more »
A Brisbane startup developing hydrogen-powered aircraft engines and hypersonic Unmanned Aerial Vehicles has raised $46 million in a Series A as NASA prepares to test its 3D-printed ideas. The round for Hypersonix Launch Systems was led by UK national security investor High Tor Capital, with support from European defence company Saab and Polish family office RKKVC,… Read more »
Right now, more than 311,000 Australian Facebook users can apply for a slice of a A$50 million compensation fund from tech giant Meta – the largest ever payment for a breach of Australians’ privacy. But the clock is ticking. Even if you’re eligible, you only have until December 31 2025 to make your claim. Similar… Read more »
The world’s largest cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), experienced a major outage that has impacted thousands of organisations, including banks, financial software platforms such as Xero, and social media platforms such as Snapchat. The outage began at roughly 6pm AEDT on Monday. It was caused by a malfunction at one of AWS’ data… Read more »
Rory San Miguel, cofounder and CEO of drone-based site survey company Propeller Aero, has won the 2025 NSW Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The Pearcey Foundation, a non-profit named in honour of Australian ICT industry pioneer Dr Trevor Pearcey, recognises leaders in information and communications technology. The Pearcey NSW Entrepreneur Award is presented to… Read more »
Australian-founded AI infrastructure startup Firmus Technologies is heading to mainland Australia with a $73.3 billion plan in partnership with CDC Data Centres and Nvidia to build four more AI data centres in capital cities. The initial deal for Project Southgate – the plan to build an AI data centre in Tasmania – is worth $4.5 billion,… Read more »
Google has strongly criticised Australia’s impending ban of under-16s holding social media accounts after its popular video streaming platform YouTube was added to the ban following a federal government backflip. YouTube was expected to be exempt from the nation’s social media age ban, set to begin on 10 December, after the legislation was first introduced by the… Read more »
Melbourne air-conditioning startup Conry Tech has raised $3 million in Seed funding as it looks to transform workplace cooling. The round was led by specialist climate tech investor, Audacy. The cash will help complete development of the startup’s revolutionary “BullAnt” air-conditioner, which has the potential to halve energy bills in commercial buildings, as well as… Read more »
A proposed constellation of satellites has astronomers very worried. Unlike satellites that reflect sunlight and Reflect Orbital would produce light pollution by design. The company promises to produce “sunlight on demand” with mirrors that beam sunlight down to Earth so solar farms can operate after sunset. It plans to start with an 18-metre test satellite… Read more »
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 »
Improving our brain health takes a village. It’s a community of researchers, clinicians, leaders, founders, and funders working together to turn possibility into impact. Some of Australia’s braintech has already made global waves – think Saluda and Synchron – both born from collaboration. It makes sense that some of the most ambitious innovators inevitably have to look overseas for… 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 »
The research and development tax incentive (R&DTI) is only growing in value and scope, with a new Australian Taxation Office (ATO) transparency report detailing $16.2 billion in claims recorded over the 2022-23 financial year. And for the second year in a row, software giant Atlassian is the nation’s top claimant, reporting more than $220 million in… Read more »
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