Fable Food Co, a plant-based meat alternative using mushrooms, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding. Blackbird Ventures led the round, joined by Silicon Valley VC AgFunder, Aera VC, a fund specifically focused on sustainability, and Better Bite Ventures, along with Singapore based Ban Choon Marketing and former-Sequoia Capital partner Warren Hogarth. The funding is… Read more »
Social enterprise startup Xceptional has developed a new tech platform for neurodiverse people looking a job to highlight their skills to employers. CEO and founder Mike Tozer said autistic people exhibit highly sought-after skills including acute levels of concentration, high attention to detail, logic and reasoning, persistence, accuracy, an excellent memory and employee loyalty, but… Read more »
A new industry lobby group pushing for greater support for the growth and investment in Australia’s tech sector has been formed by the nation’s leading tech unicorns and venture capitalists. The Tech Council of Australia has 23 founding members, including Canva, Afterpay, Atlassian, Safety Culture and Culture Amp, as well as US tech giants Google,… Read more »
Consumer watchdog the ACCC is heading back to the courts, taking on Telstra, Optus and TPG for allegedly misleading consumers over NBN maximum speeds. Problems with consumers getting the NBN speeds they’ve paid for has been a constant legal battle for the regulator, with all the major telcos falling foul of the law in recent… Read more »
ASX-listed business accounting platform Xero is taking on Google and Apple at their own game, launching an app store selling Xero-connected apps. The Xero App Store lets small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers purchase apps to help run their companies, and went live last week. Xero app partners in Australia, United Kingdom and New Zealand now… Read more »
An emerging commercial seaweed industry is gaining pace in South Australia and it has the methane produced by cows firmly in its sights. Australian researchers have found red seaweed has the ability to reduce cow and sheep methane production by up to 90% when mixed with stock feed. The findings have led the South Australian… Read more »
Given Japan’s long-time position as a high-tech leader, Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics were a natural way to show off the country’s know-how and manufacturing capability – and as the spectacular drone display of the opening ceremony gave way to the everyday competitions of the next two fortnight, new technologies were everywhere. That drone exhibition – in which a… Read more »
After a long career in property, it wasn’t until he was buying his own home that Mark Allen ran into a common frustration that many house hunters face. Allen was trying to buy a home, but by the time he had arranged finance, the property had been taken off the market. After moving on and… Read more »
Startup founders know how to face adversity head on, so after cancelling last year’s YBF Lift Off Awards, a fresh pandemic outbreak that has three states in lockdown wasn’t going to stop the 2021 event going ahead. The Lift Off Awards are part of YBF’s overarching drive for diversity. Shifting online for a YouTube-streamed virtual… Read more »
Perth-based startup Komo Digital now has one of the most important jobs for the Australian team at the Tokyo Olympics – driving fan engagement. The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has appointed Komo to deliver a fan hub to support the AOC’s first-ever digital fan engagement strategy for the Tokyo Games, which kick off today with… Read more »
The Future Founders Festival – Australia’s first festival for international student startups, innovators and founders – will now take place entirely online from this Thursday, July 15, running over two days to July 16. As Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak spread south to Victoria, the Melbourne-based event decided to move to online to ensure the safety of… Read more »
Telstra will refund more than 49,000 customers around $50 million after Australia’s largest telco failed to tell them they had internet plans that physically could not deliver the NBN internet speeds they were paying for in another embarrassing failure of the NBN. But the refunds are only occurring following intervention by the Australian Communications and Media… Read more »
The NSW government’s health department has turned once again to deep tech incubator Cicada Innovations to deliver a free training program to help aspiring biotech and medtech entrepreneurs and academics commercialise their ideas. The NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program aims to fast-track innovative ideas that will revolutionise the healthcare sector, improve patient outcomes, and provide… Read more »
Welcome to our weekly column on the important things to see and do for the ANZ startup community, brought to you by the director of the Spark Festival, Maxine Sherrin. Every Tuesday she picks out 3 things worth putting in the dairy for the week ahead. If you’d like to know more, sign up to the Weekly… Read more »
Seemingly out of nowhere, insurance tech is suddenly hot. Last month, Honey, a home and contents insurance startup that few had heard of, made global headlines raising Australia’s largest ever seed round, coming in at around $15 million. That’s remarkable when you consider that most rounds in Australia are less than $1 million. What could… Read more »
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