Health insurance company Bupa has launched a $20 million VC fund, Bupa Ventures, to back Australian healthcare startups. Bupa Ventures will support early-stage investment from Seed to Series A and will look to support startups across a broad spectrum of health sectors. Its early focus includes predictive and preventative healthcare, genomics, home care and remote monitoring,… Read more »
Grok Ventures, the private investment fund of Atlassian cofounder Mike Cannon-Brookes, has named global asset management executive Tan Kueh as CEO, joining chief investment officer Jeremy Kwong-Law. Cannon-Brookes said that Grok is entering a new phase of growth, having refined its investment strategy to make a bigger impact on addressing the global climate challenge. “Having… Read more »
A slew of recent media reports from around the world have confirmed what we and many of our friends and family have known for a very long time as immigrants to a predominantly white and western country: there is a “built in” penalty for being brown and from somewhere else when it comes to banking.… Read more »
Apple Pay overtook Afterpay in average users last year to become the third most widely used digital payment service, according to the latest Roy Morgan Digital Payments Report. While Block-owned Afterpay saw its user base decline over the last six months Apple Pay has more than doubled its share of users in the Australian market over… Read more »
Fishburners and high-performance coach and speaker, Veronica Mason are collaborating to host an LGBTIQA+ Pride pitch night next Friday, February 16. ‘ The event is for queer founders, who will be paired with judges to pitch their business and will compete for a judge’s choice and a people’s choice award. Mason was inspired to create… Read more »
Global payments fintech Airwallex has signed a multi-year partnership deal with the McLaren Formula 1 team, joining the likes of Google Cloud, Chrome, Salesforce and Dell as backers of the recently refreshed F1 cars. McLaren’s 2024 challenger, the MCL38, will be revealed on February 14 ahead of the ahead of the season opener in Bahrain this… Read more »
The government should avoid “overzealous lawmaking” and lead by example with a “stepped, gradual approach” to regulating artificial intelligence (AI), the Productivity Commission (PC) has advised in an analysis that flags AI’s potential to resolve Australia’s productivity slump. Aiming to guide the understanding of AI’s productivity benefits, regulatory challenges and implications for data policy, the trilogy of… Read more »
Climate startup CarbonHQ, has raised $600,000 in pre-Seed capital to bring transparency and accountability to carbon credits. The raise was backed by early-stage VC funds Galileo Ventures and Investible. CarbonHQ aims to improve the efficiency and transparency of carbon projects and address the $3 billion voluntary carbon market (VCM). They are currently developing a digital platform… Read more »
Having broken new ground in health tech for high-risk situations, Canaria Technologies is taking its next giant leap – to infinity and beyond. The Brisbane-based startup is gearing up to take its pioneering tech in predictive biometrics to the next frontier: outer space. Canaria’s wearables, which combine data about how the human body functions with… Read more »
Sydney startup AMSL Aero, which has designed and built a Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft powered by hydrogen, has sold its first 10 aircraft to a commercial client. Aviation Logistics, which operates spanning regional passenger services, charter, freight and aeromedical flights, paid deposits on 10 aircraft, with the option to buy 10 more,… Read more »
Venture capital funding in Australia plunged 53% in 2023 on the previous year, returning to the level seen at the startup of the Covid pandemic in 2020. The year saw 413 reported deals totalling $3.5 billion (down from $7.4B in 2022) according to the third annual The State of Australian Startup Funding Report by Cut… Read more »
Open banking facilitation startup Adatree has been acquired by Sydney small business payments provider Fat Zebra for an undisclosed sum. The Sydney regtech platform was the first early-stage startup approved to take part in Australia’s open banking system as Accredited Data Recipient (ADR) for the Consumer Data Right (CDR). Adatree helps fintechs gain access to… Read more »
Brisbane electric vehicle charging startup EVOS Energy is one of 35 exporters backed with funding and support from Trade and Investment Queensland’s Go Global Export Program. EVOS Energy is taking its Australian-made EV home chargers and fleet energy management to the world with a little help from the Queensland Government. The sixth round of Trade… Read more »
I see hundreds of founders pitch each year across industries and idea spaces – Antler invests in around 25 businesses each year in Australia alone. These pitches include a lot of generative AI, SaaS and HR Tech innovations, but flipping it around – here are 10 opportunities I reckon are worth exploring in 2024. 1.… Read more »
Last week, Elon Musk announced his brain-computer interface company, Neuralink, had implanted a device in a human for the first time. The company’s PRIME study, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration last year, is testing a brain implant for “people with paralysis to control external devices with their thoughts”. The first human received… Read more »
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