Soho Jonathan Lui
Funding

Airtasker cofounder Jonathan Lui’s proptech app, Soho, banks $750,000 to hit $20 million valuation

- November 27, 2023 2 MIN READ

Property buying discovery app Soho.com.au has raised $750,000 from Singapore proptechVC Feedback Ventures in a deal that values the startup at more than $20 million. Launched in 2018 by Airtasker cofounder Jonathan Lui, and described as “Tinder for real estate”, Soho uses artificial intelligence to personalise real estate searches, creating an instant list of properties… Read more »

Aaron Gershenberg
Events

SVB Capital founder Aaron Gershenberg, who raised $10 billion in VC funds, headlines West Tech Fest

- November 25, 2023 3 MIN READ

West Tech Fest (WTF) in Perth will be headlined by SVB Capital cofounder Aaron Gershenberg, SafetyCulture’s Luke Anear, and US-Australian VC Maxine Minter from CoVentures, next month. Bill Tai and Rohan McDougall’s annual startup and innovation festival, now in its 12th year, runs over five days, December 4-8, in Perth and Fremantle, with a “founder… Read more »

Mic Black and Darryl Lyons
Other tech

Holy shiitake! Meet Rainstick, the Indigenous startup growing mushrooms with lightning

- November 24, 2023 6 MIN READ

Take a third-generation farmer with three startups under his belt and a serial innovator who’s turned algae into medicine and developed an AI mental health app for an A-league football team, and what you get is a recipe for magic. ‍ Combining ancient knowledge with future tech, Rainstick is developing a breakthrough innovation that mimicks the… Read more »

Kids on bike with rockets
Events

Techstars is showing aspiring founders how to launch in just 54 hours at Startup Weekend Sydney

- November 24, 2023 2 MIN READ

Startup Weekend Sydney is fast approaching and we know many people are thinking about joining us. A great way to fast-track your introduction to the world of entrepreneurship is attending a Startup Weekend—an intensive, action-packed event that brings together creative minds, business enthusiasts, and industry experts. To help you decide if a Startup Weekend is… Read more »

Elliephant
Funding

Corporate gifting startup Elliephant presented with $560,000 pre-Seed round

- November 23, 2023 2 MIN READ

Gifting platform Elliephant has raised $560,000 in pre-Seed funding with LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund supporting the round. Cofounders Sheree Andersen and Johnny Reid launched Elliephant a year ago, inspired by their own frustration with how companies tackle gifting for clients and staff, setting out to create a new way to approach sales and marketing engagement,… Read more »

Cybersecurity
Cyber security

What you need to know about the Australian government’s 7-year plan to ramp up cyber security

- November 23, 2023 4 MIN READ

After lengthy deliberation, the Australian government has released its 2023–2030 Cyber Security Strategy, which aims to make Australia one of the most cyber-secure nations in the world by 2030. It’s a worthy goal, considering Australia was ranked as the fifth-most powerful cyber nation in a 2022 report by Harvard University’s Kennedy School. The strategy outlines… Read more »

Luke Terry
Funding

Brisbane impact incubator White Box Enterprises raises $12 million to launch social enterprises

- November 22, 2023 3 MIN READ

Social enterprise incubator White Box Enterprises has secured $12 million from impact investors and philanthropists to develop startups helping disadvantaged people in regional communities. The raise has been a two-year labour of love for White Box CEO, Luke Terry, who set a $13 million goal. Most of the capital, 75%, came from 13 impact investors,… Read more »

Binance
Cryptocurrency

Binance CEO departs after guilty plea over money laundering as US authorities belt the crypto exchange with a $6.6bn fine

- November 22, 2023 3 MIN READ

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has resigned from the cryptocurrency exchange he founder as past part of a guilty plea deal with US authorities over money laundering and US sanctions violations, that involved funded terrorist groups such as Hamas. Zhao was hit with a US$50 million fine while his company will pay US$4.3 billion (A$6.6bn)… Read more »

Paul Wiltshire
Funding

Songtradr chalks up $106 million Series E as Epic Games joins cap table following Bandcamp sale

- November 21, 2023 2 MIN READ

Patience and persistence have paid off for US-based music licensing marketplace Songtradr, founded by expat Australian songwriter and entrepreneur Paul Wiltshire, after raising US$70 million (A$106m) in a Series E after a 20-month hunt for investors. That figure is well short of ambitions for a US$170m (A$235m at the time) raise at a US$500m valuation,… Read more »

Mark Zuckerberg
Social Media

Not responsible: Meta kills off its team overseeing ethical AI

- November 21, 2023 2 MIN READ

Meta has scrapped its responsible artificial intelligence team, a year after the tech giant closed its responsible innovation branch. The news was first reported by The Information, which said that Meta’s Responsible AI team had been disbanded, with its members to work on other teams, including Generative AI and the company’s AI infrastructure. The Responsible AI… Read more »

smoking truck carbon pollution
Funding

Main Sequence once again backs carbon management startup’s $2.5 million raise

- November 21, 2023 2 MIN READ

CSIRO VC fund Main Sequence Ventures has continued its support carbon accounting software startup Avarni, leading a $2.5 million raise. Supporting Main Sequence were Brisbane early-stage fund Sprint Ventures and Afterwork Ventures. It’s the climate tech SaaS platform’s third raise since it was founded in 2021 and its second in less than 12 months, although… Read more »