Kara Tech cofounder Arash Tayebi
Funding

Red Cross impact investor Humanitech Lab backs Kara Technologies and AirSeed with $500,000 grants

- October 30, 2023 2 MIN READ

Australian Red Cross innovation program Humanitech Lab has invested in two startups, Kara Technologies and AirSeed Technologies, with both receiving a $500,000 grant to take their ideas to the next level. Humanitech Lab is a mentoring and investment program harnessing technological innovation to meet critical humanitarian and social issues. It’s backed by the Telstra Foundation.… Read more »

AQC cofounders Tom Stace and Arkady Federov
Quantum Computing

Uniseed backs Queensland’s first quantum hardware startup with $3 million round

- October 30, 2023 2 MIN READ

  Two University of Queensland professors have launched a quantum hardware startup with $3 million from Australia’s oldest VC fund, Uniseed. Analog Quantum Circuits (AQC) is the brainchild Professor Tom Stace and Associate Professor Arkady Federov following a decade of research. The startup plans to design and fabricate advanced superconducting devices for quantum computing. It’s the first… Read more »

cyber hacking
Cyber security

The data breach at DNA biotech 23andMe reveal the risks of interconnected data

- October 30, 2023 3 MIN READ

On Oct. 6, news broke that 23andMe, the genomics company that collects genetic material from thousands of people for ancestry and genetic predisposition tests, had a massive data breach. But as it turns out, the company’s servers were not hacked. Rather, hackers targeted hundreds of individual user accounts — allegedly those that had repeated passwords.… Read more »

Uber, crash
Business

Uber cops $412,500 fine for 2 million spam emails

- October 26, 2023 2 MIN READ

Uber Australia has been fined $412,500 by regulator the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) after the rideshare and food delivery company sent more than 2 million emails in breach of Australian spam laws. An ACMA ivestigation concluded that Uber sent marketing emails to customers without an unsubscribe option, and on top of that, more… Read more »

Heidi Health
Funding

Medtech Heidi Health raises $10 million Series A

- October 26, 2023 2 MIN READ

GP-focused administration medtech Heidi Health has raised $10 million in a Series A. The round was once again led by Blackbird Ventures, with support from Hostplus, Hesta, Wormhole Capital, Archangel Ventures, Possible Ventures and Saniel Ventures. Heidi (rebranded from Oscar) previously raised $5 million in a Seed round led by Blackbird. The software platform enlists… Read more »

Dr Memoona Anwar
Women in tech

From Pakistan to the US Patent Office: How former Data Zoo intern Dr Memoona Anwar led the way on diversity in innovation 

- October 25, 2023 3 MIN READ

When she was growing up in rural Pakistan, Dr Memoona Anwar’s father had to fight for his daughter’s right to have an excellent education.    Today, Anwar is a PhD qualified expert in digital identity and a named co-innovator on a US patent awarded in September to Data Zoo, where she is Chief Compliance & Innovation… Read more »

Kristina Karlsson
Events

kikki.K founder Kristina Karlsson is headlining Mums & Co’s Be MPowered conference, talking about rebuilding after failure

- October 25, 2023 2 MIN READ

Four years ago, Kristina Karlsson was a high-flying entrepreneur, thanks to the success of her global stationery brand kikki.K. But then a confederacy of calamities arrived and in 2020, the dream she’d built into a multi-million-dollar brand used by more than 20 million people, was over after 20 years. “Unfortunately, over COVID, I lost kikki.K in… Read more »

Australian PM Anthony Albanese and Microsoft President Brad Smith in Washington DC.
Global tech

Microsoft pours $5 billion into Australia for TAFE skills training, AI, cloud centres and cybersecurity

- October 24, 2023 2 MIN READ

Microsoft is looking to sure up its position in its battle against AWS, partnering with the Australian government to improve cybersecurity as part of $5 billion spend over the next two years on cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The capital expenditure was announced by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Australian Embassy in… Read more »

Factory.app cofounders Paul and Michael Lutkajtis
Funding

Investible backs manufacturing software startup Factory.app’s $1 million Seed round

- October 23, 2023 2 MIN READ

Manufacturing process management platform Factory.app has raised $1.05 million in a Seed round led by early-stage VC Investible. The two-year-old Sydney software startup was also backed by TechnologyOne founder Adrian DiMarco, 1in100 Ventures, Beachhead Venture Capital, and Hugo-Hamman Investments. Serial entrepreneur Richard Hugo-Hamman, CEO of the legaltech firm The LEAP Group, along with HotelsCombined cofounder… Read more »

Venture Capital

Brisbane SaaS investor VentureOn Partners moves into proptech, acquiring Story Bridge Ventures

- October 23, 2023 2 MIN READ

Queensland software-as-a-service (SaaS) investor VentureOn Partners has acquired fellow Brisbane VC Story Bridge Ventures as it looks to move into the proptech (property technology) and contech (construction technology) spaces. VentureOn, cofounded in 2023 by four SaaS founders and operators, specialises in software companies, offering working capital and operational experience from a team of software tech… Read more »

Mercu cofounders Elliott Gibb and Jascha Zittel
Venture Capital

Asian VC Sequoia India selects two Australian startups for its accelerator after rebrand and split from US

- October 23, 2023 2 MIN READ

AI-based workforce automation startup Relevance AI, and employee engagement platform Mercu are the Australian companies selected for Surge, the accelerator program run by the now rebranded Sequoia India. The Surge cohort of 13 includes seven startups from India, four from Southeast Asia, and the two Australians, chosen from around 4,800 applications for the 16-week program,… Read more »