DoorDash delivery
Global tech

SLAPDASH: Food delivery giant DoorDash served up $2m fine for more than 1 million spam messages

- August 16, 2023 2 MIN READ

Food delivery platform DoorDash has copped a $2,011,320 penalty from the communications regulator for sending more than one million texts and emails in breach of Australian spam rules. The NSYE-listed tech company, which launched aggressively in Australian in 2019 amid complaints from restaurateurs that they’d been signed up to the platform without their permission and… Read more »

evokeAG Future Young Leaders
Ag tech

AgriFutures is looking to back the next generation of foodtech industry leaders

- August 14, 2023 2 MIN READ

Agriculture technology accelerator and investor AgriFutures is looking for five emerging leaders as part of a program to showcase the next generation of agrifood startup founders. Applications opened last week for the evokeAG. Future Young Leaders Program and close on September 4. The program, now in its fourth year, offers five emerging leaders the opportunity to… Read more »

Monash Prof Ann Nicholson, ASA Head Enrico Palermo, NISA boss Prof Chris Lawrence, US Consul General Kathleen Lively and the NISA students
People

To Dark Emu & beyond: 5 Indigenous uni students land NASA internships

- August 14, 2023 2 MIN READ

Five Indigenous Australian university students will head to the United States next week for internships with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The students are part of the inaugural cohort of Monash University’s National Indigenous Space Academy (NISA), selected from universities across Australia and supported by the Australian Space Agency. The students will be partnered with a… Read more »

Cassava Bags
Accelerator

Health insurer Bupa is on the hunt for ‘eco-disruptive’ startups to back

- August 11, 2023 2 MIN READ

Startups from Australian or New Zealand could score up to $48,000 (£25,000) from health insurer Bupa as part of its 2023 eco-Disruptive program.  The program connects selected startups with the Bupa team, supported by £25,000 in initial funding to develop their solutions to the biggest challenges threatening our planet. The global competition goes on to offer… Read more »

Canva cofounders Cliff Obrecht, Melanie Perkins and Cameron Adams. Photo: supplied
Business

EXIT, STAGE BRIGHT: Blackbird offloads $150 million slice of its Canva stake at $39 billion valuation

- August 10, 2023 3 MIN READ

VC firm Blackbird Ventures has cracked open some of its golden eggs, offloading a small slice of its stake in design platform Canva at a US$25.5 billion (A$38.8bn) valuation in a secondary market sale to US investors. The deal with New York’s Coatue Management and San Francisco’s ICONIQ Capital is another step down the path… Read more »

Daniel-Petre StartGiving
People

AirTree founding partner Daniel Petre appointed to the $15bn National Reconstruction Fund board

- August 10, 2023 2 MIN READ

The Albanese government has appointed venture capitalist and philanthropist Airtree cofounder Daniel Petre to the board of its $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to be chaired by climate investor Martijn Wilder, founder and CEO of Pollination. The eight-member board for the government’s signature investment project also includes Invest Victoria chair Ahmed Fahour, MD of Latitude… Read more »

Maid eavesdropping on telephone call
AI/Machine Learning

AI is now being used by cybercriminals to listen to your typing for passwords

- August 10, 2023 3 MIN READ

Be careful who you type your passwords in front of: cyber criminals can figure out which keys you’re pressing simply by getting a carefully trained AI model to listen to you type – and the technique even works over phone calls and Zoom sessions. Documented in a newly published paper, the acoustic side channel attack (ASCA) involves recording… Read more »

POSConnex CEO Shanti Kumar Photo: snapix
Funding

Alex Waislitz’s Thorney Investment Group leads $11 million raise for ecommerce site

- August 10, 2023 2 MIN READ

Collingwood supporter and investor Alex Waislitz has led an $11 million raise via his Thorney Investment Group into an ecommerce startup that’s pivoted from being a surfboard rental business to underpinning retailers such as Patagonia. Five-year-old Awayco is a unified ecommerce solution that includes retail Point of Sale (POS), rental and appointments for retailers to… Read more »

LifeBid founder Brett Wright
Funding

Insurtech startup LifeBid launches crowdfunding campaign with co-investor Stride Equity after raising $700,000

- August 9, 2023 2 MIN READ

Insurtech startup LifeBid has launched a crowdfunding (CSF) campaign with venture-backed platform Stride Equity, having already raised $700,000 in a strategic co-investment from industry partners and the Stride  Group.  LifeBid is the first startup Stride Equity has backed with investment since its launch earlier this year and is the first CSF campaign on the platform.… Read more »