The founders of Sequoia Capital-backed Sample have rebranded and changed the focus of the business, raising another $2.4 million Seed round from new investors in the process. As Sample, cofounded in 2021 by former Grab staffers Jascha Zittel and Elliott Gibb, the startup raised $920,000 in pre-Seed funding, led by Sequoia Capital India, in December… Read more »
End-of-life planning platform, Safewill, has raised $5.5 million in what the startup is calling a Series A for the second time in 19 month. The tech platform previously raised $3 million in a Series A in October 2021. The latest round was led by Carthona Capital, supported by existing backer Reinventure, plus Flying Fox Ventures.… Read more »
Turing Award winner and AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has resigned from his position with Google in order to speak more openly about the dangers of artificial intelligence, raising questions about whether tech giants have silenced the people most qualified to inform the public about the emerging technology’s effects. In 2012, Hinton and two of his students, Ilya Sutskever… Read more »
Electric delivery bike startup Zoomo has cut staffing for the second time in six months, making 27 roles redundant, just weeks after the collapse of major client Milkrun. “Zoomo has made the difficult decision to reduce its overall headcount by 8%. The restructure will accelerate our path to company-wide profitability in 2024,” a statement from… Read more »
Stakeholder engagement platform Fresh Equities has raised $4 million and is changing its name as it looks to improve public company communications with investors. The round was led by Sydney VC EVP. The business has also rebranded as InvestorHub as it looks to expand into international markets such as the UK, Singapore, Canada and the… Read more »
Throughout history, war has been irrevocably changed by the advent of new technologies. Historians of war have identified several technological revolutions. The first was the invention of gunpowder by people in ancient China. It gave us muskets, rifles, machine guns and, eventually, all manner of explosive ordnance. It’s uncontroversial to claim gunpowder completely transformed how… Read more »
The federal government has earmarked $3.4 billion over the next decade for an Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) to develop advanced military technologies. The proposal is part of the Defence Strategic Review released last week, which recommends spending $19 billion over the next four years amid more effective support for innovation, faster acquisition and better… Read more »
ASX-listed biotech Emyria(ASX: EMD), which is developing psychotherapy treatments using MDMA (aka ecstacy) and psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms), has raised $2.5 million in share placement backed by existing investor Andrew Forrest through the healthtech fund Tenmile, part of his private investment group, Tattarang. The $2.5 million placement was jointly led by Perth’s Sixty Two Capital… Read more »
Former NSW digital government minister Victor Dominello has a new job after leaving politics at the March state election, signing on as the director of the university-based UNSW-UTS Trustworthy Digital Society Hub. The announcement comes on the same day Jihad Dib, the new Labor minister in charge of digital government marked Privacy Week, announcing the… Read more »
Providoor, the restaurant meal delivery service born in response to the Covid lockdowns, has been fallen victim to their end, and was handed over to liquidators today. Melbourne chef and Providoor founder Shane Delia confirmed the demise of the business, effective immediately, after just three years, on Friday afternoon. “While today is a very sad… Read more »
On November 30 2022, OpenAI launched the AI chatbot ChatGTP, making the latest generation of AI technologies widely available. In the few months since then, we have seen Italy ban ChatGTP over privacy concerns, leading technology luminaries calling for a pause on AI systems development, and even prominent researchers saying we should be prepared to… Read more »
ASX-listed jobs marketplace Airtasker is the latest tech company to swing the scythe through its workforce, cutting 45 jobs – around 20% of its overall headcount – as part of a drive to become cashflow positive in the 2024 financial year. The redundancies are primarily in non-revenue generating functions the company (ASX: ART) said, releasing… Read more »
Concerns over mail order weight loss brands Juniper and Pilot by Australian doctors haven’t dampened investor appetite its parent telehealth company, Eucalyptus, which has raised $50 million on a $520 million valuation. The round was backed by several existing Eucalyptus investors, including Blackbird Ventures, the Woolworths VC fund W23, and US investor Mary Meeker’s BOND… Read more »
Cybersecurity accelerator CyRise, which has programs in Sydney and Melbourne, will close next month after five years. The program has backed 39 startups across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India and the US since it launched in 2017, with the backing of British IT services and consulting firm NTT and Deakin University. The program pioneered support… Read more »
The lack of skilled cyber security talent is a bigger challenge for companies in Australia than overseas, according to new research that also found high stress levels and inadequate supporting technologies are causing many workers to bolt after a data breach. Fully 45% of the Australian CISOs surveyed for Trellix’s newly released global study, The… Read more »
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