energy
Funding

CEFC pours $100 million more into Mike Cannon-Brookes-backed renewables finance firm Infradebt

- April 27, 2023 2 MIN READ

Federal government investment fund the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has doubled down on its funding for Infradebt, tipping an additional $100 million into the ACT-based renewables financing firm, taking its total backing to $150 million. Infradebt is a specialist infrastructure project finance fund manager/financier, providing capital for renewables and battery storage projects as well… Read more »

ASX

ASX-listed fintech IOUpay handed to administrators after its former CFO allegedly stole millions

- April 27, 2023 3 MIN READ

The board of ASX small cap IOUpay handed control to PricewaterhouseCoopers as voluntary administrators on Wednesday after a major fraud that siphoned off millions of dollars left the fintech unable to pay its bills. Shares in the Malaysia-focused fintech (ASX:IOU) have been suspended at $0.04 cents since the fraud was first uncovered in mid March.… Read more »

Me&u CEO Katrina Barry and founder Steven Premutico
Funding

Pub meal ordering platform Me&u raised $30 million 4 months ago – but didn’t mention it until now

- April 26, 2023 2 MIN READ

Mr Yum rival Me&u raised $30 million in a round led by Acorn Capital in December 2022 to give the 3.5-year-old startup enough runway for its push to be profitable next financial year. The raise was led by Acorn Capital, with the only acknowledgement of the investment appearing in the ASX-listed (ASX:ACQ) investment company’s December… Read more »

Melodie founder Evan Buist
Funding

Music licensing platform Melodie raises $1 million

- April 26, 2023 2 MIN READ

Music licensing platform Melodie has raised $1 million at a $15 million valuation, a more than four-fold increase on the $4m valuation when the software startup previously raised $600,000 in September 2021. The raise included follow-on investments from Code Barrel founder Nick Menere, and The Drop Festival co-owner Peter Strain.  The funds will be used… Read more »

Elon Musk
Social Media

I tweet dead people: Twitter’s new paid blue ticks given to deceased celebrities, including murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

- April 24, 2023 3 MIN READ

Last week, Elon Musk finally had his long-awaited Thanos moment for legacy verification in a rapid scheduled disassembly. It was a busy day for the boss of Twitter and SpaceX when it comes to valuable lessons from watching billions of dollars of hard work explode. But if we’re to believe Musk (this time) after the… Read more »

Dr Debbie Devis
Women in tech

Study finds that if you want more women in STEM, then workplace cultures need to change

- April 24, 2023 2 MIN READ

Entrenched and gendered attitudes in Australian workplaces are leading women women to abandon careers in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), as well as chasing away others from the options in the first place, according to a new report from the University of South Australia (UniSA). The South Australian Academy for Gender Equity in STEM… Read more »

Spam, mail
AI/Machine Learning

AI-generated spam is on its way to your inbox – and its secret weapon will be personalisation

- April 24, 2023 4 MIN READ

Each day, messages from Nigerian princes, peddlers of wonder drugs and promoters of can’t-miss investments choke email inboxes. Improvements to spam filters only seem to inspire new techniques to break through the protections. Now, the arms race between spam blockers and spam senders is about to escalate with the emergence of a new weapon: generative… Read more »

Dog, money, nurture
Funding

Techboard analysed the first quarter of 2023 VC funding and found more than $1 billion went into 111 deals

- April 21, 2023 3 MIN READ

Venture capital funding at the start of 2023 may not have been as bad as many thought according to new analysis from Perth-based investment data company Techboard. Releasing its March quarter Funded report this week, Techboard identified $1.01 billion in capital deployed across 111 deals. That figure is 50% higher than the $661 million across… Read more »