AI
AI/Machine Learning

Google and Microsoft are adding AI to their most popular apps, which is a big win for all of us – and especially cybercriminals

- March 22, 2023 4 MIN READ

Google and Microsoft are on a mission to remove the drudgery from computing, by bringing next-generation AI tools as add-ons to existing services. On March 16, Microsoft announced an AI-powered system called Copilot will soon be introduced to its 365 suite apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. The news came about two days… Read more »

Shadi Haddad
People

Till Payments founder Shadi Haddad steps down as CEO

- March 22, 2023 < 1 MIN READ

Till Payments founder Shadi Haddad has stepped down as CEO in the wake of the fintech a $70 million raise, announced a fortnight ago. The company has declined to comment on changes to its C-suite amid board changes, and job cuts, but Paul Kawtal, CEO of Sydney-based IT and telecommunications business Ethan Group, is reportedly… Read more »

NASA
Space

NASA is looking for Indigenous Australian students to be interns

- March 22, 2023 2 MIN READ

Indigenous Australian university STEM students have a chance to reach for the stars with a new internship program backed by the Australian Space Agency (ASA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The National Indigenous Space Academy (NISA) was announced during the Australian visit of NASA Administrator US Senator Bill Nelson this week. NISA… Read more »

Mark Calvetti
Business

Afterpay helped deliver a record year for mergers & acquisitions in Australia in 2022 – even as the number of deals fell to its lowest level in a decade

- March 21, 2023 2 MIN READ

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising interest rates dampened merger & acquisition (M&A) deals in the first half of 2022, but even as company valuations fall, the size of transactions is growing according to William Buck’s annual Dealmaking Insights Report 2023.   In 2022, the aggregate value of M&A deals in Australia increased 59% on 2021… Read more »

AROSE lunar rover
Funding

Australian lunar rover projects just scored $8 million in federal funding

- March 21, 2023 2 MIN READ

Two Australian space startups will receive $4 million grants each from the federal government as part of its Moon to Mars Trailblazer initiative to design semi-autonomous rovers to land on the Moon. Perth-based Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth (AROSE) consortium and the EPE and Lunar Outpost Oceania consortium will each receive $4 million towards… Read more »

Alex and Chris Naoumidis
Funding

Hypnotherapy medtech raises $17.8 million Series A

- March 21, 2023 2 MIN READ

A Melbourne medtech building hypnotherapy-based apps so people can self-manage a range of illnesses has raised a US$12 million (A$17.8m) in a Series A. The round for Mindset Health was led by King River Capital, supported by Andrew Forrest’s Tattarange VC health fund Tenmile, Perennial Partners, impact funds Giant Leap and Alberts, Yard Ventures, WordPress founder… Read more »

Pivot founders
Funding

Female-founded edtech startup Pivot banks $1.4 million to support student and teacher wellbeing

- March 20, 2023 2 MIN READ

Melbourne education tech startup Pivot has raised $1.4 million for its schools feedback platform to improve teaching.  The round was led by the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle and technology firm DiUS, with support from LaunchVic’s women-led investment program the Alice Anderson Fund. The funding will be used to re-platform the company’s survey-based technology and launch… Read more »

R&D, science, man looking in microscope
Funding

Medtech startups can score up to $5 million from a new incubator fund

- March 20, 2023 2 MIN READ

A new medical technology incubator program developed by the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) during the former Coalition government will offer up to $5 million in funding for early-stage medical research projects with commercial potential. The $50 million BioMedtech Incubator program is being backed by the MRFF and the Medical Research Commercialisation Initiative. Responsibility for… Read more »

Zitcha
People

Adtech platform Zitcha bolsters C-Suite with three key additions

- March 20, 2023 2 MIN READ

Australian advertising platform, Zitcha, announced several key additions to its C-Suite and strategic partnerships worldwide as part of an international expansion rolling out throughout 2023. The software platform lets retailers sell advertising space to suppliers to market directly to their customers.  It automates marketing purchases by retail brands on retailer channels such as email, apps,… Read more »

Kogan.com
ASX

Kogan.com, Dubber, Redbubble among 7 ASX companies dropped from the All Tech Index

- March 20, 2023 2 MIN READ

Online retailer Kogan.com, along with six other ASX-listed companies, have been dropped from the S&P/ASX All Technology Index, as part of a quarterly rebalancing of indices. The change takes effect from today, March 20. Alongside Kogan.com (ASX: KGN), Dubber (ASX: DUB), RedBubble (ASX: RBL), Temple and Webster Group (ASX: TPW), Cettire (ASX: CTT), Frontier Digital… Read more »

ChatGPT
AI/Machine Learning

Is GPT-4 a game-changer in the world of AI? Here’s what we know

- March 17, 2023 4 MIN READ

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) research company behind ChatGPT and the DALL-E 2 art generator, has unveiled the highly anticipated GPT-4 model. Excitingly, the company also made it immediately available to the public through a paid service. GPT-4 is a large language model (LLM), a neural network trained on massive amounts of data to understand… Read more »

National AI Centre. Stela Solar
AI/Machine Learning

A new analysis reveals business is clamouring for AI, but struggling to find the people to do it

- March 17, 2023 2 MIN READ

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone mainstream, but implementing it is still a major challenge according to a new report by the government-funded National AI Centre (NAIC). The report, Australia’s AI Ecosystem Momentum report, spoke to more than 200 business decision-makers and AI service providers about how they were using the technology to grow their revenues… Read more »