AI/Machine Learning

The fresh chatbot people: Woolies is seasoning your grocery buy with AI, but do shoppers want it?

- January 16, 2026 4 MIN READ

Woolworths has announced a partnership with Google to incorporate agentic artificial intelligence into its “Olive” chatbot, starting in Australia later this year. Until now, Olive has largely answered questions, resolved problems and directed shoppers to information. Soon, Olive will be able to do more: planning meals, interpreting handwritten recipes, applying loyalty discounts and placing suggested… Read more »

Events

Curtains for SXSW Sydney: Organisers pull 2026 event

- January 14, 2026 2 MIN READ

SXSW Sydney will not return in 2026, bringing an end to the Australian edition of the global South by Southwest festival after a three-year run. In a statement released on Wednesday, organisers said the decision reflected a “changing global environment” impacting major events and cultural programs worldwide. SXSW Sydney said it worked closely with the… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

The coolest new tech unveiled at CES 2026

- January 14, 2026 5 MIN READ

From smart Lego bricks to robots big and small. Annual technology showcase CES (formerly Consumer Electronics Show) returned to Las Vegas this week, highlighting some of the most interesting new consumer products coming in 2026, and beyond. While the event showed yet again that generative AI continues to be integrated into everything from fridges to… Read more »

Sendle Satchels
Business

Sendle is dead, killed by a US merger partner who misled the Aussie startup’s key investor, Federation

- January 13, 2026 3 MIN READ

Long-term Sendle investor Federation Asset Management has confirmed that one of the two US partners in last August’s 3-way merger into Fast Group failed to disclose its true financial position at the time, leading to the sudden demise of the Australian scaleup and its parent company. Sendle announced suddenly over the weekend that it was… Read more »

Jarron Aizen
Funding

Gym software platform Hapana lifts $7.25 million

- January 13, 2026 2 MIN READ

A software platform used by gyms and fitness studios globally to manage memberships has raised $7.25 million. The round for Hapana, founded in 2014, was led by veteran Sydney asset manager Microequities, with follow-on investment from OIF Ventures. OIF backed 2024’s $17 million raise alongside ASX-listed Bailador Technologies. Bailador (ASX: BTI) told shareholders in its investor update… Read more »

Catalan tower
Funding

The quiet unravelling of Australia’s startup culture: when a nation loses sight of the rewards from risk

- January 13, 2026 8 MIN READ

When the Victorian government announced plans to disband LaunchVic, and distribute some of its roles to other agencies, like Breakthrough Victoria, there’s a temptation to treat it as an administrative change: a reshuffle of functions, a rebadging of programs, a matter for insiders. That temptation is comforting – and profoundly wrong. I don’t want to… Read more »

Funding

Deceased estate digitisation startup banks $12.5 million in first raise

- January 12, 2026 < 1 MIN READ

A startup addressing the challenges of deceased estate management, cofounded by childhood friends, has banked $12.5 million in its first raise. Backing estateXchange are Macquarie Capital, OIF Ventures, and billionaire Paul Little’s family office, with busines execs Carol Schwartz and Pier 12 Capital chair Christine Christian, also on board as angel investors. The online platform digitises… Read more »

Business

Sendle suddenly shutters deliveries amid financial concerns after merger investor freezes funding

- January 12, 2026 3 MIN READ

Alternative parcel delivery scaleup Sendle has halted operations just five months after it merged with two US delivery firms amid claims of financial irregularities. In a terse statement from the firm’s PR agency, the company said “Sendle has informed its customers that it is no longer taking any future bookings. We are not able to provide… Read more »

Grok, AI
AI/Machine Learning

eSafety takes on Elon Musk again over Grok’s AI child porn on X

- January 12, 2026 2 MIN READ

Australia’s eSafety commission has issued a please explain to Elon Musk’s social media site,  X, and his generative AI chatbot Grok following complaints about it making sexual images of women and children. The federal government body said there had been a small number of complaints about Grok being used to generate sexualised or exploitative imagery.… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

AI is a ‘word calculator’ – but not in the sense you might think

- January 12, 2026 3 MIN READ

Attempts at communicating what generative artificial intelligence (AI) is and what it does have produced a range of metaphors and analogies. From a “black box” to “autocomplete on steroids”, a “parrot”, and even a pair of “sneakers”, the goal is to make the understanding of a complex piece of technology accessible by grounding it in… Read more »

Business

5 scaleups from around the world are in the running to win a $1 million HQ in Queensland’s Moreton Bay

- January 12, 2026 2 MIN READ

Scaleup tech companies from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and USA have been selected as finalists in a competition run by Moreton Bay council, north of Brisbane, for the $1 million “Ultimate HQ”.  The competition, a collaboration between City of Moreton Bay and the University of the Sunshine Coast, aims to embed a high-potential scaleup business… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

3 ways to make power-hungry data centres more efficient

- January 9, 2026 3 MIN READ

The Australian Energy Market Operator estimates data centres will consume 6% of Australia’s grid-supplied electricity by 2030. To put that in context, that’s more than the current share of Australia’s healthcare and social assistance industry. This reflects the rapid growth of Australia’s data centre industry – the backbone of artificial intelligence (AI). This growth is,… Read more »

Cyber security

How a Brit landed an Australian innovation visa after hacking the government’s foreign affairs website

- January 9, 2026 3 MIN READ

A British cybersecurity expert has landed a coveted tech visa for exceptional talent after he hacked an Australian government department and exposed a “critical vulnerability”. Jacob Riggs, a British national with more than a decade of experience in the cyber sector, was granted an 858 National Innovation visa in December, less than a year after… Read more »

Ben Thompson
ASX

Employment Hero and key investor Seek end legal hostilities

- January 8, 2026 3 MIN READ

The bitter legal battle by HR platform Employment Hero against investor Seek has ended with the combatants releasing a terse mutual announcement today to kiss and make up and discontiue proceedings. The stoush began last July after Seek announced it would terminate aceess to its API (application program interface) to post jobs on the Employment… Read more »