International payments platform Airwallex has been granted an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL), allowing it to offer its high interest deposit account to retail users. While the fintech unicorn already had an ASFL for the past eight years for its existing payments and foreign exchange business, the new one means it can offer its high-interest… Read more »
If the belief that having more women in venture capital will help address the chronic underfunding of female founders, then a new initiative backed by the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) will make the Sunshine State the room where it happens. Getting more women in Queensland’s VC industry is the aim of 77 Venture Fellows, which… Read more »
New Zealand building management proptech Tether has raised NZ$655,000 (A$592k) as it expands into the Australian market and Europe. The startup managed to avoid venture funding, securing backing from high net worth individuals on three continents as part of its global focus. In May 2023, Tether raised NZ$844,050 via crowdfunding platform Snowball Effect, taking the… Read more »
Three years ago amid the BNPL goldrush, fintech Limepay was hoping to list on the ASX. It wasn’t to be for the white label buy-now-pay-later platform, founded in 2016, which billed itself as Australia’s first enterprise payments fintech. But Limepay, which rebranded in 2022 as April Solutions, will become a listed company after being swallowed… Read more »
Shares in ASX-listed tech scaleup DroneShield have plunged for a second day in a row, falling another 20% to $1.61 by Wednesday lunchtime, following a 22% plummet on Tuesday amid a halt in trade. DroneShield (ASX: DRO) shares have been on tear over the last seven months, climbing from $0.31 cents in mid-December 2023, to… Read more »
Food waste recycling startup Goterra leads the pack in the Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards, selected as a finalist in three of the 15 categories in 2024. The winner of the 2023 Best Sustainability Startup award is a finalist in the Startup of the Year, Most Innovative Startup, and Best Startup Culture categories. Last… Read more »
Logistics veteran and former ShippIt head Dominic Culbert has joined Dyspach, in a major coup for the nascent freight industry startup. He joins Sydney-based Dyspach in the newly created role of Head of Growth Australia and New Zealand. Long-time school friends and serial entrepreneurs Pushpinder Bagga and Amit Kumar founded in September 2023. Bagga developed… Read more »
US private equity has swooped into Australia to back construction site safety platform HammerTech in a $105 million (US$70 m) raise. Californian investment firm Riverwood Capital has backed the Melbourne startup as it eyes off a larger slice of the US building market. HammerTech is a cloud-based performance and productivity platform for the building industry… Read more »
An agtech startup cofounded by the former boss of CSIRO’s Data61 has raised $5.3 million in a Seed round. The round was led by existing investor Salus Ventures, which has also backed local deep tech startups such as HEO, Advanced Navigation, and Q-Ctrl. Also chipping in for ExoFlare were Harris Farm’s David and Cathy Harris,… Read more »
The Australian Society for Medical Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ASME) is among seven organisations backed by LaunchVic as part of a $2.4 million program to create pre-accelerator programs to help aspiring founders understand startup life. ASME has partnered with MTPConnect to deliver the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program (AUSCEP) in Victoria. It offers clinicians the resources, mentorship… Read more »
Australia’s communications watchdog has imposed new rules on Telstra after the telecommunications giant was found to have leaked the details of more than 140,000 people who requested their phone numbers not be shared publicly. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said it had issued Telstra with “a remedial direction” following an investigation of the… Read more »
A Melbourne startup described as the Canva of 3D presentations has raised another $13 million as it becomes part of $6000 Apple headset. The state government’s $2 billion venture fund, Breakthrough Victoria, led the round for Jigspace, tipping in $4.4 million, joined by existing investors including Rampersand, Investible, Vulpes and angel investor Hugh Bickerstaff. The… Read more »
Photos of Australian children have been used without consent to train artificial intelligence (AI) models that generate images. A new report from the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch has found the personal information, including photos, of Australian children in a large data set called LAION-5B. This data set was created by accessing content from the… Read more »
Would-be startup founders seeking a helping hand to take their first steps to tackle important problems will have seven new ways to do it thanks to a series of pre-accelerator programs bankrolled in Victoria by LaunchVic. Seven new programs have received up to $400,000 as part of LaunchVic’s ‘Grants for Targeted Pre-accelerator’ program to offer… Read more »
The country’s largest e-waste processor, Sircel, has banked $5 million from impact investor Kilara Capital to tackle solar panel recycling amid national ambitions. The Sydney startup, founded in 2018, grew rapidly in May when it acquired venture-backed Victorian recycler Scipher Technologies, including its solar panel recycling plans, for $5 million, after it collapsed into administration… Read more »
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