Needle-free vaccination delivery scaleup Vaxxas has raised $49.2 million in a Series D, but cut 10% of its workforce, including a clear out of its executives. The University of Queensland spin out has moved founding CEO David Hoey, who’s been on leave for the past three months, into a strategic adviser role after 13 years… Read more »
Cyber-intelligence startup Apate.ai, a countermeasure to Australia’s $2 billion scam industry, has raised $2.5 million in Seed funding. The round was led by OIF Ventures with participation from Investible. The funds are for product development and international expansion, including hiring engineering and go-to-market teams, as well as expanding its partnerships with financial institutions, telcos, and governments… Read more »
A pioneering collaboration between two medical startups tackling respiratory diseases with artificial intelligences has scored $3 million in federal government funding from Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) program. Diag-Nose.io and Human Health are working on RhinoMAP – an AI-enabled platform they hope will transform how respiratory diseases such as asthma, sinusitis, and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary… Read more »
ASX-listed online retailer Kogan.com is back in the red following its write-down of New Zealand acquisition Mighty Ape. Shares in Kogan.com (ASX: KGN) were placed in a trading halt briefly on Monday morning ahead of the results release and news of board changes. The $46.3 million on-cash impairment to goodwill from its $122m Mighty Ape… Read more »
Cross-border payments fintech Send Payments, has raised $5 million as cofounder Paul Billing steps down as CEO. Existing backers Regal Funds Management and Kelly+Partners Investment Office once again invested with iPartners joining the cap table. The new funding is for continued development of the platform and its ability to turn cross-border payments into new revenue streams… Read more »
So your boss wants you in the office more? If this makes you anxious, you’re not alone. Return-to-work tensions aren’t simply resistance to change. They reflect deeper questions about how different people work best and what modern organisations actually need to succeed. After COVID, return-to-office rates stabilised by around June 2023, without much movement since.… Read more »
Queensland biotech Lucia Bio has topped up its Seed round with an additional $2 million to take the total raised to $3m. The startup, launched last year, is a joint venture between UK commercialisation firm Molecule to Medicine (MTM) and investor UniQuest’s QEDDI (Queensland Emory Drug Discovery Initiative) team at the University of Queensland (UQ).… Read more »
An ecommerce fulfilment business has raised $38 million as it hopes to take on Amazon with same-day delivery for retailers. The raise for Skutopia led by Pemba Capital, with support from MA Financial and Blackpeak Growth Partners, and also includes debt. Skutopia began life in 2018 as Sydney-based Workit Spaces – a coworking hub for… Read more »
Nicole Gibson is a remarkable founder who thinks deeply about what it means to be human in the world of tech. The CEO of inTruth Technologies, the world’s first emotion bio-tech, is a very special guest on Startup 360 this week, sharing her journey from teenage student struggling with serious health issues and the profound… Read more »
Aether, a Kiwi AI startup turning marketing presentations into a live documents, has raised NZ$3.8 million (A$3.4m) in Seed funding. The AI-powered SaaS platform, cofounded by former TikTok NZ country manager Carsten Grueber, has emerged from stealth mode with backing from Icehouse Ventures, and support from Brand Fund 2. The startup has emerged out of New+Improved,… Read more »
Unicorn Day, the annual AWS-led gathering of founders, investors and startup operators, took over Sydney recently – and the message was loud and clear: Australia might be a small market, but our startups are playing on a global stage. From an impressive lineup of speakers spanning AWS heavyweights to big-name customers and VCs, here are… Read more »
DAVOS, Switzerland — A coalition of tech executives, venture capitalists, and innovation self‑describers warned this week that unless governments immediately provide free electricity to the artificial intelligence sector, civilisation’s fragile future could collapse into what one investor called “a really compromised vibe.” “Making AI innovators pay for electricity is legacy thinking,” declared OpenAI CEO Sam… Read more »
Fun fact: A Xero user on ASX-listed accountancy platform’s 2nd top tier of $100 a month would need to subscribe for nearly 21,000 years to cover the cost of CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy’s annual pay packet. Luckily, Xero (ASX:XRO) has more than one customer. As the company’s remuneration committee chair, Susan Peterson, outlined at the… Read more »
Australia is at a critical juncture. The global transition to a net-zero economy is no longer speculative, it’s underway and accelerating. The nation has everything it needs to lead: world-class research, abundant natural resources, and strong research institutions, but Charlotte Connell, head of impact at Greenhouse, said the issue is how funding is being deployed… Read more »
The NSW government has overhauled its MVP Ventures Program, introducing a competitive selection process. It is also launching a targeted funding stream for underrepresented founders, including women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses, and regional entrepreneurs. The update follows weeks of uncertainty around the 2025–26 grant round, which was originally scheduled to open on July 1.… Read more »
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