Accelerator

Touchable VR, better sexual health, ADHD focus, leaky pipes & startup hiring: Startmate reveals the clever 13 in its latest cohort

- August 18, 2025 8 MIN READ

The Winter ’25 cohort is full of founders chasing the edge of what’s possible and dragging the future closer. A future where period poverty is a thing of the past. Where anyone can service a machine like an expert. Where AI doesn’t just answer questions, but books your Uber, edits your work and fills a… Read more »

Politics

Australia expected to abandon dedicated AI laws

- August 18, 2025 3 MIN READ

The Australian government is reportedly moving to dump plans for dedicated artificial intelligence legislation such as an AI Act, with the minister for innovation saying lawmakers are carefully creating “an Australian approach” for regulation of the technology. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s caucus has reportedly become split on the issue, and tensions have grown since the… Read more »

Business

Accenture set to acquire sovereign cybersecurity scaleup CyberCX is $1 billion deal

- August 18, 2025 2 MIN READ

Melbourne scaleup CyberCX is potentially a unicorn following plans by professional services giant Accenture to acquire the six-year-old cybersecurity platform in a $1 billion-plus deal. CyberCX was founded in 2019 by former Optus Business boss John Paitaridis and Alastair MacGibbon, the former Australian government cyber security tsar. It was created from the merger of a dozen smaller… Read more »

Business

NSYE-listed telehealth multinational acquires LaunchVic and Startmate-backed Telecare

- August 15, 2025 2 MIN READ

New York online health multinational Teladoc Health (NYSE: TDOC) has acquired Victorian healthtech startup Telecare, in the first exit for LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund. The deal closed last Friday, August 8, with the terms undisclosed, but Teladoc Health said it’s expected to be immaterial to its 2025 financial results. Telecare developed Australia’s leading virtual care… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

Flamin’ galahs! AI’s NFI puts the WTF in racist Australian images

- August 15, 2025 4 MIN READ

Big tech company hype sells generative artificial intelligence (AI) as intelligent, creative, desirable, inevitable, and about to radically reshape the future in many ways. Published by Oxford University Press, our new research on how generative AI depicts Australian themes directly challenges this perception. We found when generative AIs produce images of Australia and Australians, these… Read more »

Business

It’s your last chance to have your say in the 2025 Startup Muster survey

- August 15, 2025 < 1 MIN READ

Responses to the annual census of Australia’s startup ecoystem, Startup Muster close this Monday August 18. Survey founder Murray Hurps, that for the first time they have survey coordinators on the ground in every Australian state and territory to ensure the feedback is truly representative of what’s happening across the nation. “Startup Muster has been on… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

Is OpenAI’s GPT-5 a sign that the push to AGI is already starting to flatline?

- August 14, 2025 4 MIN READ

OpenAI claims that its new flagship model, GPT-5, marks “a significant step along the path to AGI” – that is, the artificial general intelligence that AI bosses and self-proclaimed experts often claim is around the corner. According to OpenAI’s own definition, AGI would be “a highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

Tech Council boss Scott Farquhar says it’s cool to lift Atlassian’s IP without paying for it if we all get better software

- August 13, 2025 3 MIN READ

Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar said he wouldn’t mind if others took the $60 billion tech company’s intellectual property without paying for it if it leads to better software. The Tech Council of Australia chair, who stepped down as Atlassian co-CEO last year, but remains on the board, has been advocating for changes to Australian copyright… Read more »