After a year in power, NSW Premier Chris Minns has decided to put Investment NSW under his watch, along with the Office of the Chief Scientist, amid a restructure of the NSW Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade (DEIT) that will see its demise. The state government announced the shakeup on Friday afternoon, claiming that… Read more »
Startup founder, government tech advisor and Spark Festival director Maria MacNamara will be the next CEO of the Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA). Sydney-based MacNamara will step into the role on April 22 having recently completed a term as the Director of Government Affairs and Innovation Strategy at global ICT infrastructure company Kyndryl. She was… Read more »
New Zealand lawtech startup VXT has raised NZ$1.8 million (A$1.65 million) in a pre-Series A. The round was led by existing investor GD1 with follow on-investments from Startmate and Phase One too as well as Silicon Valley entrepreneur and former Lattice boss J Zac Stein joining the cap table. VXT has developed an AI-powered communications… Read more »
Ahead of Startmate Demo Day on May 2 in Sydney at Blackbird’s Sunrise, Startup Daily is profiling the 10 startups involved. We kick off with NOA The Brand. NOA The Brand is on a mission to untether humanity from the world of cords, and their breakthrough tech could change the way we power just about everything. … Read more »
Startups in Western Australia looking to address biodiversity and the environment will get a helping hand thanks to a $7.2 million grant from the state government. The global tech investor and accelerator Founders Factory is setting up shop in Perth, as its first Australian base, with the funding. The WA government’s investment of $2.4 million… Read more »
StartSomeGood, the pioneering platform helping social entrepreneurs succeed, has been acquired by social innovation business General Good, founded by media entrepreneur Piers Grove. StartSomeGood CEO and cofounder Tom Dawkins said the strategic move will continue the commitment he started 13 years ago to building a social entrepreneurship movement, partnering with circular economy accelerator Boomerang Labs under… Read more »
The text-to-image generator developed by Sydney startup Leonardo Ai has been used to create deepfake porn of celebrities. Journalist Emanuel Maiberg at US tech news website 404 Media reported that they had used prompt suggestions for Leonardo found on Reddit “and was able to produce nonconsensual sexual images of celebrities instantly”. He found a Telegram community… Read more »
The board of ASX-listed Dubber has fired cofounder Steve McGovern as CEO over $26.6 million in missing company funds. In a statement to the ASX late on Tuesday night, the company said they terminated McGovern’s employment yesterday after investigations over the last five weeks into the missing cash alleged that “McGovern and the trustee were… Read more »
Ola, the Indian rideshare company that rocked up in Australia in 2018 is reportedly leaving town at the end of the week News Corp titles and Sky News are reporting that customers were sent emails today saying the company will cease local operations at the end of the week. But Startup Daily, a former frequent… Read more »
Sydney startup Forage, which helps students move from study to the workforce with virtual job simulations, is being acquired by US education firm EAB. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Forage was founded in 2017 by Pasha Rayan and Tom Brunskill as InsideSherpa. They set out to help students from less advantaged backgrounds a… Read more »
Australian supermarket giant Woolworths has teamed up with four international retailers to create a global venture capital looking to back startups in the shopping space. Joining Woolies in W23 Global are Dutch-Belgian multinational Ahold Delhaize, which runs 16 brands in nine countries, the UK’s Tesco, Canada’s Empire Co. (best known for Sobeys, Foodland & Safeway)… Read more »
Three-year-old insurtech startup Honey Insurance has raised $108 million in a Series A that’s lured in US investors Founded by entrepreneur Richard Joffe, cofounder of US-based Park Assist and Stella.ai, Honey launched in 2021. It raised a record $15.5 million in a Seed round led by underwriting partner RACQ and other institutional investors, including AGL,… Read more »
There are a lot of people who this week are talking to their accountant about capital gains tax for the very first time. Canva confirmed on Friday that US$1.6 billion (A$2.43bn) worth of shares in the design software platform had changed hands in a secondary market sale, at a valuation of US$26 billion. The total… Read more »
Lab-grown animal proteins startup Vow Foods will serve its cell-based meat in a restaurant in Singapore next week. Its first product is a parfait (a buttery, silken pate made from livers), using cultivated Japanese quail cells, served as part of a A$290 dinner at Mori restaurant at the Mandala Club over the next fortnight. The… Read more »
Accounting tricks are helping Big Tech firms avoid paying tax on up to 96.6% of their Australian income, according to a new analysis of Australian Taxation Office (ATO) figures that showed Apple was the worst offender when it came to corporate tax minimisation. The tech giant took $9.3 billion from Australian customers during the 2021-22… Read more »
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