Fintechs often complain quietly, lest they cop blowback, than one of the things that’s slowing the roll out of the Consumer Data Right (CDR), aka Open Banking, is that the major banks are dragging their feet. Well, the competition watchdog thinks so too, and National Australia Bank (NAB) has copped $751,200 in penalties after the… Read more »
Deep tech evangelist Sally-Ann Williams is wrapping up her leadership of Cicada Innovations after six years. Williams, previously head of R&D at Google Australia, signed on in mid 2019, and has transformed the veteran Sydney incubator, steering it deftly through the pandemic and expanding operations to Western Sydney and Melbourne. “This has been one of… Read more »
The grand New York experiment for New Zealand rental accomodation startup Kiki is over, with cofounder Toby Thomas-Smith announcing he’ll end his Big Apple ambitions for a second time. “The beginning of Kiki’s intense fire in NYC,” as he described it 13 months ago, is being snuffed out by regulation, he says, announcing the decision… Read more »
Sydney startup Vow will finally get to serve its cultured quail meat products in Australia following approval from regulatory authorities that it’s safe to eat. The food safety authority, FSANZ, spent two years picking at Forged, Vow’s cell-based meat created from Japanese quail, including a second round of public consultation late last year. Meanwhile, the… Read more »
VCs might be used to cold calls from startups seeking cash, but as takeover offers go, the WhatsApp MagicBrief cofounder George Howes received from Canva’s billionaire cofounder Cliff Obrecht was unexpected. Howes was at Sydney airport last month ready to move to the UK and launch his advertising tech platform there when the request to meet… Read more »
Graphic design software giant Canva says it faced “internal concerns” after deciding applicants for many software development roles must use AI-assisted coding tools during technical interviews as part of the company’s recruitment process. The change was publicly announced on Wednesday by the Australian firm’s head of platforms, Simon Newton, in a blog post titled, “Yes,… Read more »
A US startup used extensively by Australian authorities to detect bushfires has raised a US$44 million (A$68m) Series B. The round for Pano AI included an undisclosed level of secondary share sales, with the surveillance platform claiming to have raised A$138m (US$89m) in its five-year-old lifetime. New investor Giant Ventures led the raise, supported by… Read more »
Jensen Huang believes questions of whether artificial intelligence could destroy humanity are fear-mongering – and get in the way of progress. The founder of Nvidia, which makes the computer chips enabling AI such as ChatGPT, he was rankled when a journalist wondered if he is “an AI Robert Oppenheimer”. He’s not building bombs, he responded.… Read more »
A new venture capital fund with heavy-hitting corporate partners and focused on backing climate tech startups at Series A has secured $50 million in commitments to reach its first close. Climate Tech Partners (CTP), founded in 2023 by Patrick Sieb and Tom Kline (who established Investible’s climate tech fund), more than doubled its size thanks… Read more »
Serial cybersecurity entrepreneur Michael Watts is back with new startup, kicking off a proactive cloud security platform, Circumvent, with US$6 million (A$9.2m) Seed round from Paladin Capital Group. Watts was previously founder and CEO of Cloud Conformity, which Paladin backed in 2018 with a US$3.1 million Series A. The following year the startup was acquired… Read more »
Amazon Web Services (AWS) says it will invest A$20 billion to expand data centre infrastructure in Australia over the next five years. Prime minister Anthony Albanese, on his way to the G7 Summit in Canada, met with AWS CEO Matt Garman in Seattle over the weekend for the announcement. The infrastructure rollout by 2029 will… Read more »
Every business leader talks about values. But living them – truly embedding them into daily decisions, behaviours, and culture – is rare. At Employment Hero, we don’t just talk about values – we operationalise them. That’s what The EH Way is all about: a living framework to keep us mission-aligned, fast-moving, and true to our… Read more »
Climate, health and people-related startups are getting an increasing slice of early-stage Australian investment according to new analysis of where venture capital is being deployed. The report, Impact Startups Benchmark Report 2025. draws on data from Melbourne impact investor Giant Leap, and more than 2,800 startup deals over the past three years. While total startup… Read more »
StrongRoom AI will live on under new management with Queensland pharmacy entrepreneur Joe Zhou acquiring the Melbourne healthtech startup from the administrators in a deal finalised late on Thursday. The sale follows a last minute battle for control of the business last week when an early investor, InterValley, and one of the company’s cofounders, make… Read more »
ETF – exchange traded funds – have become a popular investment since OG fintech entrepreneur Graham Tuckwell pioneered the sector in Australia more than 20 years ago. The local market grew by more than 30% last year to around $250 billion, but a decade has passed since a new player appeared on the seen bearing… Read more »
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