The final cohort of startups with the potential to be worth $1 billion has been chosen by LaunchVic for its 30X30 mentoring program. 30X30 is a leadership program helps develop and mentor scaleup founders and their executive teams to build their companies – and hopefully reach unicorn status: a $1 billion valuation by 2030. The… Read more »
The Queensland government’s support for women in startups has continued with two grant programs under the $8 million Backing Female Founders initiative currently accepting new applications. The Accelerating Female Founders Program provides grants worth between $50,000 and $200,000 for business support initiatives, such as mentoring and advocacy support and customised business development activities, for female-led… Read more »
Finder’s crypto product, Earn, complied with the financial law, the Federal Court has found, dismissing legal action launched by the corporate regular against the fintech. It was a comprehensive win against the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for Finder, with Justice Brigitte Markovic also awarding costs against the regulator. ASIC sued Finder Wallet for… Read more »
A New Zealand lake will be home to the world’s first electric hydrofoiling ferry, used to transport workers to a hydro power station. The Swedish-made Candela P-12 electric hydrofoil ferry will offer daily transport for workers at Manapōuri Power Station, Aotearoa’s largest hydro plant, on World Heritage-listed Lake Manapōuri, voted the country’s most beautiful lake. The… Read more »
The Victorian government’s startup arm, LaunchVic, has a new bucket of grants of up to $300,000 for specialised angel networks to invest in pre-seed and seed rounds in the state. LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick said the new grant round would work to inject more capital into the market when early-stage funding in Victoria remained… Read more »
Hostplus says Employment Hero CEO Ben Thompson wants them to “pay to play” to promote the super fund on the employee platform, but they’ve turned it down because it’s “undisclosed advertising”. In a statement to Startup Daily in the wake of Thompson publishing the letter from Hostplus to fellow investor, VC fund Airtree, which called… Read more »
There’s a cage fight-like quality to Employment Hero cofounder and CEO Ben Thompson’s campaign against one of his investors, Hostplus, but it appears the $100 billion industry super fund is not enjoying the show. In fact, in Hostplus’ view, Thompson is lowering the tone of Australian corporate life and unless he brings back a bit… Read more »
Kogan.com chief financial officer and chief operating officer David Shafer has sold two million shares in the online retailer he cofounded with Ruslan Kogan. Shafer sold at $8 a share on March 7, worth $16 million, taking his stake through Shafer Corporation to below the 5% threshold of being a substantial shareholder in the ASX-listed company.… Read more »
Melbourne startup Bae Juice has raised $1 million for its ‘hangover prevention’ drink as it looks to expand in the US. The round was backed by Perth gaming billionaire Laurence Escalante via his family fund, Lance East Office, with existing investor Honan Capital also chipping in. Escalante became a fan of Bae Juice after tucking… Read more »
Touch Ventures, the ASX-listed VC fund initially backed by BNPL fintech Afterpay, is breaking up with its CEO, Hein Vogel, after 4.5 years. In a statement to the market on Monday, the company said the board and CEO “have reached a consensus on his departure” with Vogel handing back his swipe card on March 29… Read more »
Global Tech Advocates (GTA), the international grassroots tech community of more than 30,000 tech leaders, experts and investors, has spread its wings to Australia. Tech Australia Advocates is GTA’s 35th international group and the Oceania region’s first chapter. It now operates in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Americas. Global Tech Advocates, was created in 2016… Read more »
Brisbane solar battery startup Redback Technologies has handed its books to voluntary administrators. McGrathNicol were appointed administrators of Redback Operations Pty. Ltd on March 5, as the company was in Sydney exhibiting at the Smart Energy Expo. Redback continues to trade as the administrators seek expressions of interest for the sale or recapitalisation of all… Read more »
Cybersecurity startup Nullify, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help software developers and security teams detect and fix potential vulnerabilities in code as it’s being written, has raised US$3.41 million (A$5.2m) in Seed capital. The round was co-led by US VCs Two Sigma Ventures and Root Ventures ahead of the startup’s plans to launch in… Read more »
Women launching startups in South Australia will have access to government funding in a new grants program launched at _SOUTHSTART in Adelaide today. The Fearless Innovator Grants Program will offer funding to women-run early stage startups. The Malinauskas government has committed $110,000 from the Research and Innovation Fund to support Women in Innovation (WINN) to… Read more »
Wellbeing expert advice marketplace Anni has banked $1 million in a Seed raise just five months after launching. The round has backed by several unnamed high net worth individuals and family funds and will be used to build out the wellbeing platform in areas such as online video consults, digital goods and distributed cross-platform on-demand… Read more »
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