Touch Ventures, the ASX-listed VC fund initially backed by BNPL fintech Afterpay, lost $15.4 million in 2023, writing off more than $27 million worth of investments in PlanPay and Till Payments. The upside for the VC (ASX:TVL) is that last year’s red ink is a quarter of 2022’s net loss of $65.2m. But as one… Read more »
Gold Coast-based Gilmour Space Technologies has raised $55 million in a Series D ahead of a maiden launch in Queensland later this year. The raise was led by the state government-backed Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), an existing investor, alongside VCs Blackbird and Main Sequence, plus superannuation funds HostPlus and HESTA. The cash will fund the… Read more »
A jobs marketplace targeting Generation Z with AI-based matching has raised $7 million in its Seed round. Sydney-based Hatch was cofounded by The Iconic cofounder Adam Jacobs and Zip cofounder Chaz Heitner in 2018. The raise was led by Rampersand, with support from Alberts Impact Ventures, Aura Ventures, Jelix Ventures, and Investible, as well as existing… Read more »
Schools-focused digital skills e-learning platform in Grok Academy has appointed Martha McKeen to a new role as chief strategy officer. Grok Academy is a not-for-profit edtech charity focused on digital technologies education. CEO Dr James Curran said McKeen’s breadth of experience across education, technology, and cyber security portfolios at the Commonwealth Bank, including working with… Read more »
More than 160 early-stage Queensland startups will be supported to become venture capital investment-ready under accelerator programs delivered through the Queensland Venture Capital Development Fund (QVCDF). The fund, managed by Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), will support an initial five accelerators to run thematically relevant programs focused on the state’s priority industries. The accelerators are: Farmers2Founders, EnergyLab,… Read more »
Canva’s long-term chief financial officer, Damien Singh, has left the company after nearly 8 years, with the graphic design giant yet to name a replacement. His departure appeared to catch many by surprise last week when he broke the news to members of the Canva team on Monday, February 5. “As we move towards the… Read more »
The Queensland government’s new venture capital development fund has backed five VCs: Antler, Five V Capital, Main Sequence, Mandalay Venture Partners and Salus Ventures, with a combined $130 million investment. Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment Cameron Dick said the deals will give Queensland startups access to up to $200 million in new matched… Read more »
Sydney quantum startup Diraq has raised US$15 million (A$23m) in Series A-2. The round was led by Paris-based Quantonation, the world’s first VC fund dedicated to quantum technologies. Also investing were John Higgins Family Investments and the University of New South Wales. The A-2 raise tops up US$20 million, led by Allectus Capital, when it… Read more »
A vector search startup for ecommerce, founded by a former Amazon robotics scientist and engineer, has raised US$12.5 million (A$19.4m) in a Series A, just six months after banking A$8.1m in a Seed round. The fresh raise for Marqo, was led by Lightspeed, with support from Blackbird, January Capital, and Chronosphere founder and CTO Rob… Read more »
Significant changes that Apple was forced to make to its App Store in Europe will likely pave the way for similar reforms in Australia. In the biggest changes to the App Store since it was launched, Apple relinquished some control over its platform earlier this month in response to the Digital Markets Act in the European Union.… Read more »
Health insurance company Bupa has launched a $20 million VC fund, Bupa Ventures, to back Australian healthcare startups. Bupa Ventures will support early-stage investment from Seed to Series A and will look to support startups across a broad spectrum of health sectors. Its early focus includes predictive and preventative healthcare, genomics, home care and remote monitoring,… Read more »
Grok Ventures, the private investment fund of Atlassian cofounder Mike Cannon-Brookes, has named global asset management executive Tan Kueh as CEO, joining chief investment officer Jeremy Kwong-Law. Cannon-Brookes said that Grok is entering a new phase of growth, having refined its investment strategy to make a bigger impact on addressing the global climate challenge. “Having… Read more »
Apple Pay overtook Afterpay in average users last year to become the third most widely used digital payment service, according to the latest Roy Morgan Digital Payments Report. While Block-owned Afterpay saw its user base decline over the last six months Apple Pay has more than doubled its share of users in the Australian market over… Read more »
Fishburners and high-performance coach and speaker, Veronica Mason are collaborating to host an LGBTIQA+ Pride pitch night next Friday, February 16. ‘ The event is for queer founders, who will be paired with judges to pitch their business and will compete for a judge’s choice and a people’s choice award. Mason was inspired to create… Read more »
Global payments fintech Airwallex has signed a multi-year partnership deal with the McLaren Formula 1 team, joining the likes of Google Cloud, Chrome, Salesforce and Dell as backers of the recently refreshed F1 cars. McLaren’s 2024 challenger, the MCL38, will be revealed on February 14 ahead of the ahead of the season opener in Bahrain this… Read more »
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