Australia’s startup landscape is undergoing its most dramatic shift in a decade, with data from the annual Startup Muster report revealing that founders are investing in artificial intelligence rather than headcount. The 2025 edition of the nation’s largest startup survey, released in Sydney on Friday night, reveals a sharp fall in employment as more than… Read more »
The Victorian government will wind down startup support agency LaunchVic and rework technology investment fund Breakthrough Victoria as part of broader public sector reforms set to save the state $4 billion. The decision has rattled the state’s startup sector, and spells an uncertain future for state-backed accelerators, grants, and investment funds tailored to local talent.… Read more »
This week saw more $24 million in VC funding go towards AI onboarding tools, seaweed tech and more. Keep reading to learn more about the six Australian startups with fresh capital to deploy. Bodd: $15 million 3D body scanning platform Bodd has raised $15 million as it looks to expand globally. The round was led… Read more »
Ahead of the TechStars Sydney ‘Demo the Future’ evening on December 8, Startup Daily is profiling the 12 startups and their founders in the 2025 cohort. Our next profile is SurfLab – the platform elevating surfer skills and enjoyment, while also enhancing their community connection. SurfLab Founder: Ant Arena One-liner: SurfLab is the world’s first AI-powered surf… Read more »
The largest data centre in the southern hemisphere will be built in New South Wales after local provider CDC Data Centres’s proposal received approval. The NSW government last week approved the plan for a $3.1 billion hyperscale data centre at Marsden Park, about 36km north-west of the Sydney CBD. First announced in October last year,… Read more »
Remember when Twitter used to be good? I reckon it peaked somewhere around the first COVID lockdowns. In those days, there was a running gag on the site where everyone would refer to it as a “hellscape”. And it did invite some of the worst that humanity has to offer. Opinions, as the old joke… Read more »
Tech Council of Australia founding director and former chair Robyn Denholm will depart the board in February after five years. Her departure comes amid two other changes to the 10-member board, which features several tech billionaires, with its two ex-politician directors also logging off, replaced by two more. Former NSW Liberal minister Victor Dominello departed… Read more »
Founder Institute ANZ, the local chapter of the world’s largest startup accelerator, has selected eight new startups to back from its Spring accelerator. The Founder Institute’s pre-seed accelerator helps early-stage entrepreneurs and teams build their business alongside a critical support network of local startup experts that share equity in their success, and through a structured and challenging business-building process… Read more »
If the $467 million Airwallex raise and secondary share sale told us anything, it is that Australian venture capitalists are increasingly less venture and a lot more capital with a spreadsheet. When Blackbird and Airtree, two of the country’s flagship VC firms, finally joined a Series F round for a company they had previously passed… Read more »
Hachiko, an optimisation software startup for industrial battery energy storage systems (BESS), has raised $2.5m in a Seed round. The round was led by Archangel Ventures, with support from Twynam, Investible, Motion Capital, Electrifi Ventures, and Wattle Hill Capital. The funding will help build technical and go-to-market teams as well as deepening and expanding platform… Read more »
Unless you’ve stayed on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X – previously known as Twitter – you probably missed an extraordinary rant from US investor Keith Rabois claiming that “Airwallex has become a Chinese backdoor into sensitive American data like from AI labs and defense contractors”. The former PayPal exec – yes he’s part of… Read more »
Paperbacked, a specialist venture studio for education founders, has launched to tackle a persistent gap in the Australian education sector: businesses that fall between under-resourced small operators and VC-backed scale-ups. Lindsey Dang, who built a seven-figure English iterature specialist tutoring business while completing dual law and arts degrees at Monash University (and is now on… Read more »
If you’re not a celebrity or crypto bro with money to burn on Bored Ape NFTs, or bananas taped to a wall, but would like to buy art, then an exhibition opening in Sydney this week is just for you. James Erskine founded the Liverpool Street Gallery in East Sydney more than 20 years ago,… Read more »
Timing is so critical when you’re building and growing a company, but the calendar isn’t the only thing you’re racing. Cash flow – what’s coming in, what’s going out and when – dictates how fast you can move. The good news? You have options. With a few practical changes to how you pay and track… Read more »
3D body scanning platform Bodd has raised $15 million as it looks to expand globally. The round was led by US strategic investor Blue Sky Capital, supported by Ellerston Capital. Existing investors, including chairman Tim Allison, director Peter Leonard, Swans director John Gerahty and his family office Liangrove Group, commodities trader Ken Loughnan and fashion… Read more »
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