The theme for International Women’s Day this year is ‘Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress.’ For women in startups, venture capital investment in them is already a hot topic, with female founders receiving 4% of the $3.5 billion in capital deployed in 2023. That’s a literal invest in women and still has a… Read more »
There’s no I in team, the saying goes, and according to Atlassian’s gender gap pay figures, no W either. The difference between base salaries for men and women at the software company, reported to the federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) report, released this week, show the blokes are paid 17.4% more as a… Read more »
Cyber-skulduggery is becoming the bane of modern life. Australia’s prime minister has called it a “scourge”, and he is correct. In 2022–23, nearly 94,000 cyber crimes were reported in Australia, up 23% on the previous year. In the latest high-profile attack, around 15,000 customers of alcohol retailer Dan Murphy, Mexican restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez,… Read more »
Startup founders need to think about how to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their business with care and attention to potential risks in order to attract investors, a leading VC says. But a fear of those risks and regulation shouldn’t cause a “paralysis moment” that stop innovation, says Lee Hickin, the AI technology policy lead… Read more »
Sam Altman, chief executive of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, is reportedly trying to find up to US$7 trillion of investment to manufacture the enormous volumes of computer chips he believes the world needs to run artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Altman also recently said the world will need more energy in the AI-saturated future he envisions – so… Read more »
Advocates believe a perfect storm of competition concerns, new fuel efficiency standards and the axing of archaic parallel-import restrictions could provide “achievable change” that boosts the supply of electric vehicles (EVs) and slashes their prices by around $9,000. That’s the amount Australians are overpaying for EVs, former ACCC chair Allan Fels concluded in a recent analysis of price… Read more »
A slew of recent media reports from around the world have confirmed what we and many of our friends and family have known for a very long time as immigrants to a predominantly white and western country: there is a “built in” penalty for being brown and from somewhere else when it comes to banking.… Read more »
Venture capital funding in Australia plunged 53% in 2023 on the previous year, returning to the level seen at the startup of the Covid pandemic in 2020. The year saw 413 reported deals totalling $3.5 billion (down from $7.4B in 2022) according to the third annual The State of Australian Startup Funding Report by Cut… Read more »
I see hundreds of founders pitch each year across industries and idea spaces – Antler invests in around 25 businesses each year in Australia alone. These pitches include a lot of generative AI, SaaS and HR Tech innovations, but flipping it around – here are 10 opportunities I reckon are worth exploring in 2024. 1.… Read more »
Last week, Elon Musk announced his brain-computer interface company, Neuralink, had implanted a device in a human for the first time. The company’s PRIME study, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration last year, is testing a brain implant for “people with paralysis to control external devices with their thoughts”. The first human received… Read more »
Australia’s science and technology sectors have urged Federal Parliament to pass the Australian Research Council Amendment Bill – and make a key amendment that requires the research funding agency to notify successful applicants within 21 days of grant approval. In its submission to the Senate Committee on Education and Employment reviewing the Bill, Science &… Read more »
There’s plenty of doom and gloom about the availability of capital at the moment. Right across the tech landscape from seed-round startups to listed tech companies, founders are feeling the brunt of a dramatic shift in sentiment thanks to the high-interest rate environment. But while much of the commentary seems to label this as an… Read more »
Local sportstech is now worth as much as the fintech startup sector, with more than 750 companies involved, according to new analysis from the Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN). Releasing its second annual Sports Innovation Report for 2023, ASTN put the value of sportstech at $4.25 billion as the sector begins to ramp up for the… Read more »
Leading law firm Herbert Smith Freehills advises some of Australia’s most successful tech companies on investment deals, including Atlassian, Mr Yum, Carma, Sonder, Culture Amp, Linktree, Who Gives A Crap, :Different, Pearler and Instant Checkout. After the dramatic shift in venture capital in 2022 following an exuberant two years during the pandemic, HSF venture capital… Read more »
In this essay, we are imagining a pitch from an early stage deep tech company, probably still working inside a university. An investor red flag might not be obvious to a founder. Why would it? They build up over years as signals of weakness and they are best avoided. Knowing what they are makes it possible to… Read more »
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