January has already been piping hot for startup funding, and this week is no different. Four ANZ startups raised more than $307 million across rockets, AI and engineering platforms. Here’s who: Gilmour Space: $217 million Gilmour Space Technologies has landed $217 million in a Series E funding round that lifts the Queensland-founded rocket maker’s valuation… Read more »
We may only be a couple of weeks into January, but the Australian startup funding tap is already starting to trickle. This week saw $39.8 million raised across startups in deceased estate management and fitness spaces, as well as neuroscience. EstateXchange: $12.5 million EstateXchange co-founders Marielle Yeoh and Sarah Poole. Source: Supplied. A startup addressing… Read more »
Touch Ventures (ASX: TVL), which invested more than $36 million into Sendle over several years, wrote down the value of its stake to nil in the weeks before the logistics startup’s abrupt closure. The downgrade, revealed publicly on Wednesday, sheds light on how one of Sendle’s major financial backers responded to worrying claims about its… Read more »
Despite the continued strained economic climate, we’ve seen some big chunks of change thrown around in 2025. While early-stage funding stayed constrained for much of the year, large cheques concentrated around a smaller group of companies certainly prevailed. In some cases, twice. These were some of the largest Australian startup raises of 2025, and the… Read more »
ASX-listed venture fund Bailador Technology Investments has increased the valuations on stakes in two key portfolio companies, Updoc and PropHero, with the latter rising 45.6% in just 10 months. Bailador (ASX:BTI) tipped $12.5 million into real estate investment proptech PropHero in February as part of a $25 million Series A. The investor told the market… Read more »
In a week when Victoria’s startup community is reeling, it would be easy to believe the story is only about loss. The Victorian Government has confirmed it will wind down LaunchVic as an independent agency and consolidate its functions with Breakthrough Victoria and Invest Victoria, as part of a public sector overhaul. On paper, this… Read more »
Venture capital firm Blackbird’s annual startup Coachella, Sunrise Australia, will be held on Thursday, April 30, next year. That shaves a day off the annual “love letter to Aussie startups”, with the VC promising “one massive day + one huge night” instead. Announcing the changes to the 2026 event, Blackbird said the revamping the event… 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 »
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 »
Startmate CEO Michael Batko has stepped as CEO after eight years of leading the startup accelerator and investor, effective immediately. Taking over is chief operating officer Phoebe Pincus, who’s been with the Blackbird-backed organisation for four years. Batko, who was also a startup founder on the side, most recently exiting his side hustle, Startup Striders, last month,… Read more »
This week’s funding round-up features a rewards platform for small businesses, a New Zealand agritech company that is tackling methane emissions, a medtech startup pioneering a non-invasive bladder-health treatment, and an edtech venture that is helping ease the admin burden for schools and educators. Keep reading to learn more about Pay.com.au, Ruminant Biotech, Australis Scientific… Read more »
Ochre Ventures, the first Australian VC solely focused on First Nations entrepreneurship, has reached a $30 million first close on the $100m target for its first fund. The VC has already made its first five investments, including veteran First Nations-owned construction and facilities management business PSG Holdings; video games maker MicroProse, which generated $5m in… Read more »
Blackbird’s come-to-Jesus moment six months ago, when it tipped $60 million from its 2022 follow-on fund into Airwallex, is now being pitched to the VC’s investors as its rising star. Details from the annual Blackbird Ventures investor day were leaked to Capital Brief’s Bronwen Clune, and included details of Canva’s performance, with the VC flagging… Read more »
Show Us the Data, a national initiative led by Equity Clear, kicked off in Sydney last week looking to develop a Australia’s first Common Data Standard for Investor Diversity Reporting. Equity Clear, led by Noga Edelstein, is hosting a series of roundtables in Australia’s capital cities to create an industry-led framework for data standards that… Read more »
The Victorian government’s flagship tech investment fund, Breakthrough Victoria, ended up in the red for a second year in a row after just four years in operation. The fund, which cut costs while ramping up investment, and increasing returns on cash deposits, posted a $5.7 million loss, according to its 2025 annual report, attributing it… Read more »
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