When Zeller CEO and cofounder Ben Pfisterer raised $100 million in a Series B that valued the then two-year fintech at $1 billion, he was talking to his US investor from behind a $19 IKEA desk. Pfisterer has spent his career in payments, including six years building Square in Australia for Jack Dorsey, and has… Read more »
This is the second edition of Giant Leap’s deep dive series, where its investment team explores the technologies and approaches addressing global problems of climate, health and people with commercial solutions (the 1st edition on the future of sustainable aviation here). In this deep dive into femtech, senior investment associate Katarina Throssell share her insights… Read more »
The Victorian government’s controversial $2 billion venture capital fund, Breakthrough Victoria, posted a $3 million loss in its third year of operation. The funding body, which saw several directors depart in 2024, with CEO Grant Dooley also heading to the exit after just three years, copped a $360 million haircut in the Victorian budget earlier… Read more »
More and more Australian startups are chasing capital from VCs in Singapore—and for good reason. Unlike Australian VCs, who risk losing tax concessions if they invest too heavily outside Australia, Singapore-based investors face no such restrictions and are actively deploying capital across global markets. That’s why we decided to ask some of APAC’s most influential… Read more »
Early stage investment company Antler Australia recently backed a new cohort of startups as part of its ongoing program to build great local tech companies. Startup Daily is sharing the details of each venture in the “Antler Investor Memos” series, which is designed to give you a quick, sharp understanding of the startups and people… Read more »
Mother-daughter duo Tandadzo (Tando) Matanda and Dr Margaret Matanda will step on stage founder at SXSW Sydney this Tuesday as the founders of fintech platform Musa. Musa is the world’s first intelligent venture assessment platform, tackling the funding process for startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Musa Ventures equips founders with the digital tools… Read more »
Investor sentiment and founder optimism appear misaligned with the total amount of venture capital flowing to startups in the first quarter of the 2025 financial year, falling to a multi-quarter low of $695 million, driven primarily by a drop in mega-rounds. The latest quarterly figures from Cut Through Venture (CVT) show that the Q3 (calendar… Read more »
Specialist climate tech investor Virescent Ventures is halfway towards its goal of creating a new $200 million fund thanks to backing from Westpac and the government-backed Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). Virescent Ventures hit the $100 million first close of its second climate technology investment fund (Fund II), following on from the first portfolio, managed… Read more »
OpenAI’s gobsmacking US$6.6 billion (A$9.5 billion) raise, announced last week at a US$157bn (A$230bn) valuation, has a small slice of Australia on the cap table, with Melbourne fund manager Boman Group chipping in A$10 million. The record raise for the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup was led by Josh KuschUS VC Thrive Capital with… Read more »
Global early-stage investor Antler has closed its 2nd Australian fund, raising $17 million more than planned to hit $77 million within 12 months. Antler previously raised its first $46 million local fund in 2019. Fund 2 will back more than 100 new pre-seed Australian startups and is already close to halfway there, having invested in… Read more »
The path to sustainable aviation is encountering some turbulence. With Universal Hydrogen going belly up, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects stalling, and AirNZ scrapping their interim 2030 climate targets, it’s clear the sector is struggling to navigate the challenges facing this emerging field. The aviation sector currently contributes to 2.5% of global carbon emissions. Yet, as… Read more »
Early stage investment company Antler Australia recently backed a new cohort of startups as part of its ongoing program to build great local tech companies. Startup Daily is sharing the details of each venture in the “Antler Investor Memos” series, which is designed to give you a quick, sharp understanding of the startups and people… Read more »
Former JP Morgan banker Ashleigh Greaves has joined boutique Queensland B2B VC Tribe Global Ventures to manage investor relations. Greaves already has a strong track record on that front having spent several years within the Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB) at J.P. Morgan in New York where she managed relationships with hedge funds and quantitative trading managers.… Read more »
Startmate CEO Michael Batko reckons founders ask him weekly about how to raise from US investors. So he decided to ask some of the best in the business directly, including Bill Tai, one of Canva’s first backers, and Uber angel investor Jason Calancanis, for a Q and A webinar series for ANZ founders, called the… Read more »
Victoria’s Walter & Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) for medical research as built a $66 million venture capital war chest to back medtech startups over the next decade, turning the institute’s work into commercial biotech companies. The strategic investment fund, 66ten, managed by WEHI Ventures, will back pre-Seed and Seed rounds in the hope of bridging… Read more »
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