The arrival of Uber and its ilk in Australia has seen more $1 billion in taxpayer funds handed to the what’s now known as the point-to-point transport (ie including taxis) sector in compensation. And users in NSW will continue to be slugged for it until the end of this decade. The entire sector has been… Read more »
Much of life is about pedigree. It’s why parents pay insane amounts of money for private schools (aka the old school tie), why VCs back founders 2nd time around (even after previous failures), royals marry other royals, and why a co-owner of champion racehorse Winx paid $10 million for her filly at auction this week.… Read more »
Victoria’s (and Australia’s) future prosperity is dependent on knowledge-intensive companies that collaborate, innovate, and commercialise successful products globally. But to survive and reach commercial success, these companies must be able to access funding at key stages of their development. Without this, they will fail. In turn, we will fail to create a self-sustaining human healthcare… Read more »
Sexually graphic “deepfake” images of Taylor Swift went viral on social media last week, fuelling widespread condemnation from Swifties, the general public and even the White House. The circulation of false images of Taylor Swift are alarming. We know that incidences like this disproportionately impact women and girls. @POTUS is committed to ensuring we reduce… Read more »
In an article published elsewhere last week, the country’s largest VCs were scornful of the local sector’s prospects in 2024. No one is arguing the landscape has become tougher; costs are higher, consumers have tightened their belts, market valuations are subdued. The sector is well aware we have much to prove and big hurdles to… Read more »
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how 4 days can be a long time in business. A year even more so. And it was only this week I was trying to convince my friends at Tribe Global Ventures to do a 2023 wrap up of startups and tech in their excellent podcast (full disclosure, I helped them get… Read more »
Global jostling involving companies and governments of many countries is underway that is more far-reaching than what occurred over oil in the first half of the 20th century. It’s in an industry that will drive the development of tens of billions of products over the next few decades – semiconductors. This is because the next… Read more »
A lot of folks have expressed surprise and dismay this week about awful comments by Sam Joel, and the wider idea that the ANZ startup ecosystem might have a sexual harassment problem. Here’s why I’m not surprised. I wanted to write about this because working on consent education at Normal and doing work on gender… Read more »
First, some caveats before we go on: I know I’m using a niche example to make a very broad point. The point still stands, even if you want to get the world’s tiniest violin out for me. I know that as a white woman, my struggles are not nearly as dire as that of women… Read more »
The 2023 Startup Muster report reveals how central artificial intelligence (AI) and impact principles are important to founders and central to the Australian ecosystem. The startup “census”, last released in 2018, saw more than 1100 people, including nearly 600 founders, answer a range of questions – delivering 165,000 responses – about the state of play… Read more »
Startups, technology, innovation, investment and modern manufacturing are no longer on the priority list in NSW. Technology, startups and the arts are esoteric areas of investment for the new NSW Labor government and will bear the brunt of cost cutting and budget savings in the years ahead as part of a drive to surplus. Among… Read more »
The conservatism of Australian business profoundly shapes its startup industry from the way it supports young startups to the way it tears them down. Big business and the technology industry are focussed on boosting investment and talent to achieve growth and productivity. Our more elusive business culture should also be up for discussion. This… Read more »
This article is part of a series on big ideas for the Universities Accord. The federal government is calling for ideas to “reshape and reimagine higher education, and set it up for the next decade and beyond”. A review team is due to finish a draft report in June and a final report in December… Read more »
Scientists recently created a meatball with the flesh of the long-extinct woolly mammoth. The meatball was the product of one of this century’s most promising technological advancements – cellular agriculture. Sometimes called “lab-grown meat,” the process involves growing animal products from animal cells in a controlled laboratory environment. The process eliminates many of the environmental,… Read more »
As a female founder, I’ve faced numerous challenges particularly in regard to getting investors to fund us. There is a gap in venture funding in Australia, and it’s getting worse. It seems as if Australian investors in particular are struggling at how to fund female founders equitably. Right now we get around 1.2% of funding,… Read more »
‘Have I gone too far?’ How founders can beat their startup demons 
Tassie carbon accounting startup banks $5.3 million Seed round 
Smart hotels get even smarter: 72 Byte to launch in Australia with AI expert backing 
Eucalyptus head of growth Matt Rossi departs to launch his own marketing startup, Oodle 
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
