Cyber security

An Indigenous Army veteran is looking to take his cybersecurity startup to IPO as Australia’s first listed Aboriginal business

- May 16, 2022 2 MIN READ

An Indigenous Australian Army veteran who’s build a successful tech startup over the last six years has spun out a cybersecurity company with the ambition one day launching it on the ASX. Kieran Hynes is a Worimi man from the Newcastle region who spent 13 years as an Army officer, dealing with military tech, from… Read more »

Drone, farm, agriculture, agtech
Opinion

Why Australian agtech needs talent with a wide range of experience

- May 15, 2022 2 MIN READ

Australia is well-positioned to build and maintain a large and healthy agricultural industry ($81 billion of production in 2021/22). Australia also has a unique opportunity to leverage our higher-education infrastructure, skilled workforce and sophisticated capital markets to integrate modern technology into our agricultural industry for the purpose of vastly improving the volume of high-quality agricultural… Read more »

Funding

Tiger Global doubles down on used car startup Carma’s $75 million Series A

- May 12, 2022 2 MIN READ

US venture capital giant has once again backed  online used car platform, Carma in a US$52 million (A$75m) Series A round. General Catalyst Partners led the round. MD Adam Valkin will join the Carma board. The US VC’s other local investments include Canva, BigCommerce and Buildkite Other international venture investors joining the round include Entrée Capital… Read more »

Jean-Claude Van Damme
Politics

Australia doesn’t have a strategy for moving to clean transport quickly – so we wrote this plan

- May 12, 2022 4 MIN READ

Australia has no clear strategy to decarbonise transport. That’s a problem, because without a plan, our take-up of clean technologies like electric cars, trucks and buses is slow. It’s stopping us from meeting our climate commitments. And it leaves us paying exorbitant prices for imported oil at the fuel pump, as well as in the… Read more »

Sydney from the air
Other tech

Here are the finalists in the Australian Proptech Awards

- May 11, 2022 2 MIN READ

The Proptech Association Australia (PAA) has announced the finalists in the 2022 Proptech Awards, the only nationally coordinated awards for Australia’s booming property technology sector.   PAA President Kylie Davis said entries for the 2022 awards jumped 31% on last year to 124 across the 23 categories.  “It’s super exciting to celebrate these success stories in… Read more »

Mark Zuckerberg
Business

Whistleblowers accuse Facebook of deliberately taking down important non-news pages during its 2021 fight over paying for news

- May 10, 2022 4 MIN READ

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published information from Facebook whistleblowers, alleging Facebook (which is owned by Meta) deliberately caused havoc in Australia last year to influence the News Media Bargaining Code before it was passed as law. During Facebook’s news blackout in February 2021, thousands of non-news pages were also blocked – including important… Read more »

DoorDash delivery
Business

DoorDash strikes landmark union deal for gig workers

- May 10, 2022 2 MIN READ

Food delivery tech company DoorDash has signed a pioneering agreement with the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) that sets out safety and fairness standards for gig workers. Amid ongoing legal battles by global tech companies over the employment status of gig economy workers, the first-of-its-kind agreement between an Australian union and a delivery platform sets out… Read more »

Space

Gilmour Space lands $15 million from the Australian government for Defence surveillance satellites

- May 9, 2022 2 MIN READ

The federal government has awarded Queensland rocket company Gilmour Space Technologies $15 million to develop and launch a new sovereign surveillance satellite as part of a $7 billion ramping up of the nation’s space capabilities. Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the partnership with the Gold Coast tech company is part of the government’s Space Command,… Read more »

Kids on bike with rockets
Accelerator

LaunchVic is looking for more startup accelerators to fund

- May 9, 2022 < 1 MIN READ

Victorian startup agency LaunchVic is offering grants of up to $2 million to support accelerator programs for local founders. Applications for the grant program are now open for experienced accelerator program providers to deliver either generalist or sector-specific programs over the next three years. LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick said the need for tailored support,… Read more »

Funding

Go1 founders back game licensing marketplace Layer in $3.9 million metaverse play

- May 9, 2022 2 MIN READ

Brisbane licensing marketplace Layer has raised $3,888,888 in Seed funding  The round was led by Carthona Capital, with support from Aura Ventures, TEN13, Flying Fox, Black Sheep Capital, LUXEM, Tribe Ventures and several angels, including Go1 co-founders Chris Eigeland and Vu Tran. Layer’s marketplace connects games with leading rights holders including Bruce Lee, Narcos, CareBears,… Read more »