A Melbourne startup hoping to improve the customer experience for people dealing with contact centres has raised $5 million US VC firm Bonfire Ventures led the round into Operative Intelligence, with additional funds from Wonder Ventures. The funds will be used to expand staffing and scale its customer intelligence product capabilities. The company, founded in… Read more »
At Startup Daily’s recent 2023 Tech Playbook From Idea to Unicorn event, our expert panel broke down the key startup trends tech companies need to look out for in the year ahead. Powered by Microsoft, with community partners BDO and Parallo, the November 17 event at founders’ hub Fishburners highlighted the importance of sharing information… Read more »
Three weeks ago, we received an influx of incredibly helpful feedback from founders after Paul Bassat reached out to the community via this LinkedIn post. One recurring theme in the feedback that resonated with me was: telling founders you invest early is actually not that helpful. Founders asked: what does ‘early’ mean? What does ‘seed… Read more »
An artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled digital assistant called Aimer has raised NZ$1 million to help dairy farmers with pasture management Kiwi startup Aimer Development was backed by food and agritech accelerator Sprout in the fifth of 30 $1 million investments the VC plans to make. Aimer founder and Chief Technical Officer Jeremy Bryant has spent more than… Read more »
Sydney- and Madrid-based proptech company PropHero has raised $8 million in a Seed round, just eight months after landing $1.6 million in pre-seed funding The round was co-led by real estate focused VC Fifth Wall, and European early stage fund Samaipata. Local VCs Jelix Ventures and AfterWork Ventures, who invested in February’s pre-seed round, also… Read more »
Two-year-old adtech startup TRENDii has raised $2.9 million in a Seed round to help brands and media deliver marketing in a post-cookies online world. The round was led by Investible and a strategic media partner. The capital is for international expansion; product enhancement and category development; new tech; and building out the partnerships team. TRENDii… Read more »
South Australian agtech startup Optomni, has raised $200,000 in a Seed round led by Skalata Ventures to optimise the fresh food supply chain. Founder and CEO Murad Mekhtiev said around 45% of total fruit and vegetable production in Australia is wasted and nearly half of that happens in the supply chain. Optomni aims to reduce… Read more »
US-based Australian startup Checkmate has raised US$5 million (A$7.75m) in a Seed round. The raise was led by US VC Fuel Capital. The other investors include Kevin Johnson, the former CEO of Ebates at Rakuten, NFL star Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures, Ancestry CEO Deborah Liu, Firstbase CEO Chris Herd, XMTP cofounder Shane Mac, f7… Read more »
Cricketing Hall of Fame batsman Kumar Sangakkara has cofounded an esports platform that’s raised US$2.5 million (A$3.2m) in Seed funding to play sport in the metaverse. The round was led by new Singapore-based investment firm Hangar X, plus several sports and web3 investors, including US-based Nucleus Advisors founder Jordan Waxman, Perth-based 5point8 Capital director Mark D’Alessandro… Read more »
Sydney healthtech startup Human has raised $10.15 million in Seed funding. The raise was led by Airtree Ventures, supported by Skip Capital, the family VC of Kim Jackson and her husband, Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar. Human was cofounded by former Canva head of product Georgia Vidler and her colleague Kate Lambridis, who believe people need… Read more »
Digital news channel The Daily Aus, which has pioneered a social media-first approach to current affairs for younger Australians, has raised $1.2 million in Seed funding. The round was led by media former Nine CEO David Gyngell, supported by Canva executives Zach Kitschke and Rob Kawalsky, as well as festival the Untitled Group. The backing from… Read more »
Sydney startup Vouch has raised $8 million in a Seed round for its business video testimonial platform. The round was led by US-based VC Stage 2 Capital and Sydnery’s OIF Ventures, with several angel investors also chipping in, including Twitter global product lead Oji Udezue and Archangel Ventures Partner Rayn Ong. The funds will be used… Read more »
Sydney content marketing engine Convo Ink has raised $1.5 million in Seed funding. The round led by3C Capital, a UK-based private investment house led by Australian investor Richard Gazal, and Sydney-based private investment firm M2 Capital, led by tech entrepreneur Matthew Hunt. The startup will use the funds to expand its content platform capabilities and… Read more »
Melbourne startup Directo has raised $2.3 million in Seed funding for its B2B marketplace for the pharmacy sector. The round was led by Sydney seed VC Investible to scale its networked two-sided online marketplace, which offers B2C-like price transparency, immediacy and convenience while streamlining logistics and invoicing. Founder Gavin Upiter said Directo’s proprietary enterprise technology platform… Read more »
US billionaire Tim Draper, famed for investments in the likes of PayPal, Tesla, Twitter, Coinbase and Robinhood, has backed Australian-based drone planting eco-tech firm Lord of the Trees (LOTT) in a $US1.25 million (A$1.67m) pre-Seed round. The investment values LOTT, founded in 2019, at A$7 million. Lord of the Trees is a global reforestation company… Read more »
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Smart hotels get even smarter: 72 Byte to launch in Australia with AI expert backing 
Tassie carbon accounting startup banks $5.3 million Seed round 
Eucalyptus head of growth Matt Rossi departs to launch his own marketing startup, Oodle 
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