Hostplus says Employment Hero CEO Ben Thompson wants them to “pay to play” to promote the super fund on the employee platform, but they’ve turned it down because it’s “undisclosed advertising”. In a statement to Startup Daily in the wake of Thompson publishing the letter from Hostplus to fellow investor, VC fund Airtree, which called… Read more »
Disrupting a $3.5 trillion industry is difficult. Just ask fintechs like Cannon-Brookes-backed Spaceship, Superhero, and Verve Super. Australia’s superannuation industry gets a $362 billion compulsory cake from fees – more than $30 billion annually – and wants to eat it all too. Treasury put out a consultation paper titled Securing Australians’ Superannuation late last year… Read more »
Canva’s $39 billion valuation has been given the tick of approval by the government financial watchdog, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), in a sign that investors have been getting it right when backing private tech companies. The regulator ran its ruler over Canva, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of its launch last week, as… Read more »
Women focused superannuation fintech Verve has raised $3 million in a pre-Series A as it looks to expand its financial services offerings. Verve cofounder and CEO Christina Hobbs said the round, led by impact-focused family office Alberts, closed early. “Two years ago, we were asking investors to believe that there is a problem in financial… Read more »
Industry superannuation fund Hostplus has poured another $100 million, on top of its existing $210 million investment, into listed early-stage science investor IP Group Australia. The $310 million IP Group Hostplus Innovation Fund has invested in several university spin-outs, including electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft startup AMSL Aero, UNSW telecommunications traffic analysis venture Canopus… Read more »
Healthcare superannuation fund HESTA has revealed that it chipped in $4.4 million to a $35 million Series B for Sydney biotech startup Inventia Life Science. The deal marks the first direct investment made by a super fund into an early-stage startup. The industry has previously tipped their cash into venture capital funds, with the VCs… Read more »
Superannuation fund UniSuper will invest $75 million into pioneering early-stage venture capital fund Uniseed in its first move into VC. Uniseed is the country’s oldest commercialisation fund, established in 2000. It is jointly owned by Universities of Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney, New South Wales and the CSIRO, and backs research and tech ventures developed by those… Read more »
An upcoming challenger superannuation brand, Tomorrow Super, is on the hunt for $5 million in pre-IPO funding. Founder and CEO Wes Hall says he wants to create a digital-first “game-changing” low cost, hassle free SMSF-type model for a ESG-conscious generation. “There are three undeniable trends when it comes to investing in Australia: economic activism through… Read more »
It’s no secret that when it comes to superannuation, Australian women continue to suffer undue and persistent disadvantage. A series of structural inadequacies and varied dynamics over the course of a woman’s life can, and in many cases do, lead to superannuation poverty. The concept of compulsory superannuation was designed with a full-time worker in… Read more »
How do we think about goals and dreams for the future when it feels like everything is falling apart? I’ve spent the past 10 years of my life coaching women on exactly that. But 2020 is a year that I have had to turn my own pain about the world into a positive… Read more »
AirTree Partners Craig Blair, James Cameron, Helen Norton, Daniel Petre, and John Henderson. Photo: Ryan Stuart Venture capital firm AirTree has raised a new $275 million fund to invest in early stage startups in Australia and New Zealand. It’s AirTree’s third fund, following on from 2016’s $250 million fund – backing the likes of Canva,… Read more »
Verve is a women-only fund focused on closing the gap between men and women’s super: women currently retire with an average of 47 percent less super than men.
Fintech startup Athena has raised a $15 million Series A round, with funding coming from Macquarie Bank, Square Peg Capital, Apex Capital, and Rice Warner.
Targeted at “lower net worth individuals”, the Ilumony platform is primarily focused around providing advice on KiwiSaver account.
Stockspot has announced the closing of a $3 million Series B round which will be used to help build out its digital product and expand its user base.
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