HR platform Employment Hero has landed 2023’s biggest local raise, bagging $263 million in a Series F led by US fund Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). It’s the second nine-figure raise this week with Canberra startup Skykraft announcing a $120 million round for its satellite-based air traffic management system. Employment Hero’s backing from TVC remains subject… Read more »
Small business HR platform Employment Hero has raised $181 million in a round that values the tech company at $1.25 billion. Existing backer SEEK Investments led the raise, supported by Sydney VCs OneVentures and AirTree. The new cash pushed the value of the business up by $450 million following a $140 million Series E raise… Read more »
Online share trading platform Superhero has cut its brokerage fee on ASX trades up to $20,000 from $5 to just $2. The 60% reduction in the digital trading platform’s brokerage fee undercuts rival Stake, which charges $3 for ASX trades up to $30,000. Superhero charges a 0.01% fee for trades over $20,000. The Superhero-branded app… Read more »
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 »
There’s a cage fight-like quality to Employment Hero cofounder and CEO Ben Thompson’s campaign against one of his investors, Hostplus, but it appears the $100 billion industry super fund is not enjoying the show. In fact, in Hostplus’ view, Thompson is lowering the tone of Australian corporate life and unless he brings back a bit… 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 »
Victoria’s startup ecosystem has grown in value by $12 billion to surpass $100 billion according to a new report from LaunchVic. The size and scope of their success is revealed in the Victoriaʼs startup ecosystem report 2023, produced in partnership with dealroom.co, which found the combined value rose from $91 billion to $103bn in the… Read more »
Pioneering Sydney VC investor has banked more than $100 million from sales of its early stage investment in human resources technology startup Employment Hero. The latest deal has produced what the sector calls a “dragon” – the return from a single investment matches the value of the entire fund. In this instance it’s a 1.5x… Read more »
Senator Andrew Bragg is pushing once again to introduce regulation for the cryptocurrency sector in Australia, amid ongoing exchange collapses and US regulators investigating alleged illegal activity by Binance. The NSW Liberal, now in opposition, introduced a private senator’s bill to the Senate on Wednesday, accusing financial services minister Stephen Jones of being “uninterested in… Read more »
The deal to merge share trading platform Superhero and crypto exchange Swyftx, which was supposed to create a fintech unicorn, is over. Superhero founders John Winters and Wayne Baskin are resuming control of their business as Swyftx grapples with the fallout from the collapse of US crypto exchange FTX and concerns of money laundering by… Read more »
Twitter feels like I could wake up any morning now and find the whole site burned to ground, with Elon Mush standing in the smoking rubble, in a pair of yellowed Y-fronts, dribbling bathtub gin through broken teeth, laughing at me. — John Birmingham (@JohnBirmingham) October 31, 2022 It doesn’t seem that many people are… Read more »
Share trading and superannuation fintech Superhero will merge with cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx to create a four-year-old fintech startup valued at $1.5 billion. The two fintechs will continue to operate their separate brands and platforms while offering both services to all users in what they describe as create “the country’s first digital and traditional finance powerhouse”,… Read more »
The first thing you need to know about New Zealand is that sheep are not its biggest export. Or Hobbit movies. It’s dairy, worth around NZ$16 billion – nearly 30% of the nation’s export income. The second thing you should know is that the tech sector is no 2 after dairy as a source of… Read more »
HR and payroll startup Employment Hero has raised $140 million in a series E that tripled the venture’s valuation to $800 million. The round is led by US-based Insight Partners, with local existing investors SEEK, OneVentures, AirTree Ventures and Salesforce Ventures also chipping in again. The cash will be used to bolster engineering capabilities, enhance… Read more »
Welcome to Ignition Lane’s Weekly Wrap, where they cut through the noise to bring you their favourite insights from the technology and startup world. Ignition Lane works with ambitious business leaders to apply the Startup Mindset to their technology, product and commercialisation problems. This wrap goes out free to subscribers every Saturday. Don’t forget you can catch Gavin Appel discussing… Read more »
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