Startup Daily

Startup Daily has been inspiring, educating, and reporting on the Australian tech and startup community since 2012.

Funding

Real-time data management startup banks $5 million Seed round after six years of bootstrapping

- February 13, 2025 1 MIN READ

A Melbourne enterprise technology startup that’s bootstrapped since its founding in 2019 has raised a $5 million Seed round in taking on its first external capital. Slinging cash at Factor House were Blackbird, OIF, Flying Fox and the Alice Anderson Fund, LaunchVic’s female-focused co-investment side-car fund. The funding will accelerate the commercial release of the startup’s flagship product,… Read more »

Accelerator

Startmate selects 16 startups for its biggest Summer Accelerator yet

- February 10, 2025 8 MIN READ

Startmate’s Summer’25 Accelerator cohort is its biggest yet, involving 16 wildly different startups seeking to make a big impact is profoundly varied ways Driving them are 28 hungry, fast-moving, relentless founders who see a different future: one where Gen Z’s are more connected than lonely, where commerce is collaborative, and where the 4 million tonnes… Read more »

Rosterfy cofounders, Shannan Gove, Bennett Merriman and Chris Grant
Funding

Super Bowl volunteer management platform Rosterfy scores $5.5 million

- February 10, 2025 2 MIN READ

Volunteer and workforce management platform Rosterfy has raised $5.5 million from Sydney VC OIF Ventures. The funding tops up aa $3m follow on investment from ASX-listed Bailador Technology Investments (ASX:BTI) after its $9.8m initial investment in April 2023, which Startup Daily reported in October last year, The $3m from Bailador resulted in a 14% ($1.7m)… Read more »

Other tech

Steve Baxter’s new defence-focused VC fund locks and loads $10 million in first close on $60m target

- February 6, 2025 2 MIN READ

Brisbane-based specialist defence technology venture capital firm, Beaten Zone Venture Partners, has secured more than $10 million in commitments, to call first close on the fund. The figure takes the fund to its final condition for ESVCLP (Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnerships) status, with its first capital call underway this week.   Founder and… Read more »

Jamie Hall and Steve Hind
AI/Machine Learning

AI customer support startup Lorikeet banks another $14 million

- February 5, 2025 2 MIN READ

SydneyAI startup Lorikeet has raised another US$9 million (A$14m), just four months after pocketing a $7.3 million Seed round. This time Blackbird led the round, joined by existing investors Square Peg and Kim Jackson’s Skip Capital. The raise values the business at $100 million. Lorikeet was founded in mid-2023 (originally as Optech) by US-based former… Read more »

Business

Westpac invests $10 million in Lawpath to offer customers legal services

- February 5, 2025 2 MIN READ

Westpac hit the EFT button on $10 million for the online legal services scaleup Lawpath, and plans to entice business customers by offering them subscriptions to the legal compliance platform. The bank’s acting business and wealth boss Peter Herbert, said the exclusive partnership will give startups and small-to-medium sized businesses access to affordable legal services,… Read more »

Melissa Widner
Business

Lender Lighter Capital has another $30 million for startups thanks to the Victorian government

- February 4, 2025 2 MIN READ

Venture capital alternative Lighter Capital has extended another $30 million fund offering non-dilutive funding to startups, with the Victorian government and iPartners,  The 15-year-old revenue-based financier, originally from New York, launched in Australia in 2021, and was subsequently backed by Invest Victoria, the state government’s investment attraction agency, and iPartners, with an initial $30 million fund.… Read more »

Breaking Bad, money pile
Business

Techboard’s 2024 Australian startup funding review reveals NSW startup investment is plummeting

- February 3, 2025 3 MIN READ

Australian investors poured $4.106 billion into 477 private investments last year according to data analysed in Techboard’s Australian Startup Funding in Review – 2024.  Techboard cofounder and CEO Peter van Bruchem said he focused on  additional ASIC-sourced data last year, after publishing The Fintech Funding Project 2023 Report: Shedding Light on Investment into Australian Fintechs,… Read more »

small business, payment
Business

In-store ads streaming martech lands $40 million Series B

- January 31, 2025 2 MIN READ

An expat Australian scaleup using in-store advertising to bolster retail sales has raised US$25 million ($40m) in a Series B. The raise for 13-year-old Melbourne-founded, Dallas-based Qsic was led by UK investment firm Hedosophia. The platform, cofounded began as a music streaming service in pubs and clubs in 2012, and is now responsible for the… Read more »

Funding

Blackbird powers up Kiwi EV charger Kwetta’s $15.8 million Series A for Europe plans

- January 28, 2025 2 MIN READ

New Zealand EV charging startup Kwetta has raised A$15.8 million (NZ$17.5m/US$10.5m) in a Series A to tackle grid optimisation in the European market to power up electric buses and trucks. The round was led by the Kiwi outpost of Sydney fund Blackbird, with support from Clean Energy Finance Corporation-backed Virescent Ventures, Icehouse Ventures, and existing… Read more »

Funding

AI-based medical specialist copilot startup treated with $2 million

- January 24, 2025 < 1 MIN READ

A Sydney startup developing AI ‘co-pilot’ systems to automate medical reports for specialist doctors has raised $2 million from leaders in surgical healthcare. Medow Health AI was cofounded by Joel Freiberg, who has Crohn’s disease, and his brother Josh, inspired by the time their father, a respiratory physician, spent doing admin after work. Clinicians who’ve… Read more »