A national biotech incubator is being set up in an Australia first following a $40 million grant from the federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) The incubator will be run by the Brandon Capital-managed Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF), which received the grant as part of $79 million in MRFF commercialisation grants to four… Read more »
Future of work startup Remote Social has raised a $1 million seed round. The raise was led by Black Nova VC, supported by neuroscience consultancy NeuroPower, Antler Australia – the startup emerged out of Antler Australia, and several strategic angels. Remote Social’s angel investors include Atlassian VP of engineering Zak Islam, Archangel Ventures partner Quentin Wallace,… Read more »
Australian payment fintech Azupay has taken on a $10 million equity investment from Ellerston Capital.
Video analytics platform Unleash live has raised $8 million in a series A round led by tech unicorn SafetyCulture. The five-year-old tech startup’s ‘Intelligent Remote Vision’ enables companies to improve productivity and safety, as well as reducing costs by using real-time video analytics to transform visual inspections. Roger Allen’s Patagorang Investment Group was among the… Read more »
A new, Sydney-based alternative proteins startup has joined the race for fake meat market share in Australia, raising $16 million in a seed round. Leading the investment in All G Foods was the federal government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which chipped in $5 million through its Clean Energy Innovation Fund alongside several prominent angel investors. The… Read more »
Raiz Invest founder and Group CEO, George Lucas appears to be locked in a power struggle with his own board and is seeking to remove three of the company’s four Non-Executive Directors, including chair Kevin Moore. The listed fintech’s board issued a statement late last week saying it had received notice from Lucas through his… Read more »
A biotech startup focused on treating cancer has raised $5.4 million, led by mining billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation. Adelaide-based Carina Biotech will use the cash injection to develop its “CAR-T” cell therapies to treat cancers such as colorectal cancer, which is the deadliest cancer for 25-34-year-old Australians. Carina’s founding shareholders, board and management also… Read more »
Sydney space startup HEO Robotics, has raised a seed round to launch its HEO Inspect product. The raise was led by David Harding, founder and CEO of Winton Group. The size of the investment was not disclosed. Angel investors Tim Parsons, Matt Ryall, Christian Thaler-Wolski and Phil Hayes-St Clair also backed the round, while existing… Read more »
Melbourne tech company Envato’s global ambitions are continuing under new CEO Hichame Assi with a New Zealand base being established. The online marketplace business now has 17 staff working remotely across Aotearoa, amid plans to up Envato’s global headcount to more than 100 staff over the next 12 months. Hichame Assi said the company expects… Read more »
ASX-listed PropTech Group (ASX: PTG) has enlisted the support of fintech startups to build a buy now pay later (BNPL) real estate play. The joint venture project, called PropPay, is a payments platform that will allow real estate agents and third-party platforms to offer payments and solutions to their customers for property-related services in Australia… Read more »
Project Dunbar will develop prototypes for shared platforms that will enable international settlements with digital currencies issued by multiple central banks. A blockchain-based system will hopefully cut transaction costs and times. The results will feed into plans for global and regional platforms and the G20 roadmap on better cross-border payments. The Reserve Bank of Australia… Read more »
Queensland fintech Paypa Plane has signed a deal to bring one of the key innovations of the New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA) – pre-authorised real-time payments – to banking next year Paypa Plane’s agreement is with payments platform Cuscal to launch PayTo in mid-2022. It’s one of the first examples of a bank and a… Read more »
The fintech sector has welcomed the findings of the federal government’s payments system review as giving local startups the chance to compete on a level playing field against tech giant such as Apple and Google. The Farrell review, commissioned by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg as part of 2020’s budget response to the pandemic, to investigate whether… Read more »
YBF Melbourne has appointed a blockchain expert-in-residence to help startups better understand the potential of distributed ledger technology. Karen Cohen, deputy chair of the Blockchain Australia Board, has taken on the role, and when the city’s latest lockdown hopefully lifts soon, she’ll be based at the Melbourne CBD co-working facility, where she will offer advice, introductions,… Read more »
Australian insurtech Open has raised a $31 million series B as it looks to launch in New Zealand and the UK in the 12 months. The round was led by Kiwi VC Movac and Latitude in the UK. Existing investor AirTree Ventures backed the scale-up once again, taking the total capital raised to $53 million.… Read more »
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