ASX-listed BNPL Afterpay helped generate an impressive $21 billion in sales in FY21, up 90% on the previous year, thanks to 16 million customers. But the company also did a stellar job growing its losses, which jumped 600%, from a $19.8m statutory loss in FY20 to $156.3 million last financial year. With a $39 billion… Read more »
The She Loves Tech competition has chosen its 10 finalists for the 2021 competition. To qualify, the startups must be early stage, tech-oriented and seeking seed, angel or series A funding (under US$5m) with at least an MVP, and at least have a female founder; majority female users or consumers; or have technology with a… Read more »
Australian fintech Douugh (ASX:DOU) has continued its US expansion plans launching a Douugh Wealth, an integrated robo-advisory investment service, as part of its app Founder and CEO Andy Taylor said the launch of Douugh Wealth “a critical milestone on our journey to becoming a truly global ‘responsible’ financial super app” to help users manage their… Read more »
One of New Zealand’s largest ecommerce and daily deals websites, GrabOne, is being sold to Global Marketplace, the Australian company behind Click Frenzy, for NZ$17.5 million (A$16.8m). Melbourne-based Global Marketplace (GMP) also owns Click Central and e-commerce analytics firm Power Retail and is reportedly gearing up for an IPO in 2022. The company is majority… Read more »
Ecommerce retailer Kogan.com saw its shares fall nearly 16% after the company reported an 87% drop in net profit after tax in the 2021 financial years to just $3.5 million. Kogan shares (ASX: KGN) lost $2.07 to close at $11.06, after the company reduced margins and ramped up marketing to shift an excess of stock.… Read more »
A medtech startup that helps aspiring doctors practice their clinical reasoning skills with AI-powered virtual patients has raised a $5 million seed round. The investment in Oscer was led by Blackbird, joined by January Capital, Inventures, Archangel Ventures and angel investors Brendan Hill, and Jeff Bargman and values the business at $20 million. The University… Read more »
Jelix Ventures has raised a new $15 million for a new fund to back early stage startups and the Sydney VC ramps up its investment plans. The fund has already made its first investments, including software development startup FL0, quantum computing venture Quantum Brilliance and agtech Bitwise Ag, with several more deals already in the… Read more »
Carbonix, the Sydney startup that pivoted from high-speed sailing to drones, has raised $6.3 million in a late seed round ahead of US ambitions. The round was led by ASX-listed defence aerospace manufacturer Quickstep (ASX: QHL), and comes as the venture lands a major deal with electricity supplier Ausgrid to use Carbonix drones to monitor… Read more »
Work skills retraining startup EntryLevel is gearing up for a seed raise after pre-seed funding from Blackbird Ventures saw the virtual trainer reskill more than 30,000 people in just six months. Blackbird tipped $350,000 into the cohort-based edutech startup, which has an ambition to help one billion jobseekers around the world launch their careers through… Read more »
A satellite designed and built by staff and students from Curtin University’s Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC) is set to head to space this week aboard the SpaceX mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Binar-1 CubeSat is Western Australia’s first home-grown satellite and will be part of the cargo aboard the SpaceX… Read more »
Acumino, a recently launched Singapore venture studio focused on emerging technologies and disruptive innovation, has acquired the intellectual property assets of Melbourne-based startup Speakeasy. Speakeasy launched a social video streaming platform to deliver interactive live events to large-scale global audiences, launching in March last year just as the Covid pandemic hit. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) venture… Read more »
Melbourne hearing startup Hearables3D has raised $1 million ahead of plans to expand into the European and US markets. The investment was led by Significant Early Venture Capital and Starfish Ventures. The hearing loss startup, spun out of Swinburne University, also recently landed a $200,000 grant from the Australian Government’s Accelerating Commercialisation program. Hearables3D set… Read more »
The household fight between parents at work and children learning online for bandwidth at Zoom meetings appears to be driving a shift to higher NBN speed plans for Australian homes. The ACCC’s latest NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report says around 400,000 residential broadband customers moved to higher speed plans in the June 2021 quarter, just… Read more »
The current lockdown in Greater Sydney, which began on June 26, will now last until at least the end of September, with the NSW government adding further restrictions to the capital’s hotspots, including curfews. Masks will be mandatory when outside your home, except when exercising, everywhere in NSW from Monday, August 23 (including regional NSW… Read more »
Skills training startup Forage has raised US$25 million (A$35m) in a series B. The round was led by Blackbird Ventures, with participation from Telstra Ventures, Citi Ventures, Gaingels, Cap Table Coalition, ETF@JFFLabs and existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and FundersClub. The raise comes less than 12 months after the four-year-old Y Combinator graduate, previously known as InsideSherpa, landed a US$9.3 million series A. Forage… Read more »
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