Drone delivery startup Swoop Aero has turned its attention from remote access to urban areas with its new aircraft, Kite. The Melbourne tech company has established its reputation getting medical supplies to remote areas in Africa countries such as Congo and Malawi, including transporting COVID tests and vaccines, using the ‘Kookaburra’ drones, which have clocked… Read more »
Melbourne software startup Programa has raised $2 million in a seed round. The raise was co-led by Sydney VCs Equity Venture Partners (EVP) and Investible. Programa’s cloud-based software converts tasks that might take designers two days to complete into jobs that take just minutes, bringing interior designers and architects out of the spreadsheet age and… Read more »
The soaring 56-storey Salesforce Tower at Sydney’s Circular Quay will be home to a new innovation hub focused on tackling climate change. Named ‘Greenhouse’, the hub spans 3,800sqm on first three floors at 180 George Street and is due to open next year. It will offer affordable office space for climate tech startups and scaleups,… Read more »
Customer communications startup Pendula has landed a $6.75 million round just three months after setting out to raise $5 million. The raise was led by MA Financial Group – previously known as Moelis Australia – and supported by existing backer Equity Venture Partners, as the business eyes overseas expansion and will be used to improve… Read more »
A non-bank lender looking to offer same-day bridging loans for property buyers has raised $50 million in venture debt. Sydney-based TechLend markets itself as “Afterpay for home loans” offering “interest-free”, paperless, bridging finance with same-day pre-approval. San Francisco lender Partners for Growth, which has a Sydney office, has delivered the $50 million in venture debt… Read more »
Jack Dorsey’s payments platform Square is buying ASX-listed Australian fintech Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) in a deal worth US$29 billion (A$39bn). Anthony Eisen and Mick Molnar, co-founders of the buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform will join Square when the deal goes through early in 2022. They will help lead Afterpay’s respective merchant and consumer… Read more »
Sales at ASX-listed buy now pay later (BNPL) fintech Afterpay passed $20 billion a year ahead of schedule. The company’s (ASX: APT) continued astonishing growth, revealed in the 2021 financial year figures today, comes as the fintech announced a proposed sale and merger with US-listed payments company Square for A$39 billion. Afterpay posted FY21 underlying… Read more »
Partners and principals at leading Australian venture capital firms, including Square Peg Capital, Main Sequence Ventures, Giant Leap, Jelix Ventures, and Flying Fox Ventures have signed an open letter to the editor the AFR about what the investment community sees as “an ongoing smear campaign” against colleague Dr Elaine Stead. The letter follows a high… Read more »
A $2.1 million National Space Industry Hub to help bolster the NSW space ecosystem will be set up at Sydney startup incubator Cicada Innovations. NSW investment minister Stuart Ayres said the state was already home to more than a third of Australian space startups. “There is no better place to research, develop and commercialise space… Read more »
Atlassian’s June quarter revenue is up 30% on 12 months ago to US$559.5 million (A$760m), but the losses continue for the 19-year-old software giant, which posted a US$213.1 million net loss for Q4 FY21. The revenue figure is a considerable beat on market expectations and the company’s own Q3 prediction of US$513m to $528m. The… Read more »
Employee engagement platform Culture Amp has raised US$100 million (A$135m) in a series F that doubles the tech startup’s valuation to $2 billion in just two years. The fresh round gives the business a US$1.5 billion (A$2.02bn) valuation, double its worth since 2019’s US$82 million (AU$121m) in series E. The raise was led by TDM… Read more »
Just a few days after Salesforce agreed to pay US$27.7 billion for the workplace messaging app. That’s all.
Australian investors poured $47 million into companies through crowd-sourced funding (CSF) in the 2021 financial year – double the FY20 figure – as the sector continues to boom. Funded!, the third annual report into Australian CSF capital raising, prepared by market leader Birchal, reveals how quickly the sector is growing, with the number of CSF… Read more »
Peak body Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) has written to advertising regulator Ad Standards asking for Afterpay’s TV ad featuring Rebel Wilson to be banned over its “gratuitous and inappropriate” use of a children. The ad features Wilson sitting in a play room with a young child saying “if credit cards and cash had a baby… Read more »
The co-founders of fintech unicorn Airwallex, are launching an early-stage venture capital fund to invest invest in tech startups supporting the payments platform. The fund, named Capital 49, plans to raise US$200 million (A$270m) through the Airwallex founders and other investors. Capital 49 has completed investments in two fintech firms. The VC is planning to… Read more »
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