Simon Thomsen

Simon has been editor of Startup Daily since 2019.

He hosted the Startup Daily show on streaming service ausbiz.com.au from 2020 to 2023.

He was previously associate editor of Business Insider Australia, a national restaurant critic, editor of The Good Food Guide, and newspaper proprietor during a 30-year career in journalism and publishing.

He's also an investor in early stage startups.

Simon chaired the environment committee of industry lobby group Australian Business Ltd's (now NSW Business Chamber) during the Kyoto agreement era, debating cow farts with mining execs.

Cryptocurrency

Iran had a massive crackdown on Bitcoin mining, seizing 45,000 machines, after the country was hit by blackouts

- January 19, 2021 < 1 MIN READ

Iranian police confiscated more 45,000 bitcoin mining machines, chewing up around 95 megawatts per hour (MWh) of electricity, because the miners were using cheaper, subsidised power illegally, according to local media agency Tasnim News. To put that in perspective, that’s around half the capacity of South Australia’s Tesla “big battery” plant (aka Hornsdale). Iranian authorities… Read more »

Zip
Fintech

Zip raised an extra $26.7 million from its eager shareholders

- January 18, 2021 < 1 MIN READ

Buy-now-pay-later fintech Zip has nearly doubled the amount it raised in its Share Purchase Plan (SPP), issuing more than 10 million new shares worth $56,739,524. Zip (ASX:Z1P) set out to raise $30 million through the SPP, but also accepted an extra $26,739,524.95 in oversubscriptions from eligible shareholders, who could subscribe for up to $30,000 worth… Read more »

Topics

Your 90-second guide to the day in tech

- January 18, 2021 2 MIN READ

Hello and welcome to Startup Daily’s new morning column giving you a quick run down on the things you need to know both locally and globally about what’s happening in tech. Every day we’ll cover the breaking news of the day and the big talking points from overnight to get the day off to a… Read more »

Cryptocurrency

Yes, a guy has nearly lost $340 million worth of Bitcoin after forgetting his password, but he’s a small part of a $200 billion problem

- January 15, 2021 2 MIN READ

If you’re feeling a bit sad about your fortunes at the moment, spare a thought for San Francisco-based computer programmer Stefan Thomas, who, around a decade ago, made this video and took 7,002 Bitcoins as payment for the job. The New York Times has the sad tale of German-born Thomas – a former CTO at blockchain… Read more »

Other tech

Patient monitoring startup Digitology Healthtech raises $900,000 after the CEO used the medtech to save his own life

- January 14, 2021 2 MIN READ

When Michael Koss landed in India last year to work on developing his joint venture Australian-Indian startup, Digitology Healthtech, little did he realise the important role the technology would play in his own health and saving his life.  Koss is CEO of Health and Patient Services (HPS), which is developing the startup with Indian healthcare… Read more »

Funding

Beforepay raises another $9 million as it looks to IPO

- January 13, 2021 < 1 MIN READ

Beforepay (previously Cheq), the fintech version of a payday lender, has raised $9 million in a pre-IPO round led by Alium Capital. The company is looking to list this year, having now raised around $17 million. Its previous round was $4 million just two months ago, led by Vocus founder and Airtasker chair James Spenceley. The… Read more »

Funding

Security industry software platform Guardhouse raises $850,000 in a seed round to take on the UK market

- January 13, 2021 < 1 MIN READ

Security industry tech platform Guardhouse raised $850,000 in seed funding late last year as it prepared to launch in the UK market.   The Sydney startup, co-founded in 2018 by Julian Cartwright, Jack Alpe, Andrew Longworth and Keith Longworth aims to be an to be an all-in-one solution for security industry workforce management to improve workflow between… Read more »

After Hours

A uni student has come up with an app to make it easier to travel in the covid era

- January 12, 2021 1 MIN READ

As people hope to travel again in 2021, a healtchare worker  has come up with a tech solution to help navigate the covid-safe demands of airlines. Erika Harman, a dietician studying for her Masters in Healthcare Innovations at Bond University, developed the app VaxVisa to carry verifiable digital certificates for vaccination and laboratory test results. She… Read more »

Funding

Cultured meat startup Vow raises $7.7 million in seed round

- January 7, 2021 < 1 MIN READ

Cell-based meat production startup Vow Foods has raised $7.7m (US$6m) in a seed round led by Square Peg Capital, alongside Blackbird Ventures, Grok Ventures and new investor Tenacious Ventures. James Tynan from Square Peg will join Vow’s board. The cellular agtech startup, based in Western Sydney, began with lab-grown meat from pork and kangaroo cells… Read more »

Brighte
Funding

Grok Ventures backs Brighte in $100 million raise

- January 4, 2021 < 1 MIN READ

Green energy finance provider Brighte has raised $100 million to move into energy retailing. The $100 million round was led by Grok Ventures, the family investment company run by billionaire Annie Cannon-Brookes and her husband Mike. Founder & CEO Katherine McConnell said the fund will be used in three key areas: acquiring more solar households,… Read more »