FY20 startup funding nearly $7 billion Private investment almost doubled to $4.48bn Blackbird led Australian VC investors with 14 deals worth $490m More than 700 Australian startups have received nearly 900 rounds of funding from around 400 investors during the 2020 financial year according to the latest annual funding report by data analysis company Techboard.… Read more »
The Research and Development Tax Incentive (R&DTI) program is one of the most crucial yet fraught programs supporting the growth of Australian startups. The R&DTI helps offset some of the costs that businesses invest into eligible R&D and the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources is looking at reforms to improve how companies engage… Read more »
SME online lender Capify has raised $14 million in an equity round with the Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division continuing to back the fintech through its existing credit facilities. The investment – Capify’s first, having landed a $135 million credit facility from Goldman Sachs in 2019, marks a return to lending for the fintech after… Read more »
Presentation platform SalesPreso has raised $5 million, and has also rebranded as LivePreso as it ramps up its offering for business. Shearwater Growth Ventures, the $50 million Sydney VC fund co-founded by former WiseTech directors Charles Gibbon and Mike Gregg, with managing partner Zac Zavos, led the round. Melbourne investor and MedAdvisor chair Chris Ridd… Read more »
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced an $800 million digital technology plan for business as part of the ongoing stimulus response to the Covid-19 pandemic The PM said next Tuesday’s Budget would support businesses to recover and create more jobs. The major areas of focus for the plan include digitisation of the government’s business register,… Read more »
Shares in fintech MoneyMe (ASX: MME) have jumped more than 12% in opening trade on Tuesday after the company announced a new $167 million warehouse funding facility led by Westpac, that will cut its funding costs by more than 50%. The company put its shares in a trading halt yesterday pending the announcement. The deal… Read more »
Airwallex has topped up its US$160 million (AU$254m) series D raise from April with an extra US$40 million ($57m) with Skip Capital, the family investment fund run by Kim Jackson with her husband, Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar. Regular backer Square Peg Capital also returned for the latest cash injection, which continues to value the… Read more »
Financial platform Douugh will finally make its long-awaited ASX listing this week in a reverse takeover of suspended telco Ziptel. The listing is the latest twist and turn for the fintech, which in recent months raised $750,000 from equity crowdfunding as part of a $6 million series A round ahead of the float. Douugh doesn’t… Read more »
Welcome to our new weekly column, where we talk to CEOs, founders and tech leaders about the benefits they’ve discovered from WFH in 2020. We kick off the series with former Xero boss and investor Chris Ridd, who chairs healthtech startup MedAdvisor, and likes to jump on his rowing machine between meetings when he’s not… Read more »
Big four bank NAB has launched the first bug bounty program for Australian banking in a partnership with crowd-sourced security company Bugcrowd. NAB will reward vetted security researchers who uncover previously undisclosed vulnerabilities in the bank’s tech environment. But to take part, you must have an ‘Elite Trust Score’ on the Bugcrowd platform. San Francisco-based Bugcrowd… Read more »
Sydney-based non-alcoholic spirits company, Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Spirit Co. has $16 million in seed round funding 18 months after launching as the startup’s growth continues to grow exponentially worldwide. The backers include VRD Investment, Doehler Ventures, DLF Venture and Maropost Ventures, with family funds in Europe, America and Australia tipping in. Lyre’s CEO and co-founder Mark… Read more »
Shares in buy-now-pay-later fintech Afterpay (ASX:APT) are down more than 6% trade on Thursday after the company announced Chief Financial Offer (CFO) Luke Bortoli will step down after three years in the role. Rebecca Lowde, Chief Executive of ASX-listed Salmat, and the former CFO of fintech Bravura Solution, will become CFO on October 6. Afterpay… Read more »
Melbourne-based ESN Cleer is set to deliver a major medical breakthrough in the next 12 months as it releases the world’s first early risk detection screening for heart disease. The medtech startup has developed a simple saliva test that can be used by GPs to detect early risk for developing heart failure, which kills 10… Read more »
NBN Co. will borrow $3.5 billion in additional debt from the private sector in order to upgrade the broadband network to more than six million homes over the next three years. Just as NBN Co. is “finishing” the national broadband roll-out, federal communications minister, Paul Fletcher will outline the latest investment at the National Press… Read more »
Australia’s economy grew by an additional $126 billion, or 6.5%, during 2019 in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) thanks to productivity gains provided by the digital technology, according to a new report by Deloitte Access Economics. The annual ACS Australia’s Digital Pulse report, prepared by Deloitte for IT professionals association ACS, found that growth… Read more »
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