Tests of commonly available fabric masks by scientists at Flinders University has concluded that they significantly reduce the number of aerosolised viruses a wearer could be exposed to. The study, published in Pathogens, found even the poorest performing mask filtered at least 50% of viruses. The viral filtration (VFE) was calculated for two sizes of… Read more »
Steve Baxter’s investment syndicate TEN13 and LA-based angel investor Kate Vale, Google Australia’s first employee, are part of a US$1.3 million (AU$1.8m) seed round for audio platform Vurbl, which hopes to become the YouTube of audio. The startup, which is in beta and will launch before the end of the year also attracted support from LA… Read more »
Neobanks continue to be among the best startup employers in Australia to work for according to the latest list of the from job networking website LinkedIn. Judo Bank has topped the list for the second year in a row, followed by fellow neobank Volt. Xinja also makes the top 10 for another year. While LinkedIn… Read more »
Slingshot founder Trent Bagnall has launched a manufacturing accelerator The Melt will invest around $1m annually in industrial startups It’s also supporting corporates looking to ramp up R&D The first $1m raise was done in a fortnight Industrial prototyping lab and innovation accelerator, The Melt has announced its first investments in five startups with an… Read more »
Small business lender Lumi is on the hunt for $20 million from investors to expand its team and markets over the next year. Cornerstone backer the Josh Liberman Investment Group will tip in again as the company looks to develop additional product lines and improve its technology platform. The fintech offers unsecured business loans of… Read more »
The plant-based mince and burgers developed by the CSIRO-backed alternative protein startup v2food will start hitting the shelves in more than 600 Woolworths stores from today, less than a year after it was first released as the burger in the Hungry Jack’s Rebel Whopper. V2food launched last year in a collaboration between the CSIRO, its… Read more »
Atlassian says it will invest US$50 million in early-stage startups, but the funds come with a catch – the ventures must all be working on projects that help build out the US-listed tech giant (Nasdaq: TEAM). The company’s US-based head of corporate development, Chris Height, said in a blog post on the company site that… Read more »
Australian design giant Canva has cracked the top 10 for the first time in the annual Forbes Cloud 100 list, which rank the world’s top private cloud companies. Canva came in at no. 7, with Melbourne fintech Airwallex at 61 and employee experience platform Culture Amp at 80, as the three Australian cloud-based tech startups to make… Read more »
Chris Minehan has the best of both worlds, working from an office near Sydney’s famed Manly beach, while running another office in the heart of Europe in German port city of Hamburg. His Digital Marketing agency, ClickedOn, was founded in 2014. “We make you successful online” is the company’s mission. ClickedOn has a global customer… Read more »
The Morrison government today announced A$1.9 billion over ten years to develop clean technology in industry, agriculture and transport. In some ways it’s a step in the right direction, but a far cry from what’s needed to drive Australia’s shift to a low emissions economy. The big change involves what the money is for. The… Read more »
New Zealand anti-money laundering tech startup First AML has raised AU$7.3 million in a Series A round. The raise was led by US-basedBedrock Capital, with support from existing investors including Pushpay founder Chris Heaslip and Icehouse Ventures. It’s Bedrock Capital’s first APAC investment. While Australia’s big four banks have regularly fallen foul of regulators over… Read more »
Like the hospitality industry itself, Sydney startup SHFTHero was forced to pivot soon after it launched and the restaurant industry was shut down by the pandemic. The tech business set out to help the hospitality and events sector with casual staff . After an initial roll out of the staff sharing app in 2019, had more… Read more »
Consumer fintech FelixGroup (ASX: FXL) – rebranding under its BNPL name, Humm – has scored a major victory over the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in the fight for a slice of the renewable energy sector by buy now, pay later providers. The Australian Competition Tribunal issued a summary determination today rejecting the consumer… Read more »
Swedish buy now pay later (BNPL) fintech Klarna is now Europe’s most valuable fintech – the 4th most valuable globally – following a US$650 million equity raise that values the business at US$10.65 billion (AU$14.54bn). The latest valuation nearly doubles the US$5.5 billion valuation following a US$460 million raise in August 2019. The round was… Read more »
A compostable and biodegradable pallet wrap, a bodysurfing handplane made from plastic collected from the Great Barrier Reef and natural baby wipes with Manuka honey are among the five ideas by Australian entrepreneurs that have won grants, worth more than $80,000 each, from Amazon Launchpad. The startups are Great Wrap, Crockd, Ethicool Books, WAW Handplanes… Read more »
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