Fishburners has appointed Taryn Williams and Samantha Martin Williams to the board of the Early-stage startup community hub. They replace Jacqui Feeney, who leaves to become CEO of Screen Queensland, and Andrew Thornton, whose term has expired. Taryn Williams is the founder and CEO of theright.fit and WINK Models, and entrepreneurship thought leader. Fishburners CEO… Read more »
Sydney startup Scriibed, which offers safe, secure, and flexible digital economy work to women rebuilding their lives following domestic violence, has received backing from the NSW government to help them get into tech. The Paul Ramsay Foundation also co-investing to Scriibed’s not-for-profit arm, Banksia Academy, with $250,000 as part of a payment-by-outcomes contract. The government… Read more »
Merchandise data startup Flagship has raised $2 million in a Seed round to help retailers to make better data-based decisions of maximising product appeal for in-store shoppers The round led by Sydney VC Tidal Ventures, with support from Afterpay’s billionaire cofounder Nick Molnar, backing his brother Simon’s startup play. Macdoch and Co Ventures, NRL player Luke… Read more »
Australian bush flavours drinks brand Yaala Sparkling has landed a $125,000 investment from Shark Tank ‘shark’ Dr Catriona Wallace. The Queensland Indigenous-owned business, cofounded by Wiradjuri Yinaa woman Tara Croker and her mother Mel Davey, is developing a range of alcohol-free drinks flavoured with native ingredients sourced from Indigenous wild harvesters and local farmers. Yaala… Read more »
Sydney fintech Upstreet, an app that enables shoppers to earn fractional ASX shares from their spending, is shutting down, less than 18 months after banking $3 million The closure comes just a fortnight after the fintech marked its fourth anniversary on social media, having raised nearly $5 million in its lifetime. While the Upstreet website… Read more »
Six months after forming government in NSW following the defeat of the Coalition after 12 years in power, Labor has been dealing with a familiar ritual when it comes to a change of ruler who looks in the money cupboard to discover it’s empty. Now, with the state budget due to be handed down by… Read more »
Atlassian cofounder and billionaire investor Mike Cannon-Brookes has taken charge of the $30 billion SunCable solar power project he once labelled as “insane”, with the deal to buy it from the company’s administrators going through last week. Helietta Holdings a joint venture company affiliated with his family venture capital firm, Grok Ventures, in partnership with… Read more »
Quantum computing software startup Q-CTRL took home the 2023 Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards’ Most Innovative Startup award, sponsored by Dell for Startups. Here’s why they stood out in one of the event’s most competitive categories. Q-CTRL has pioneered the quantum infrastructure software segment, and become the leading software company in the quantum sector.… Read more »
A new venture capital fund looking to back medtech and deep tech health ventures is on the hunt for investors as it looks to raise up to $100 million. Synthesis Capital has emerged out of the MedTech Actuator’s Origin program, which has helped develop more than 70 leading medtech startups the past five years, including… Read more »
Pioneering brewery management software start-up Abbl is recipient of unicorn status Scalapay’s inaugural $10,000 Scale Up Scholarship Quiet Australian fintech Scalapay has launched a new $10,000 scholarship program to support founders as they take their startup to the next level. The Wollongong-headquartered buy now pay later (BNPL) became a $1 billion+ valuation “unicorn” in 2021 after… Read more »
Nourish Foods Pty Ltd, the parent company of organic children’s food brand Whole Kids, has been placed in voluntary administration, just months after it failed to raise $1 million via crowdfunding. The 18-year-old B Corp-certified family business is now being put on the market by administrators Tim Heesh and Mark Everingham of TPH Advisory after… Read more »
Small business invoice lender Waddle is getting new parents, with the Commonwealth Bank taking the fintech off Xero’s hands, three years after the ASX-listed accounting platform acquired the Sydney scaleup in an $80 million deal. Waddle, co-founded in 2014 by Simon Creighton and Nathan Andrews, makes it easier for banks and fintechs to lend to… Read more »
Regulation of Australia’s cryptocurrency sector remains a distant possibility, despite a catastrophic 12 months for the industry, after a government-dominated committee preferred to kick the can further down the road rather than embrace a private senator’s bill on the issue from opposition senator Andrew Bragg. The Senate Economics Legislative Committee, chaired by Labor’s Jess Walsh,… Read more »
Three decades after John Candy delivered the prophetic line “It’s not so much the heat, it’s the humidity that’ll kill you”, as comedy gold, iron ore miner Dr Andrew Forrest has turned the old idiom into a dire warning about climate change in a speech to business leaders. Candy said it as coach of the… Read more »
Canva’s $39 billion valuation has been given the tick of approval by the government financial watchdog, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), in a sign that investors have been getting it right when backing private tech companies. The regulator ran its ruler over Canva, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of its launch last week, as… Read more »
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