Recruitment software startup Reejig has scored $2.2 million from VC firm Right Click Capital and Arun Krishnankutty from OMKA Group in its first capital raise. Founded last year, Reejig uses artificial intelligence to analyse talent data to help companies find, recruit and develop talent, connecting HR systems providing insights into the skills of their workforce.… Read more »
Mining giant Rio Tinto is investing $10 million in a new startup accelerator to tackle potential skills gaps in Australia’s future workforce. The four-year Future Minds Accelerator program, supported by startup accelerator BlueChilli and Amazon Web Services (AWS), will target school-age learners, with prominent businessman and University of NSW Chancellor David Gonski chairing an… Read more »
The Australian Information Commissioner has launched Federal Court legal action against Facebook, accusing the social media giant of “systemic failures to comply with Australian privacy laws” involving more than 311,000 Australian users as the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal continues. The case alleges that between March 2014 to May 2015, Facebook disclosed the personal… Read more »
The $200 million “Big Battery”, installed in South Australia in 2017 by Elon Musk’s Tesla company, has almost paid for itself, saving consumers around $116 million in higher power costs in 2019, a study by engineering and project management firm Aurecon has concluded. That figure is nearly treble the $40 million saving in 2018. The… Read more »
Global design startup Canva is making International Women’s Day with a series of initiatives supporting women working for the company. While the tech unicorn has committed to creating more gender-balanced tech teams and increasing female representation in engineering, one of the biggest stresses parents face during school holidays is also being addressed, with a complimentary… Read more »
Welcome to Friday Here’s to the Australian women’s T20 cricket team being part of this weekend’s International Women’s Day celebrations. 1. DeepMind takes on COVID-19 Google’s UK artificial intelligence team at DeepMind have turned their attention to COVID-19. In a blog post the DeepMind team flagged its efforts in a way that left us slightly… Read more »
An environmental restoration startup that’s designed tree-planting drones using artificial and data-driven intelligence to re-seed barren ground, has raised more than $437,000 in crowdfunding equity. AirSeed Technologies, based in Sydney and Cape Town, South Africa, was co-founded by mechanical engineer Andrew Walker and geo-spatial data expert Andries Louw. The pair are driven by their… Read more »
1. Airbnb’s IPO may call in sick 007 is not the only one (see below) laid low by coronavirus. Airbnb’s much-anticipated IPO, previously announced for 2020, may be delayed until 2021, Bloomberg reports. Like many in the travel and tourism sector, Airbnb’s been hit hard by the sudden contraction brought on by travel bans and… Read more »
Hello hump day Here’s what we’ve spotted. 1. Apple settles US class action for US$500m Apple will pay up to US$500 million to settle a California class action over the software that slowed down older iPhone models. Under the deal, Apple will offer US$25 to affected iPhone owners, although that figure remains fluid depending… Read more »
Fintech Cheq has raised $1.75 million in debt and equity as part of its plan to take on the payday lender market with a cheaper cash-on-demand service. The raise includes $1.4 million in equity and a $350,000 debt facility from investors including Sydney’s VFS Group, with Cheq CEO and co-founder Tarek Ayoub saying they’d received… Read more »
Australian beautician and hairdresser booking app Glamazon has found an exit after three years, acquired by the Indian home services marketplace Urban Company for an undisclosed sum. Co-founded by former Shark Tank contestants Lauren Silvers and Lisa Maree, Glamazon had raised $1.2 million in funding during its short life and had around 1,700 beauty workers on… Read more »
Digital bank Xinja is looking for another $50 million from investors in a Series D raise from crowdfunding. The bank has already secured the first tranche of $20 million and the fortnight-long raise through Equitise is offering 12.254 million shares – taking the total to nearly 70 million – at $4.08 a share to… Read more »
The fintech sector has the potential to deliver up to $16 billion in efficiencies to the financial industry via artificial intelligence, new research commissioned by the ACS reveals. The IT sector professional body recently presented the research by AI analytics firm Faethm to a Senate Select Committee investigating fintech and regtech ACS CEO Andrew Johnson… Read more »
Australia’s official cash rate now sits at 0.50% following a 25 basis points cut It’s the fourth rate cut since June 2019 amid growing concerns about the impact of the coronavirus on the global economy RBA says “global growth in the first half of 2020 will be lower than earlier expected” While housing prices… Read more »
Welcome to Tuesday and so-called Autumn. Here’s what else is hotting up. 1. Musk calls time on F-35s Elon Musk doesn’t mind expressing unpopular views. On Friday, the Tesla founder was talking to a room full of US fighter pilots at Orlando’s Air Warfare Symposium when he told a USAF Lt Gen that “the fighter jet… Read more »
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