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.

Kate Abrahams
Workplace

Communications analysis startup Traffyk.ai is taking a deep dive into how we talk in the office to figure out how to be better at listening to women

- March 11, 2024 2 MIN READ

Employee communications startup Traffyk.ai has launched a study to map and better understand gender disparities in leadership communication in the wake of International Women’s Day, The Leadership Listening Gap Project is a study that aims to quantify and address the issue of women’s voices being underrepresented and undervalued in leadership roles, as well as its… Read more »

elaine stead
Leadership

Elaine Stead launches a crowdsourced solution to sexism in Australia’s startup ecosystem

- March 11, 2024 3 MIN READ

Venture capital investor Elaine Stead has launched a free handbook on how to address sexism, harassment and other inappropriate behaviours in the tech sector. Dr Stead, the founder of Human VC, said hundreds of Australian tech leaders have contributed to a new crowdsourced resource, “Addressing Sexism in Australian Tech & Investment”. It contains a compilation… Read more »

Innovation Bay Eleanor Salt Horizon Melissa Ran
People

Eleanor Salt and Melissa Ran sign on with Innovation Bay

- March 7, 2024 2 MIN READ

Two leading women in Australia’s startup sector have joined tech community builder Innovation Bay. Eleanor Salt, who recently returned to Australia from Singapore after working with Sydney-based fintech Nano Lending Solutions, has signed on as Innovation Bay’s as community manager. Former Airtree head of community Melissa Ran, is joining as investment ambassador for the organisation’s… Read more »

Susan Close
Other

South Australian government backs women with female-founded business grants

- March 6, 2024 2 MIN READ

Women launching startups in South Australia will have access to government funding in a new grants program launched at _SOUTHSTART in Adelaide today. The Fearless Innovator Grants Program will offer funding to women-run early stage startups. The Malinauskas government has committed $110,000 from the Research and  Innovation Fund to support Women in Innovation (WINN) to… Read more »

Adam and James Gilmour,
Space

Gilmour is go: Queensland rocket builder’s launchpad approved for lift offs

- March 5, 2024 2 MIN READ

Gold Coast rocket startup Gilmour Space has been granted approval to launch from its north Queensland facility. Federal regulators gave the company the green light under new laws introduced in 2018 to help develop Australia’s fledging space technology sector. Gilmour has developed its own hybrid rockets with a more environmentally friendly propellant and plans to… Read more »

Funding

Healthcare startup Kismet pockets $12.6 million Seed raise

- March 5, 2024 2 MIN READ

A Melbourne-founded healthcare platform focused on the NDIS has banked US$8.2 million (A$12.6m) in Seed funding. The round led for Kismet by Dutch-listed internet investment firm Prosus Ventures and existing backer Airtree Ventures. The startup previously raised A$4m in pre-Seed capital in May last year, with from Airtree, Black Nova and Flying Fox. The startup,… Read more »

Metakosmos
Space

Spacetech startups score $9 million in latest Moon to Mars grants

- March 5, 2024 2 MIN READ

More than $9 million has been awarded to Australian startups focused on space supply chain solutions for NASA’s Artemis program for lunar exploration. The recipients include Victorian startup NextAero, which is developing cryogenic rocket propellants, and South Australia’s Neumann Space, which is focused on electric spacecraft propulsion. The both received $1 million grants from the… Read more »

Women in tech

Bro 2.0: Australian tech’s problem with investing in women includes how much they’re paid

- March 2, 2024 10 MIN READ

There’s no I in team, the saying goes, and according to Atlassian’s gender gap pay figures, no W either. The difference between base salaries for men and women at the software company, reported to the federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) report, released this week, show the blokes are paid 17.4% more as a… Read more »

Employment Hero founder Ben Thompson
Business

Employment Hero founder Ben Thompson fired a broadside at one of his investors, Hostplus, claiming the super fund ‘wants to put us out of business’

- February 29, 2024 3 MIN READ

Disrupting a $3.5 trillion industry is difficult. Just ask fintechs like Cannon-Brookes-backed Spaceship, Superhero, and Verve Super. Australia’s superannuation industry gets a $362 billion compulsory cake from fees – more than $30 billion annually – and wants to eat it all too. Treasury put out a consultation paper titled Securing Australians’ Superannuation late last year… Read more »

Bandicoot Imaging founders Dr David Monaghan, Dr Matthew Arnison, David Karlov, Dr Peter Fletcher
Funding

3D fashiontech startup Bandicoot Imaging Sciences banks $1 million pre-Seed round

- February 28, 2024 2 MIN READ

Fashiontech startup Bandicoot Imaging Sciences has raised $1 million in pre-Seed funding for its fabric digitisation technology. The round was led by Hong Kong VC qonvolv Ventures and included Precision Textiles and Mou Fung Ltd., as well as previous investor, NewSouth Innovations from UNSW.  Bandicoot Imaging previously raised $330,000 in July 2020 in an angel… Read more »

Business

Five years after hitting the ASX with a $610 million market cap, small business lender Prospa is delisting with a $74m takeover bid

- February 27, 2024 2 MIN READ

Small business lender will disappear from the ASX within months following a $74 million takeover bid from the Melbourne-based Salter Brothers Tech Fund. While the offer of $0.45 cents a share is a 22% premium on Prospa’s (ASX:PGL) closing price of $0.37 cents on Monday, it’s a far cry from when the business listed at… Read more »