Hotel comparison site Trivago has been hit with $44.7 million in penalties by the Federal Court, misleading representations about hotel room rates on its website and in television advertising, in proceedings brought by the ACCC. The fine brings to an end a four-year legal battle against the Nasdaq-listed German tech company, launched by consumer watchdog the… Read more »
Every week on the Startup Daily TV show, we talk to more than two dozen founders, CEOs, investors and experts about what’s happening in tech. Now you can catch the best of the show with the weekly podcast, SUDS. While Elon Musk’s attention has been on Twitter, it’s been a good week for his side hustle,… Read more »
It started out as a simple idea that, on paper at least, seemed easy to execute: put recyclables into special bins to reduce landfill. But humans being human has turned recycling into a massive problem, with contamination – ie. rubbish – being put in recycling bins, which leads to the entire contents ending up in… Read more »
Hudled, the Sydney startup tackling problem of companies overspending on software, has hit US$100 million worth of software as a service (SaaS) spend managed on the platform. The benchmark comes just 12 months after the Hudled solution launched in April 2021. Co-founder Alex Millar said nearly 300 companies have now signed up to the platform,… Read more »
Federal government-backed capital investor the Australian Business Growth Fund (ABGF) has tipped $11 million into Sydney enterprise software company, Capsifi. Founded in 2013, Capsifi is a business architecture platform for large and complex companies to plan and manage transformation initiatives from concept through to execution. ABGF provides growth capital to Australian small-medium enterprises (SME), filling… Read more »
Exchange-traded funds provider ETF Securities is launching two funds in an Australian first, allowing people to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The ETFS 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (Code: EBTC), and ETFS 21Shares Ethereum ETF (Code: EETH) will list on Cboe Australia (formerly Chi-X) next week. They will both track the price of the respective cryptocurrency in Australian… Read more »
Sydney fintech Reach Alternative Investments has raised $2.2 million in an oversubscribed Seed round. The raise was led by VC Carthona Capital, with Reach’s post-money valuation hitting $11.2 million just eight months after it emerged from the Antler program. Reach CEO and co-founder Sam Phillips said more than $3 million was on the table, exceeding their… Read more »
At-home subscription gym platform Vitruvian has raised US$15 million (A$20m) in a Series A. The raise was led by Larsen Ventures and Steve Baxter’s syndicate group, Ten13. Vitruvian – not to be confused with the Sydney-based personal training service Vitruvian Health – will use the capital injection to increase its 40-strong team and ramp up… Read more »
New Zealand carbon credits assessment startup CarbonCrop has raised an additional NZ$1.9 million (A$1,73m) ahead of a Series A later this year. The round led by WNT Ventures, which previously backed its $1.5 million Seed raise in 2020. Also signing on now are the Impact Enterprise Fund, K1W1 and Icehouse Ventures Climate Fund. The startup launched… Read more »
Melbourne tech startup Llama Life has raised $950,000 in a pre-Seed round to help people improve their focus and productivity. The round was led by Black Sheep Capital, with additional investment from US investor Jason Calacanis and his VC syndicate LAUNCH, for Llama Life to rapidly scale the product, and grow the team. The desktop… Read more »
Sydney startup Canopy Study, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create adaptive and personalised ways to improve learning, has raised an $1.1 million in a Seed round. VC Folklore Ventures backed the edtech startup. The cash is earmarked for product development and to build out the team across Australia. Canopy Study uses AI and proprietary… Read more »
Acoustics data startup Ping, which monitors the sounds from wind turbine blades to detect problems and prevent damage, has cracked the Scandinavian market with its groundbreaking ice detection system The Adelaide startup developed the solar-powered Ping Monitor to analyse the sound generated by turbine blades as they rotate, delivering real-time data from any device remotely… Read more »
Brisbane startup DataBench has appointed its first external CEO with founder David Christmas handing over the reins veteran tech exec Paul Muller. Muller has been an advisor to the automated data privacy platform’s board for the past nine months and has previously been a C-suite exec for the likes of VMWare, SAP, Oracle, Solnet and… Read more »
The branding of Australian tech companies is predictable and bland, compared to global competitors, a first-of-its-kind study into the use of semiotic codes by local tech brands has found. The report, ‘Decoding Tech Brands’, a collaboration between The University of Sydney Business School, and market consultancy Hotwire Global, found that there’s an over-reliance on functional… Read more »
Market leading crowd-sourced funding (CSF) platform Birchal has raised $3 million for itself in the second fastest raise in local CSF history. It took just 63 minutes for the campaign to reach its maximum $3 million target after opening to investment following its expressions of interest phase. That’s the second fastest CSF campaign to reach… Read more »
The lessons from Uber, Ola and rideshare’s disruption is that in the end, the consumer still pays 
Here are the finalists in Fintech Australia’s 2024 Finnies awards 
Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar steps down as co-CEO 
Unicorn dehorned: Nasdaq-listed Brisbane EV charging venture Tritium collapses into receivership 
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
