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.

Fintech

Fintech Bloom launches Australia’s first climate impact investing app

- April 1, 2022 2 MIN READ

Fintech startup Bloom is launching the country’s first climate impact investing app. Co-f0under Camille Socquet-Clerc said the Bloom fund will feature a mix of green bonds, publicly-listed stocks and privately-held projects previously available to wholesale and sophisticated investors, such as solar farms. Bloom’s fund includes 75 investments, including big players like Tesla and BluGlass. Socquet-Clerc… Read more »

Gavin Upiter
Funding

B2B pharmacy marketplace Directo raises $2.3 million Seed round

- April 1, 2022 2 MIN READ

Melbourne startup Directo has raised $2.3 million in Seed funding for its B2B marketplace for the pharmacy sector.  The round was led by Sydney seed VC Investible to scale its networked two-sided online marketplace, which offers B2C-like price transparency,  immediacy and convenience while streamlining logistics and invoicing. Founder Gavin Upiter said Directo’s proprietary enterprise technology platform… Read more »

Podcast

This week on SUDS, the Startup Daily TV podcast: Tech responds to the budget, what role do unis play in startup building, tax break boost for video games

- April 1, 2022 2 MIN READ

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. Every Friday, co-hosts Simon Thomsen and Eliot Hastie, offer the weekly washup from Startup Daily TV. It’s… Read more »

Funding

Tim Draper, one of America’s most successful startup investors, has backed drone reforestation startup Lord of the Trees in $1.67 million pre-Seed

- April 1, 2022 2 MIN READ

US billionaire Tim Draper, famed for investments in the likes of PayPal, Tesla, Twitter, Coinbase and Robinhood, has backed Australian-based drone planting eco-tech firm Lord of the Trees (LOTT) in a $US1.25 million (A$1.67m) pre-Seed round.  The investment values LOTT, founded in 2019, at A$7 million. Lord of the Trees is a global reforestation company… Read more »

Future of work

Revealed: The final design for the new office towers next to Atlassian’s Tech Central HQ

- March 31, 2022 2 MIN READ

The developers behind the twin towers office complex at Sydney’s Tech Central innovation hub have lodged their final Development Application (DA) for the $3 billion redevelopment of the site.  Central Place Sydney, a joint project between Dexus and Frasers Property Group, is adjacent to Central Station at the southern end of Henry Deane Plaza, sits… Read more »

Bored Ape
Cryptocurrency

Visa is helping the arts and creator economy understand the potential of NFTs

- March 31, 2022 < 1 MIN READ

Credit card giant Visa has launched an immersive program to help arts sector creators tackle the potential of NFTs  The Visa Creator Program aims to help digital-first artists, musicians, fashion designers, and filmmakers build their business through non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The program will help arts-based entrepreneurs deepen their understanding of the technology and platforms underpinning NFT… Read more »

Politics

‘A grim outcome’: startup and tech sector reactions to the 2022 Budget measures

- March 30, 2022 15 MIN READ

There’s been a mixed reaction to the Morrison government’s last budget before the election. While The Tech Council of Australia welcomed the measures for small business offering additional tax deductions for employers who invest in digital skills training for their staff, while William Buck startup advisor and accountant Jack Qi gave the budget a “C-”… Read more »

Other tech

Here are the 11 startups in the latest Macquarie University Incubator

- March 29, 2022 4 MIN READ

From clean water to crypto and colostomy breakthroughs, the 11 startups in the Macquarie University Incubator are the most diverse the five-year program has seen, according to director Melissa Ryan.  The 2022 cohort follows in the wake last year’s alumni, which have already attracted more than $44 million in external funding.  The six-month Startup Educate… Read more »

Funding

Queensland biotech venture Microbio hunts for cash as bloodstream infection test trials prove positive

- March 29, 2022 2 MIN READ

Biotech scale-up Microbio is looking to raise capital following positive domestic pilot study results for its bloodstream infection (BSI) test ahead of taking it to market The Brisbane-based venture’s InfectID-BSI test has the potential for significant improvement in detecting bloodstream infection and sepsis, the world’s mostly deadly infection, with 11 million deaths annually. InfectID-BSI is an in… Read more »

R&D, science, man looking in microscope
Accelerator

CSIRO’s VC fund Main Sequence is backing biotech startups in a new UNSW accelerator

- March 28, 2022 2 MIN READ

The University of NSW entrepreneurship program, UNSW Founders, will launch a new venture-backed accelerator for deep tech startups focused on synthetic biology and biotech with support from the CSIRO’s VC arm, Main Sequence. SynBio 10x will run in conjunction with the RNA Institute and UNSW School of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences. Main Sequence will invest $120,000… Read more »