Treasurer Josh Frydenberg unveiled the full picture of the Morrison government’s 2021 budget tonight, following a series of headline announcements over recent weeks. Among the key details of a Coalition government that previously sought to hammer the Labor opposition over its deficit budgets during the GFC a decade earlier was the fact that the budget… Read more »
After 20 years of rhetoric from both sides of politics focusing on getting back to surplus, this year’s budget continues pandemic spending in the hope of getting the economy back on track as the pandemic starts to settle. The projected deficit is $161 billion for 2021-22, but rather than tackling this in the next four… Read more »
Australia is coming back. In the face of a once‑in‑a‑century pandemic, the Australian spirit has shone through. Doctors and nurses on the front line. Teachers and students in the virtual classroom. Businesses, big and small, keeping the economy moving. ‘Team Australia’ at its best. A nation to be proud of. We have come so far… Read more »
Entrepreneur Cyan Ta’eed has called time on the social enterprise she’d poured her heart into over the last three years, Hey Tiger, because she was unable to make the business financially sustainable. Hey Tiger produced a range of flavoured chocolate bars, and sought to shine a light on a range of social issues in the… Read more »
Welcome to Budget Day! Here’s what we’ve spotted in tech from around the world. Pedalling backwards Covid craze bike business Peloton dropped its Q3 earnings late last week, and the numbers are impressive, with Q3 total revenue up 141% to US$1.2 billion, digital subscriptions rising 404% to around 891,000 for the quarter and total members… Read more »
ASX-listed payments platform Tryo (ASX: TYR) is spending $22.5 million to acquire NAB-backed digital health payment startup Medipass Solutions The deal gives an exit for the four-year-old Melbourne-based startup’s key investor, NAB Ventures. Founder Peter Williams and CEO Jonathan Davey will also sell their stakes, in the 100% acquisition by Tyro, but will remain with… Read more »
Billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space launch company Blue Origin has announced it will sell its first flights into microgravity to the highest bidder. Blue Origin and its two greatest competitors in the “space tourism” field, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, claim to be advancing humanity through the “democratisation” of space. But these joyrides aren’t opening up access… Read more »
Fintech Athena Home Loans has raised $90 million in its latest funding round. A range of previous investors returned for the series D, led by Square Peg Capital, including AirTree Ventures, Macquarie Bank, superannuation funds AustralianSuper, Hostplus, and Sunsuper, plus Salesforce Ventures, and Apex Capital. Athena previously raised $70 million in a series C in… Read more »
Happy Monday! And welcome to a special Elon-gated edition of the guide. Musk unmasks Tesla boss Elon Musk chose legendary US comedy show Saturday Night Live to reveal he has the high-functioning autism spectrum disorder Asperger’s syndrome, saying he was the first person with the developmental disability to host the show. “Look, I know I… Read more »
Competition regulator the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) is applying to the Federal Court to appear as part of a local legal battle between Fortnite maker Epic Games and Apple over control of the App Store. Epic has filed an anti-competition complaints against Apple in the European Union, UK, US and Australia over App… Read more »
As the number of coronavirus in India surpassed 20 million this week, resulting in more than 220,000 deaths, a group of leading Australian tech and investment companies, led by Canva, have stepped in to launch a fundraising campaign to get much-needed medical supplies to the nation. Canva, in collaboration with SafetyCulture, Airtasker, Blackbird Ventures and… Read more »
A large piece of space debris, possibly weighing several tonnes, is currently on an uncontrolled reentry phase (that’s space speak for “out of control”), and parts of it are expected to crash down to Earth over the next few weeks. If that isn’t worrying enough, it is impossible to predict exactly where the pieces that… Read more »
The federal government revealed some of its budget plans this week with prime minister Scott Morrison and treasurer Josh Frydenberg announcing a $1.2 billion Digital Economy Strategy. The headline figure is not as impressive as it initially sounds, with that figure spread out over six years rather than the usual budget stretch of four. And… Read more »
Data exchange startup Data Republic has been placed in voluntary administration after seven years and raising more than $30 million from prominent investors including ANZ, Westpac’s Reinventure, NAB Ventures, Singtel Innov8, Qantas Loyalty and Singapore Airlines. Founded in Sydney by Paul McCarney and Danny Gilligan in 2014, the business had expanded to have offices in… Read more »
Facebook’s quasi-independent Oversight Board on May 5, 2021, upheld the company’s suspension of former President Donald Trump from the platform and Instagram. The decision came four months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg banned Trump “indefinitely” for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The board chastised Facebook for failing to… Read more »
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