Venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures has landed support from some of the countries biggest superannuation funds as well as the Commonwealth’s Australia’s sovereign wealth fund to build a record $500 million investment fund – its fourth. The Sydney-headquartered VC last raised $261 million in 2018 and has now placed $1.3 billion in the startup sector… Read more »
More than 1 million Victorians will no longer be heading to work, with around 500,000 being stood down as retailers, factories and corporates are forced to close in a bid to reduce coronavirus infections in the state. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also announced on Monday afternoon that the number of people allowed to work in… Read more »
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced another 250,000 workers will be sent home from their workplace – to either work from home or without a job for the next six weeks – under tough new lockdowns in a bid to slow the state’s growing covid-19 numbers. “If we’re serious about driving this thing down – and… Read more »
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released its draft news media bargaining code, announced on Friday by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. The draft code allows commercial news businesses to bargain – individually or collectively – with Google and Facebook, in order to be paid for news the tech giants publish on their services. According to… Read more »
US software giant Microsoft is pushing ahead with plans to buy the US arm of social media site TikTok despite threats from US President Donald Trump to ban the Chinese-owned site. If the deal proceeds, the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian operations would be included in the sale to Microsoft, the company said in a… Read more »
One million people in Australia need support from drug and alcohol use, but only 20% get it. Enter Aurelius: an app that delivers clinically validated software to provide better outcomes for people tackling addiction. Unlike other addiction care initiatives in the market, Aurelius provides support before and after rehabilitation, helping users take positive steps every… Read more »
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that metropolitan Melbourne will move to “stage 4” restrictions from 6pm Sunday, as new cases of COVID-19 continue to rise. The state recorded another 671 cases and 7 deaths on Sunday. Andrews has declared a state of disaster from 6pm on Sunday, imposing a nightly curfew on Melbourne… Read more »
Atlassian Corporation saw revenue in the June quarter jump by 29% on 12 months ago, while total revenue for FY2020 hit US$1.6 billion (A$2.2 bn), up 33% from 2019. The US-listed (Nasdaq: TEAM) Australian software giant posted total revenue was US$430.5 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020 alongside an operating loss of… Read more »
The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is using venture capital firms Square Peg Capital and Zetta Venture Partners to invest in startups, putting US$10 million (A$14m) each into the latest funds from the two VCs. Zetta is a US-based fund investing in artificial intelligence. In an update on the bank’s innovation program this week, CBA CEO Matt… Read more »
Western Australian mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has made two more startup investments through his private family investment fund Tattarang. Earlier this month, Forrest took an undisclosed majority stake in fintech Azupay, the first company on the New Payments Platform. Over the last fortnight Tattarang has backed GLX Digital, a WA startup that developed the… Read more »
Despite the massive disruption wrought on the economy and many businesses by the coronavirus pandemic, the second half of the 2020 financial year was a manna from heaven for many startups – yet the opposite for others. And now we have a new financial year underway, amid continued uncertainty with infection rates in NSW and… Read more »
As companies grow and scale, software subscriptions are acquired and changed frequently, leading to a number of licences becoming redundant or unutilised, resulting in a waste of time and money. In fact, “33% of software licenses should be switched off,” says co-founder and co-CEO Adam Ross. His SaaS solution CloudOlive, which was recently developed and… Read more »
The UNSW Founders has invested $140,000 in seven startups as part of its 2020 10x Accelerator program. The ventures were chosen from among 75 startups that applied for the program and each one receives a $20,000 investment from UNSW. The companies will now take part in the 3-month support program, which this year will be delivered… Read more »
Rentbetter is an online real estate startup leading the disruption of the residential rental market providing a simple solution for landlords and tenants, from finding a tenant to managing them. The startup launched in 2016 and has since established itself as the market leader with a strong customer base. Jeremy Goldschmidt is RentBetter‘s founder and… Read more »
Applications for the Amazon Launchpad Innovation Grants fare now open with five grant packages up for grabs. Each package is worth more than $80,000 and includes a $20,000 cash grant, Amazon marketing support, AWS Activate credits, and exclusive access to mentors such as Amazon leadership and entrepreneur experts from Australia and HQ in Seattle; time… Read more »
THE LIST: What Victorian businesses must close or can stay open under new stage 4 covid-19 restrictions
Atlassian just had another massive year with $2.2 billion in sales – but it’s still running at a loss
Here’s what happened when I rented out my car for a year
Victoria declares state of disaster as Melbourne goes into stage 4 lockdown with an 8pm curfew
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