Sydney contract and supplier software platform Portt has been acquired by UK firm Advanced for an undisclosed sum. The sale comes just 14 months after the 11-year-old procurement tech venture raised $4 million in VC funding after a decade of bootstrapping. The funds were to tackle slavery risks in company supply chains as Modern Slavery… Read more »
AGL has rejected a revised takeover bid from Mike Cannon-Brookes and Brookfield The $8.25 a share bid was a 10% increase on their first bid two weeks ago and worth $5.5 billion Cannon-Brookes said their consortium won’t make a further bid AGL is planning a demerger that it says will offer better value Atlassian billionaire… Read more »
ASX-listed buy now, pay later (BNPL) fintech Zip plans to acquire rival Sezzle in a $491 million all-scrip merger. The offer, now under a definitive agreement, will see Sezzle (ASX: SZL) investors swap their holding for 0.98 Zip (ASX: Z1P) shares, with Sezzle priced at $1.78 and Zip, $2.21. The transaction offers 22% premium on… Read more »
Shares in Block, the ASX-listed company formed out the A$39 million merger of Afterpay with Jack Dorsey’s payments platform Square, surged up to 40% in Friday trade after the US parent company released a Q4 trading update that beat expectations. Block (ASX:SQ2) shares hit $165 during Friday trade, having closed at $116.05 on Thursday. The… Read more »
Australian design giant Canva has acquired UK data visualisation platform Flourish as it looks to ramp up its European growth plans. The cost of the deal was not disclosed. London-based Flourish has more than 800,000 users creating data stories ranging from Covid vaccination to climate change. More than 9.5 million visualisations have been created, generating… Read more »
Business management and accounting platform MYOB has upped the ante on its SaaS offerings with the announcement of the acquisition of cloud document management software provider, Nimbus Portal Solutions. The value of the deal was not revealed by MYOB. Adding the Australian-owned-and-operated document management service to its stable will allow MYOB to provide an integrated… Read more »
Telstra Purple, the telecommunication giant’s business technology services offshoot, is acquiring two local tech startups to bolster its IoT capabilities. The deals include Aqura Technologies, a subsidiary of ASX-listed Veris, snapped up for $30 million – figure that nearly matches the parent company’s market cap. Aqura supplies tech and telecommunications infrastructure solutions including industrial wireless,… Read more »
A mining tech venture spun out of an ASX-listed mining services company has tanked on debut, falling 46%. Perth-based Orexplore Technologies (ASX:OXT) demerged from parent company Swick Mining Services (ASX:SWK) and made its debut today having raised $2.44 million at $0.25 per share. Orexplore shares closed at $0.135, down 46% amid a general hammering for small… Read more »
Australian startup Car Next Door has sold to the US tech giant Uber after a decade in business. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed The peer-to-peer car rental platform first launched in Sydney in 2012 and now operates in all capital cities except Darwin, as well as the Gold Coast, Cairns,Launceston, and Newcastle.… Read more »
The global expansion plans of Canadian ecommerce company Maropost continue with the acquisition of 15-year-old Australian retail platform Retail Express for CN$55 million (A$61m). Retail Express is the Australian & New Zealand leader in point-of-sale systems for mid-market and enterprise retail brands. Founder and CEO Aaron Blackman has bootstrapped the business since its launch in… Read more »
Payday lending fintech Beforepay had the $35 million value of its IPO wiped away on debut on the ASX today, with the company’s share price plunging 44% in its first day of trade. Making an early bid for 2022’s worst opening day – the drop saw Beforepay (ASX: B4P) float at $3.41 per share, but… Read more »
UK-based Asian food delivery platform HungryPanda, has snapped up two local rivals, acquiring Melbourne-based startup Easi and New Zealand’s Buy@Home. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisitions mean HungryPanda, founded in 2017, now operates in 10 countries, including the UK, France, Italy, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, across 60 cities.… Read more »
My Foodie Box listed on ASX on Friday, making an impressive public debut with its shares closing up 25% on their first day of trade. The three-year-old subscription startup (ASX: MBX) raised $6 million at $0.20 per share, with the parent company behind the ANZ distributor of the $2000 cult kitchen device Thermomix, Magnet Investments,… Read more »
MicroAcquire, a marketplace for selling startups, is now valued at over $110 million after a nearly $7 million capital raise. The US platform’s founder Andrew Gazdecki wants to simplify the process of selling startups and early stage businesses by listing them on a marketplace to give them more visibility to investors and potential buyers. Posting… Read more »
Australian media monitoring company Streem is being bought by media and PR company Cision in a deal that will see the US firm gain 100 per cent of Streem’s shares. Streem will keep its own branding and local staff through the acquisition. Its leadership team, including the company’s co-founders CEO Elgar Welch and CTO Antoine… Read more »
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