Veteran WiseTech director Charles Gibbon will leave the board next month, after 19 years, with major shareholder Michael Gregg also departing after less than a year into his second stint at the company’s AGM. The changes bring the board turnover in 2025 to six directors amid a power struggle involving former CEO and founder Richard… Read more »
Fintechs often complain quietly, lest they cop blowback, than one of the things that’s slowing the roll out of the Consumer Data Right (CDR), aka Open Banking, is that the major banks are dragging their feet. Well, the competition watchdog thinks so too, and National Australia Bank (NAB) has copped $751,200 in penalties after the… Read more »
Deep tech evangelist Sally-Ann Williams is wrapping up her leadership of Cicada Innovations after six years. Williams, previously head of R&D at Google Australia, signed on in mid 2019, and has transformed the veteran Sydney incubator, steering it deftly through the pandemic and expanding operations to Western Sydney and Melbourne. “This has been one of… Read more »
The grand New York experiment for New Zealand rental accomodation startup Kiki is over, with cofounder Toby Thomas-Smith announcing he’ll end his Big Apple ambitions for a second time. “The beginning of Kiki’s intense fire in NYC,” as he described it 13 months ago, is being snuffed out by regulation, he says, announcing the decision… Read more »
You stayed up too late scrolling through your phone, answering emails or watching just one more episode. The next morning, you feel groggy and irritable. That sugary pastry or greasy breakfast sandwich suddenly looks more appealing than your usual yogurt and berries. By the afternoon, chips or candy from the break room call your name.… Read more »
A quick look at a weekend stuffed full of game trailers, with some reflections on what was missing. Blink and you may have missed Summer Game Fest over the weekend — especially if you were busy playing the new Switch 2. The event consisted of 16 major showcases this year, featuring everything from new major… Read more »
Sydney startup Vow will finally get to serve its cultured quail meat products in Australia following approval from regulatory authorities that it’s safe to eat. The food safety authority, FSANZ, spent two years picking at Forged, Vow’s cell-based meat created from Japanese quail, including a second round of public consultation late last year. Meanwhile, the… Read more »
VCs might be used to cold calls from startups seeking cash, but as takeover offers go, the WhatsApp MagicBrief cofounder George Howes received from Canva’s billionaire cofounder Cliff Obrecht was unexpected. Howes was at Sydney airport last month ready to move to the UK and launch his advertising tech platform there when the request to meet… Read more »
Many startups struggle to scale – and leadership plays a bigger role than founders often realise. Early growth is fuelled by passion, tactics and effort. But scaling demands a different kind of leadership: more strategic and more focussed on building teams and systems. Some founders adapt; others get stuck between old instincts and new demands.… Read more »
Graphic design software giant Canva says it faced “internal concerns” after deciding applicants for many software development roles must use AI-assisted coding tools during technical interviews as part of the company’s recruitment process. The change was publicly announced on Wednesday by the Australian firm’s head of platforms, Simon Newton, in a blog post titled, “Yes,… Read more »
A US startup used extensively by Australian authorities to detect bushfires has raised a US$44 million (A$68m) Series B. The round for Pano AI included an undisclosed level of secondary share sales, with the surveillance platform claiming to have raised A$138m (US$89m) in its five-year-old lifetime. New investor Giant Ventures led the raise, supported by… Read more »
Jensen Huang believes questions of whether artificial intelligence could destroy humanity are fear-mongering – and get in the way of progress. The founder of Nvidia, which makes the computer chips enabling AI such as ChatGPT, he was rankled when a journalist wondered if he is “an AI Robert Oppenheimer”. He’s not building bombs, he responded.… Read more »
A new venture capital fund with heavy-hitting corporate partners and focused on backing climate tech startups at Series A has secured $50 million in commitments to reach its first close. Climate Tech Partners (CTP), founded in 2023 by Patrick Sieb and Tom Kline (who established Investible’s climate tech fund), more than doubled its size thanks… Read more »
Serial cybersecurity entrepreneur Michael Watts is back with new startup, kicking off a proactive cloud security platform, Circumvent, with US$6 million (A$9.2m) Seed round from Paladin Capital Group. Watts was previously founder and CEO of Cloud Conformity, which Paladin backed in 2018 with a US$3.1 million Series A. The following year the startup was acquired… Read more »
Amazon Web Services (AWS) says it will invest A$20 billion to expand data centre infrastructure in Australia over the next five years. Prime minister Anthony Albanese, on his way to the G7 Summit in Canada, met with AWS CEO Matt Garman in Seattle over the weekend for the announcement. The infrastructure rollout by 2029 will… Read more »
A cybersecurity founder who had a $100 million exit is back with a new idea and a $9.2 million Seed round from Paladin Capital 
Reality bites for Blackbird-backed room rental startup Kiki as it departs the Big Apple 
Hot founder tip: check your WhatsApp messages for Canva billionaires looking to buy your startup 
‘Everything starts and lives in Notion now’: The AI workspace that OpenAI, Linktree and next-gen startups love 
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