A national biotech incubator is being set up in an Australia first following a $40 million grant from the federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) The incubator will be run by the Brandon Capital-managed Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF), which received the grant as part of $79 million in MRFF commercialisation grants to four… Read more »
A new, Sydney-based alternative proteins startup has joined the race for fake meat market share in Australia, raising $16 million in a seed round. Leading the investment in All G Foods was the federal government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which chipped in $5 million through its Clean Energy Innovation Fund alongside several prominent angel investors. The… Read more »
A biotech startup focused on treating cancer has raised $5.4 million, led by mining billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation. Adelaide-based Carina Biotech will use the cash injection to develop its “CAR-T” cell therapies to treat cancers such as colorectal cancer, which is the deadliest cancer for 25-34-year-old Australians. Carina’s founding shareholders, board and management also… Read more »
ASX-listed PropTech Group (ASX: PTG) has enlisted the support of fintech startups to build a buy now pay later (BNPL) real estate play. The joint venture project, called PropPay, is a payments platform that will allow real estate agents and third-party platforms to offer payments and solutions to their customers for property-related services in Australia… Read more »
Canberra-based computing science startup Quantum Brilliance has raised US$10 million (A$13m) in seed funding. The investment into the Australian-German full-stack quantum accelerator startup, which emerged from The ANU’s research group in diamond quantum science in 2019, was co-led by the QxBranch founders’ and the CSIRO’s VC fund, Main Sequence, with other backers including CP Ventures, Investible,… Read more »
The household fight between parents at work and children learning online for bandwidth at Zoom meetings appears to be driving a shift to higher NBN speed plans for Australian homes. The ACCC’s latest NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report says around 400,000 residential broadband customers moved to higher speed plans in the June 2021 quarter, just… Read more »
Digital advertising software startup Mandoe has launched a self-service platform for small businesses harness the power of digital signage. The startup has worked with blue chip clients such as David Jones, Boost Juice, Rip Curl, Spec Savers and Australia Post for more than a decade and is power bringing the same marketing potential to smaller… Read more »
Vaccine and drug development, artificial intelligence, transport and logistics, climate science — these are all areas that stand to be transformed by the development of a full-scale quantum computer. And there has been explosive growth in quantum computing investment over the past decade. Yet current quantum processors are relatively small in scale, with fewer than… Read more »
A battery materials company promising to improve the capacity of existing lithium-ion batteries by up to 100% has raised $3.7 million in a pre-Series A. The round was led by local VC Artesian and US-based Riverstone Ventures, with New York’s Chaos Ventures, Singapore’s SDGx and Sydney VC Bandera Capital also chipping in alongside several prominent Australian… Read more »
Fable Food Co, a plant-based meat alternative using mushrooms, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding. Blackbird Ventures led the round, joined by Silicon Valley VC AgFunder, Aera VC, a fund specifically focused on sustainability, and Better Bite Ventures, along with Singapore based Ban Choon Marketing and former-Sequoia Capital partner Warren Hogarth. The funding is… Read more »
Social enterprise startup Xceptional has developed a new tech platform for neurodiverse people looking a job to highlight their skills to employers. CEO and founder Mike Tozer said autistic people exhibit highly sought-after skills including acute levels of concentration, high attention to detail, logic and reasoning, persistence, accuracy, an excellent memory and employee loyalty, but… Read more »
A new industry lobby group pushing for greater support for the growth and investment in Australia’s tech sector has been formed by the nation’s leading tech unicorns and venture capitalists. The Tech Council of Australia has 23 founding members, including Canva, Afterpay, Atlassian, Safety Culture and Culture Amp, as well as US tech giants Google,… Read more »
Consumer watchdog the ACCC is heading back to the courts, taking on Telstra, Optus and TPG for allegedly misleading consumers over NBN maximum speeds. Problems with consumers getting the NBN speeds they’ve paid for has been a constant legal battle for the regulator, with all the major telcos falling foul of the law in recent… Read more »
ASX-listed business accounting platform Xero is taking on Google and Apple at their own game, launching an app store selling Xero-connected apps. The Xero App Store lets small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers purchase apps to help run their companies, and went live last week. Xero app partners in Australia, United Kingdom and New Zealand now… Read more »
An emerging commercial seaweed industry is gaining pace in South Australia and it has the methane produced by cows firmly in its sights. Australian researchers have found red seaweed has the ability to reduce cow and sheep methane production by up to 90% when mixed with stock feed. The findings have led the South Australian… Read more »
Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar steps down as co-CEO 
The lessons from Uber, Ola and rideshare’s disruption is that in the end, the consumer still pays 
Kiwi tech skills startup NextWork pockets $2.3 million pre-Seed raise 
Logistics software startup Veyor Digital shifts $2.75 million pre-Series A for US plans 
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