Design platform Canva today announced a USD$15 million Series A round of funding to continue expanding its platform, which is now used by more than five million marketers, designers and small business owners. This latest round of capital brings the total amount raised by the Sydney-based startup to USD$27 million and gives it a valuation of USD$165 million.
In spite of the name, fantasy sports is a big and serious business. It’s so serious that some sports fans are willing to put aside allegiances to teams they’ve supported for decades and cheer for their arch rival’s star playmaker to work his magic so they get all the fantasy points they can and win their league’s money pool.
The idea for BuiltWith came in 2007, when Gary Brewer was visiting a lot of random sites, looking at their source code and discovering what platforms they were built with. He was researching elements like the writing of code on the site by viewing the source, seeing if they were made in PHP or if the company was using Windows and similar information in that arena.
One of the big criticisms of popular video games is that they promote violence or materialism and aren’t doing us that much good. But of course, like in most other industries, there are groups creating niche products looking to make a positive impact. One such group is Noosa-based game development startup Disparity Games, which has launched a new title hoping to help combat bullying.
Melbourne FinTech startup Clover, an automated investment advice platform, has announced the raising of a seed funding round by a number of investors including superannuation fund Equipsuper. Though the startup wasn’t willing to reveal the exact amount, Startup Daily was able to confirm that Clover raised over $1 million.
We’ve seen a number of startups emerge in the last few years that help people manage their personal finances via their smartphones – a few notable examples include Mint, Pocketbook and Digit. Although Sydney-based startup MoneyBrilliant isn’t a new market entrant, it has undergone many iterations and is now one of best available because of its UI/UX as well as the volume and type of financial services accounts that can be integrated into the application.
As the saying goes, in order to succeed you first need to fail. That was certainly the case for Nick Bell, who spent three years on a skincare business that never quite took off before launching a web marketing company that now turns over $45 million a year.
Sydney-based fintech startup zipMoney, described as ‘online lending meets the checkout’, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) yesterday after raising $5 million in an oversubscribed reverse takeover of mineral exploration company Rubianna Resources.
Over the years, one thing that’s become increasingly clear about Dropbox is that it plays the long game when it comes user acquisition. It doesn’t aim to convert users to paying customers overnight or over months, but over years.
SMS-based on-demand service ASAP, which gives you whatever you want as soon as possible, was founded by two Sydney-based university students Dylan Samra and Kelvin Nguyen earlier this year, with Daniel Cunningham joining as a co-founder shortly after. Six months following its launch, ASAP has raised capital and merged with former rival Ketings.
It seems the co-founders are actually focusing on the more interesting side of alcohol delivery startup Liquorun: its logistics management platform. The software platform is now an entity of its own called Swift, which is growing fast and has customers from all over the world.
This morning, Australia has woken up to a new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. This is a result many startups wanted. After all Tony Abbott did a fine job of making sure he was perceived as a luddite.
The purpose of an evangelist is to help a company, a product, a technology or merely “a thing” go from zero to critical mass. Evangelists help find and leverage the most passionate early adopters so that these particular users are so compelled; they convince their friends, family and colleagues to use what they’re using.
Last night, BRW revealed their annual Top 50 Best Places to Work list for the year. Call it a coincidence or call it the stars aligning, but there happens to be a little bit of crossover with our own list of emerging Australian leaders and some of the companies that were chosen by Fairfax. The message it sends is clear: there is a particular group of people breaking down barriers and building sustainable businesses and organisations. These people will no doubt serve as inspiration for the next generation of dreamers, creators and business builders, and that is something to be truly proud of. [Sponsored]
Without a doubt, Wellington-based startup StarNow is one of the most well-known global success stories to come out of New Zealand in recent years. The tech company is a casting and talent platform for the entertainment industry that connects aspiring and professional actors, models, musicians and crew with casting agents and production companies.
The Canva brand is now worth more than Woolies, Telstra and Bunnings
VC-backed crowdfunding platform Stride Equity is offering a new funding model for startups
Female-founded fermentation startup Cauldron lands $10.5 million to transform how new foods and fibres are developed
Shares in Afterpay’s parent company are getting slaughtered after a short seller accused Block of ‘facilitating criminal activity’
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