Queensland cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx has shed another 90 jobs in the wake of the FTX implosion. The business, laid off around 36% of its remaining workforce of 250 people, having cut 74 roles less than four months ago, when the headcount sat at 320. The business announced a merger with investment platform Superhero in June… Read more »
Welcome to Ignition Lane’s Tech Wrap, where they cut through the noise to bring you their favourite insights from the technology and startup world. Ignition Lane works with ambitious business leaders to apply the Startup Mindset to their technology, product and commercialisation problems. This wrap goes out free to subscribers. Don’t forget you can catch Gavin Appel every… Read more »
Global tech giant Microsoft is taking on Canva with a new free graphic design app in Microsoft 365. A web preview of the Designer app is already available for early use, with the company’s corporate VP, Liat Ben-Zur, saying the app is born out of PowerPoint, where Designer uses AI to make template suggestions as you… Read more »
Skills analysis startup Reejig has raised $17 million topping up on the $15 million from a Series A just eight months ago. This time Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of the global tech giant, backed the three-year-old venture. Reejig says the investment is not a Series B raise. The latest cash injection means the HR… Read more »
Since 2017, Victoria has commemorated AFL Grand Final Friday as a public holiday, with a parade of the two competing teams through a festive Melbourne (apart from interruptions in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19). Saturday’s match between Geelong and Sydney is especially anticipated because it welcomes back the grand final to the MCG after… Read more »
Earlier this month, posters started going up around Sydney advertising an event called “In the Ops Room, with Palmer Luckey”. Rather than an album launch or standup gig, this turned out to be a free talk given last week by the chief executive of a high-tech US defence company called Anduril. The company has set… Read more »
Brisbane cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx has laid off 74 staff in the wake of its merger with share trading platform Superhero in June. Co-CEOs Alex Harper and Ryan Parsons broke the news to the a 320 team at a “townhall” meeting on Wednesday saying that they’d decided to reduce the site of the business in the… Read more »
Airtree has followed in the footsteps of major VCs Square Peg Capital and Blackbird Ventures, cutting the valuation of its holding in tech giant Canva by 36%. The decision drags down the value of its early funds by Sydney investor by 18%. Blackbird and Square Peg had already reduced the value of their stakes in… Read more »
When we seek advice on startup success, we tend to turn to the winners. We buy books by business gurus and power through podcasts by major corporate players. But why do we feel their advice is more valuable than the inventors and innovators who didn’t make it? What if we could learn more from their… Read more »
Sugar Wallet is a New Zealand fintech cofounded by Devrath (Dev) Soni and Sophia Ritchie with a mission to make investment ‘ridiculously simple’ for everyone. “In APAC alone, there are 143 million who can afford investing but continue to primarily save through their bank,” Soni said. “One of the reasons for this is because platforms… Read more »
In the eighties and nineties, Hollywood perpetrated perhaps one of the greatest disservices to the development of the global tech sector and in particular to the career development of generations of young people. Still, at the time, I found myself laughing along with everyone else as the ‘computer geeks’ and ‘electro-nerds’ bumbled their way across… Read more »
Is there anything more stirring than an inspirational sports movie? Even non-sportsball people can’t resist an underdog story, especially when coupled with a three-minute training montage. (And for the record, I do believe in miracles. Thanks for asking. ) The best sports-flavoured TV and movies always weave in a good lesson or two. Today I thought it’d… Read more »
SBE Australia, the not-for-profit startup accelerator and advisory group for women-led businesses, has opened nominations and entries for the 2022 Impact Awards for female entrepreneurs. Nominations are only open until June 15, with entries closing on July 3. The finalists will be announced on July 19 and the awards announced at a gala dinner in Sydney… Read more »
The Big Sausage Sizzle on Saturday changed the government, with Labor under Antony Albanese heading towards a majority in the lower house, or at least taking people with support from an expanded crossbench. The result has been widely welcomed by the tech and startup sectors, with Labor’s Ed Husic expected to continue in the innovation… Read more »
New York private equity firm Insight Partners has once again backed New Zealand legal tech startup LawVu in a $NZ20 million (A$18.4 million) top up to last year’s Series A. Sydney VC AirTree Ventures also once again chipped in, having invested in last August’s A$16.2 million Series A, as well as a A$2.3 million pre-series… Read more »
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