Startups in Western Australia looking to address biodiversity and the environment will get a helping hand thanks to a $7.2 million grant from the state government. The global tech investor and accelerator Founders Factory is setting up shop in Perth, as its first Australian base, with the funding. The WA government’s investment of $2.4 million… Read more »
Melbourne biotech startup Prota Therapeutics has raised US$21 million (A$32m) ahead of a Phase 3 clinical trial for its oral therapy treatment for peanut allergy. The round, a combination of equity and debt financing, was led by Singapore-based SPRIM Global Investments (SGI). Australian VC OneVentures was an early backer of the biotech and one of… Read more »
Researchers and clinicians with startup ideas in the medtech and biotech space can apply for a new startup accelerator that’s writing cheques worth up to $5 million to bring their ideas to market CUREator+ is a new $50 million incubator program by Brandon BioCatalyst and ANDHealth, backed by the federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund… Read more »
Pioneering a more ethical approach to clinical trials on animals and humans, Brisbane-based biotech startup Gelomics is having a life-changing impact in more than 21 countries. Being a part of Trade & Investment Queensland’s Go Global Export Program has been instrumental to their exporting success. When we hear about clinical trials, it’s often about the results of… Read more »
Deep tech incubator Cicada Innovations has been appointed by the NSW government to run a new biomedical incubator at the Westmead Health and Innovation District, 26km west of Sydney’s CBD. Cicada was awarded a $7.8 million grant to help health and medtech startups to develop their research into lifesaving technologies at the Westmead Biomedical Incubator.… Read more »
Australia’s newest biotech incubator, Jumar Bioincubator, is seeking expressions of interest from early-stage biotech to be part of the Melbourne-based program. The $30 million incubator will connect early-stage and scaling biotech ventures with state-of-the-art facilities, infrastructure, and support to turn ideas into treatments and commercialise medical research. Jumar is a mountaineering technique where climbers receive… Read more »
Queensland biotech company Ellume Health, which just two years ago was riding high after winning a $300 million US government Covid contract, has been placed in liquidation after a takeover offer for the failed business fell through. The Australian arm of the global business entered voluntary administration last August. It subsequently emerged that it owed… Read more »
Sydney VC OneVentures has pledged $15 million as a cornerstone investment towards a $25 million Series B raise for life sciences startup ImmVirX. The biotech startup is developing cancer treatments using oncolytic viral immunotherapies (viruses that infect and destroy cancer cells without damaging normal cells). The remaining $10 million in the Series offered to existing… Read more »
Biotech incubator CUREator has allocated $12 million in venture funding to 19 projects focused on a range of global health issues, ranging from treatments for lupus, motor neurone disease, brain and ovarian cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease, as part of its second cohort. Backed by the federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), which invested… Read more »
ASX-listed biotech Emyria(ASX: EMD), which is developing psychotherapy treatments using MDMA (aka ecstacy) and psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms), has raised $2.5 million in share placement backed by existing investor Andrew Forrest through the healthtech fund Tenmile, part of his private investment group, Tattarang. The $2.5 million placement was jointly led by Perth’s Sixty Two Capital… Read more »
Synthetic biology startup Cortical Labs, which is developing a new kind of artificial intelligence using human brain cells, has raised USD$10 million (A$15m). The Melbourne biotech rose to prominence in October last year when it combined 800,000 brain cells with a computer chip to learn to play the video gam Pong. The project was dubbed… Read more »
Cauldron speeds up development of new food, feedstock and fibre ingredients Its hyper-fermentation platform lowers commercial risk & production costs $10.5m Seed round led by Main Sequence + Horizons Ventures An ambitious plan to transform the way new food, feedstock and fibre ingredients are created, by using fermentation has raised $10.5 million in seed funding… Read more »
A new medical technology incubator program developed by the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) during the former Coalition government will offer up to $5 million in funding for early-stage medical research projects with commercial potential. The $50 million BioMedtech Incubator program is being backed by the MRFF and the Medical Research Commercialisation Initiative. Responsibility for… Read more »
Sydney biotech company SpeeDx has raised $26 million for US expansion and to ramp up its diagnostic technologies for illness such such as cancer. The raise included $5 million from Dr Andrew Forrest’s new $250 million VC fund Tenmile, which the WA mining billionaire launched last year with backing from his private investment company, Tattarang. Existing… Read more »
Biotech startup 23Strands is planning to take genomics into mainstream healthcare through its cutting-edge research and innovations in bioinformatics, scientific literature analysis, and clinical insights based on whole genome sequencing (WGS). A human body contains around 3 billion pairs of genes. But the function of every gene is still not known. Genome sequencing links genes… Read more »
The lessons from Uber, Ola and rideshare’s disruption is that in the end, the consumer still pays 
Unicorn dehorned: Nasdaq-listed Brisbane EV charging venture Tritium collapses into receivership 
Here are the finalists in Fintech Australia’s 2024 Finnies awards 
‘Have I gone too far?’ How founders can beat their startup demons 
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
