Melanie Perkins is an ambition-driven creative, making transformative impacts on the world of graphic design. She is CEO and co-founder of Canva, which launched in 2014. Kochie’s Business Builders editor Cec Busby untangles the truth behind Canva’s ‘overnight success’ in this interview with Perkins. Starting from scratch Melanie Perkins’ passion for design has been present… Read more »
The silly season is upon us. While business ramps up for a lot of sectors over the summer, for others it’s time to down tools and take a break. We canvassed some of Australia’s leading founders to get their tips for how to prepare for time away. Ben Lipschitz, CEO and co-founder, FoodByUs “The most important… Read more »
The Australian game development sector is enjoying rapid growth on the back of unprecedented government support, with almost 800 new jobs created in the last year alone. The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) released its sixth annual Australian Game Development Survey this week, revealing that the sector has more than doubled in size over the last… Read more »
The “pre-money valuation” of your startup is the total value of your company before an investment is made: it determines both how much equity an investor will receive in exchange for their investment, and therefore, how much equity you, your team and existing investors will retain once the new round of investment is completed. Pre-money… Read more »
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services have dramatically changed the landscape of personal lending, largely by being easy to access and not charging interest – thus avoiding national credit laws. In the 2021-22 financial year, according to data from the Reserve Bank of Australia, the number of active BNPL accounts in Australia rose from 5… 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 »
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) remains sceptical about the need to introduce a fully digital dollar as it looks to begin an eAUD trial early next year. In a speech to a banking conference last week, Assistant RBA Governor Brad Jones said it remained unclear exactly what purpose a central bank digital currency (CBDC)… Read more »
Police in the Bahamas have arrested the founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX after criminal charges were filed in the US. Sam Bankman-Fried, who goes by the name SBF, was head of the company that was valued at $47 billion before speculation FTX was running insolvent led to a liquidity crunch that ultimately brought down the exchange… Read more »
When cryptocurrency exchange FTX Group collapsed in the Bahamas last month, its local subsidiaries FTX Australia Pty Ltd and FTX Express Pty Ltd fell over too. The Australian companies were placed into administration on November 11 and within days the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had suspended the Australian financial service licence FTX Australia… Read more »
Dear financial industry, I don’t know how to put this any more simply than; screen scraping for banking data is dead. It’s time to move over to Open Banking. This has been a long time coming, and for the fintech industry, this should not come as a surprise. Screen scraping, web connectivity, Digital Data Capture… Read more »
Anthony* (a friend) called a few weeks ago, deeply worried. A deputy principal of a high school in Queensland, over the past year he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying cryptocurrencies, borrowing money using his home as equity. But now all his assets, valued at A$600,000, were stuck in an account he couldn’t access.… Read more »
Four years since launching, UTS Startups has just accepted its 1,000th startup, but why does this matter and why is it critical to the future of universities? As technology improves, transaction costs decline, and we end up with a larger number of smaller companies. This macro trend is undeniable and will increase from here, changing… Read more »
We’ve all had some kind of interaction with a chatbot. It’s usually a little pop-up in the corner of a website, offering customer support – often clunky to navigate – and almost always frustratingly non-specific. But imagine a chatbot, enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI), that can not only expertly answer your questions, but also write… Read more »
After a severe electrical storm damaged an ATSpace rocket on the launch pad in November, the company has announced that repairs have been completed and they will attempt another launch in the coming weeks, followed by another already planned launch of a second rocket. ATSpace CEO Dr Yen Sen Chen said they were pleased to… Read more »
When my alarm goes off an hour before sunrise, I’m always deeply asleep and I never spring out of bed, full of energy, ready to face the day. But I get up, change into my exercise gear, and drive to meet my personal trainer, Maddie, no matter how I feel. I don’t do it because… Read more »
Canva has a new $500 million shareholder – a Sydney private equity firm that previously made a fortune from pet food 
Envato founders exit in $373 million Shutterstock deal 
Outdoor adtech startup Doohly banks $500,000 pre-Seed to speed up digital ad execution 
Construction startup lands $2.9 million Series A for China push 
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