Superannuation fund UniSuper will invest $75 million into pioneering early-stage venture capital fund Uniseed in its first move into VC. Uniseed is the country’s oldest commercialisation fund, established in 2000. It is jointly owned by Universities of Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney, New South Wales and the CSIRO, and backs research and tech ventures developed by those… Read more »
There’s no doubt that online dating and dating apps have transformed the way we initiate, form and end romantic relationships. We might also question whether the convenience of these apps has encouraged us to behave differently than we would in “real life”. More specifically, do mobile dating apps breed bad or antisocial behaviour? If you… Read more »
Husband-and-wife duo Dean and Diony McPherson have the classic startup beginning, launching their business form-building solution on the kitchen table. Paperform was born out of their shared frustration with the tedious administrative tasks that overshadowed their tech jobs. Australian business owners spend an estimated 81 days a year on administrative tasks. So in 2016, the… Read more »
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has pledged to work with the tech sector to help create another 340,000 jobs by 2030 if Labor wins the May federal election. While the headline in the Opposition announcement is 1.2 million jobs, the sector already employs around 860,000 people and the Tech Council of Australia (TCA) last year set… Read more »
The dramatic shift from mining and property to technology to generate wealth in Australia has made Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, and Canva’s Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht among the country’s top 10 richest people. The Australian’s 2022 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250, to be released on Friday, names Hancock… Read more »
Rideshare and taxi users in NSW will be slugged with an ongoing $1 surcharge as part of a whopping $1 billion compensation package for the taxi industry being considered by the NSW government, more than six years after Uber was legalised in the state. When rideshare was legalised in late 2015, the then-Baird government announced… Read more »
Sydney startup Cascade has raised $40 million in a Series A on a promise to get strategy out of boardrooms. The round was led by former Sequoia investor Mickey Arabelovic’s Telescope Partners, alongside Five V and local VC Carthona Capital. The cash is earmarked for product evolution as well as expansion in North America and… Read more »
Sydney medtech Eyes of AI launches its rapid x-ray analysis this month after three years of development. Artificial intelligence-driven dental software platform has been trained using more than 1 million x-ray images since 2019, alongside has input from leading dental clinicians and research centres globally. Sydney-based founders Dr Sen Le and Khoa Le built the… Read more »
New Zealand audio capture startup Dotterel Technologies has raised NZ$3 million (A$2.8m) for its microphone tech, which captures clear sound over long distances. The round was led by Kiwi VC Icehouse Ventures, with support from RocketLab founder Peter Beck, Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1, US-backed NZVC, and private investors including Dotterel chair, Sean Simpson, founder of… Read more »
LA-based expat Australian chef Curtis Stone has signed on with the “Airbnb of dinner parties”, catering startup Gathar, as the Queensland startup expands into the US market. Gathar’s US expansion follows a $1 million in post-seed funding led by angel investment group ACAC Innovation, along with Up Bank co-founder, Dominic Pym among the new investors… Read more »
In the past few years, Australia has formed its own space agency and launched a defence “space command”. Billions of dollars for defence, and hundreds of millions for civilian space, have been allocated from the public purse to develop capability in this growing sector. This funding covers the Moon-to-Mars Program, the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre,… Read more »
Women-focused angel investment network Scale Investors has launched an online education platform, EducatEd female founders be more successful raising capital, and investors back more entrepreneurs. The platform has been designed and curated with the help of some of the most influential investors and founders across the country including founders turned funders, Sarah Hamiton, Noga Edelstein.… Read more »
When the News Media Bargaining Code was introduced by the federal government last year, forcing Facebook and Google to pay media companies for news, it was hailed as a game changer for the industry. Twelve months on, the game has changed, but tech giants Google and Facebook have created a more skewed playing field for… Read more »
Expense management platform Cape has raised a staggering $33.1 million in a pre-Seed round. The raise is split between $3.1 million in VC equity and a $30 million debt facility Aura Ventures. The raise values the Sydney startup at $18 million. The equity cap table includes Investible, Scalare Partners, Mercury Capital and 15 business angels,… Read more »
National science agency CSIRO has produced a technology roadmap for growth in protein production in Australia, believing the opportunity is worth $13 billion. Australian agricultural exports were worth around $50 billion in FY2021, and with that figure predicted to rise by 20% in FY22 to more than $60bn, options beyond beef are seen as the… 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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