The number of early-stage startups in Australia has fallen over the last year, with the 2018 Startup Muster report finding the number of active startups fell 12.5 percent from 2017 to 2018.
Australian and New Zealand organisations are losing $60 million, on average, each year due to cybersecurity breaches or attacks, with one in five organisations having at least one breach per month and one in six known attacks successful.
Startup Muster has launched its 2018 survey and is calling for current and future startup founders, investors, and others in the community to take part.
The Australian ICT workforce grew 3.5 percent to 663,100 from 2016 to 2017 and the demand will keep growing, with the Australian economy forecast to require another 100,000 workers by 2023.
While no overall rankings released this year, the 2018 Startup Genome report has identified Australia cities as ecosystems to watch.
More investment was poured into New Zealand startups than ever before in 2017, with NZ$86 million ($81.7 million) invested into 111 companies.
Only 50 percent of Australian SMBs have a website, while 48 percent of consumers stated they will stop considering a business if it doesn’t have a website.
Almost half the leaders surveyed believe these deployments are “greatly outpacing” the accuracy and productivity of humans doing the same task, with 69 percent in turn stating their workers are concerned AI will replace them.
Venture capital investment into Australian startups grew 1.4 percent in 2017 to hit US$555.63 million ($698 million), though the number of deals fell from 185 in 2016 to 135.
Monica Wulff is the cofounder and CEO of Startup Muster, the largest annual survey of the Australian startup ecosystem, conducted to showcase the opportunities, progress, and challenges.
InsurTech has been pinned as a growing industry thanks to claim and drone startups, although it is faced with fundamental challenges, according to a report.
The ABC has announced the release of ABC Listen, a new app centred around providing listeners an easier way to access radio shows and podcasting content.
Sydney’s ICC launched a VR experience that will allow businesses, travellers, and event organisers to virtually scout out the venue through an app.
ToolMates Hire is the latest platform to make a splash in the P2P lending market, allowing users to do exactly what its name suggests – lend and hire tools.
The report, Mapping Victoria’s Ecosystem, is a result of a survey produced by LaunchVic in collaboration with Startup Victoria and dandolopartners, which polled over 1600 companies across the state.
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