Tin Alley ventures
Politics

Breakthrough Victoria posts $3 million loss

- November 4, 2024 3 MIN READ

The Victorian government’s controversial $2 billion venture capital fund, Breakthrough Victoria, posted a $3 million loss in its third year of operation. The funding body, which saw several directors depart in 2024, with CEO Grant Dooley also heading to the exit after just three years, copped a $360 million haircut in the Victorian budget earlier… Read more »

Matt Vitale
Funding

Birchal is getting into angel investing, backed by LaunchVic

- August 9, 2024 2 MIN READ

Crowdfunding platform Birchal has launched an angel network platform, with backing from LaunchVic. Birchal First is designed to connect angel investors with early-stage Victorian startups in the hardware technology space, investing from pre-seed to Series A. The roll out has been underpinned by a $300,000 grant from LaunchVic and is the 10th angel network the… Read more »

Accelerator

Victoria doctors get a taste of startup life with LaunchVic-backed medtech accelerator

- July 14, 2024 2 MIN READ

The Australian Society for Medical Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ASME) is among seven organisations backed by LaunchVic as part of a $2.4 million program to create pre-accelerator programs to help aspiring founders understand startup life. ASME has partnered with MTPConnect to deliver the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program (AUSCEP) in Victoria. It offers clinicians the resources, mentorship… Read more »

HEX founder Jeanette Cheah
People

Agtech DAS and Hex founder Jeanette Cheah honoured in the Victorian governor’s startup awards

- June 27, 2024 2 MIN READ

The Governor of Victoria’s annual startup awards have recognised the state’s best founders an others, with satellite mapping firm Digital Agriculture Services (DAS) named Startup of the Year. Founded in 2017 in partnership with national science agency CSIRO, DAS set out to give farmers “one click” insights on productivity and disaster risk assessments, backed by… Read more »

Agrifutures female farmer
Funding

Victorian agtech startups score an extra $1 million

- June 8, 2024 < 1 MIN READ

The Victorian government is doubling the size of its early-stage agtech fund to $2 million. The extra $1 million for the Hugh Victor McKay Fund, run by LaunchVic, follows the initial $1 million commitment revealed last year.  The fund offers up to $200,000 to early-stage Victorian agtech startups, so the new funding doubles the potential… Read more »

Politics

Victoria is holding a trial to investigate whether people on medicinal cannabis can drive safely

- May 21, 2024 2 MIN READ

The Victorian government has teamed up with Swinburne University to figure out if using doctor-prescribed medicinal cannabis when driving is a problem. The $4.9 million trial to determine if medicinal cannabis users can drive safely will take place over 18-months on a closed-circuit track that mimics real-world driving conditions. Researchers will review the ability of… Read more »

LaunchVic Kate Cornick
Other tech

Victoria has a $100 billion startup ecosystem

- December 21, 2023 2 MIN READ

Victoria’s startup ecosystem has grown in value by $12 billion to surpass $100 billion according to a new report from LaunchVic. The size and scope of their success is revealed in the Victoriaʼs startup ecosystem report 2023, produced in partnership with dealroom.co, which found the combined value rose from $91 billion to $103bn in the… Read more »

R&D, science, man looking in microscope
Funding

Victoria is offering medtech startups $500k grants for their research projects

- October 23, 2023 < 1 MIN READ

Applications for the seventh round of the Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund (VMRAF) are now open. It offers both grants of up to $100,000 to support early-stage research projects with a practical application, as well as later-stage grants of up to $500,000 to help researchers bring their products and practices into clinical or health care… Read more »

12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Victoria
Politics

Victorian Ombudsman rips into the state government over ‘unreasonable, inflexible’ EV road use charges

- September 27, 2023 3 MIN READ

As Victorian premier Daniel Andrews heads to the exit door this afternoon after nine years, one mess his successor will need to clean up is the government’s road-user charge for electric and hybrid vehicles, which has been branded unreasonable by state’s Ombudsman Deborah Glass. The government introduced the Zero and Low Emission Vehicles (ZLEV) Act… Read more »

Kate Cornick
Politics

Victorian startups are going gangbusters – and that’s a big win for the local economy

- August 25, 2023 2 MIN READ

 An updated report from Deloitte Access Economics has found the Victorian startup ecosystem has out- performed growth expectations from forecasts made in 2020. The report,“Scaling up: Growing the economic opportunity for Victoria’s startup ecosystem”, commissioned by startup agency, LaunchVic, concludes that pandemic tailwinds were kind to the sector with its value nearly doubling from $50… Read more »