Mark Calvetti
Business

Afterpay helped deliver a record year for mergers & acquisitions in Australia in 2022 – even as the number of deal fell to its lowest level in a decade

- March 21, 2023 2 MIN READ

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising interest rates dampened merger & acquisition (M&A) deals in the first half of 2022, but even as company valuations fall, the size of transactions is growing according to William Buck’s annual Dealmaking Insights Report 2023.   In 2022, the aggregate value of M&A deals in Australia increased 59% on 2021… Read more »

Business

Amazon axes again, sacking another 9,000 staff at AWS and Twitch

- March 21, 2023 2 MIN READ

Amazon is laying off another 9,000 employees, with senior management citing “the uncertain economy in which we reside”. The cuts will come from its cloud business Amazon Web Services (AWS), streaming platform Twitch, and its advertising department. This latest round of layoffs comes just two months after Amazon said it would cut more than 18,000… Read more »

Turkey vultures, scavenging on Californian beach
Business

3 reasons why Silicon Valley Bank went belly up

- March 15, 2023 4 MIN READ

The Santa Clara, California-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has collapsed. This is the second-largest banking failure in US history and the largest failure since the Global Financial Crisis. The US government has stepped in to protect depositors. The government will not bail out SVB. Shareholders are not protected. The deposit protection is funded by a special impost… Read more »

Tank Stream Labs
Business

Tank Stream Labs collaborates with Pinstripe Media to offer marketing for startups

- March 14, 2023 2 MIN READ

Scaleup community Tank Stream Labs have teamed up with Pinstripe Media to expand its reach to a global audience.  Tank Stream Labs is one of Australia’s original technology co-working spaces that fosters innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship for founders, industry leaders, scale-ups, and high-growth tech companies.  After launching a range of service offerings in 2022 for… Read more »

Silicon Valley Bank
Business

Canva, Xero and Freelancer are among local tech companies with millions in deposits in failed Silicon Valley Bank

- March 13, 2023 3 MIN READ

Privately-owned design platform Canva is among multiple Australian tech companies with funds stuck in Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which was seized by Californian regulators on Friday after customers tried and failed to withdraw an estimated US$40 billion in funds. After an anxious weekend wondering if they’d see their money again, US officials stepped in earlier… Read more »

Silicon Valley Bank
Business

A finance expert on what happens next after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank

- March 13, 2023 3 MIN READ

Silicon Valley Bank, which catered to the tech industry for three decades, collapsed on March 10, 2023, after the Santa Clara, California-based lender suffered from an old-fashioned bank run. State regulators seized the bank and made the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation its receiver. SVB, as it’s known, was the biggest U.S. lender to fail since… Read more »

Cuscal MD Craig Kennedy and Basiq founder Damir Cuca
Business

Open banking fintech Basiq sells to payments giant Cuscal

- March 10, 2023 < 1 MIN READ

Payments platform Cuscal has acquiring Consumer Data Right startup Basiq for an undisclosed sum. The deal provides an exit for investors including NAB Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Westpac’s Reinventure, as well as Visa. The VC arms of the Australian banks first backed Basiq in 2017, doubling down in a Series A in 2021. Cuscal, owned… Read more »

Brandcrush
Business

Rampersand, Startmate score exit as US media co snaps up marketing startup Brandcrush

- March 8, 2023 2 MIN READ

Startmate-backed marketing startup Brandcrush has been acquired by NASDAQ-listed media firm Criteo five years after it launched. The deal also delivers an exit for Rampersand, Luxury Escapes founder Adam Schwab, and other investors including Nicky Jackson, Jane Martino and Sean Taylor. Brandcrush was launched in 2018 by former Tribe sales director Matthew Hurle, and marketing… Read more »

Atlassian Scott Farquhar
Business

Atlassian cuts 500 jobs in a ‘rebalance’

- March 7, 2023 3 MIN READ

Workplace software giant Atlassian is cutting around 5% of its workforce – 500 staff – with co-CEOs Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes say they “are deeply sorry”. The job losses comes just four months after Farquhar embarked on a high-profile national tour last October to recruit more than 1000 people for new R&D roles. In… Read more »

GetSwift
Business

Disgraced tech startup GetSwift and its founders just copped a whopping $18 million in fines as ‘the unacceptable face of startup capitalism’

- February 17, 2023 5 MIN READ

GetSwift CEO Bane Hunter fined $2m, banned from managing companies for 15 years MD and cofounder Joel Macdonald fined $1m, banned for 12 years Company fined $15m Judge says pair show no contrition or remorse GetSwift raised $104m, investors receive 1c in $1 in class action The founders of former ASX-listed logistics tech startup GetSwift,… Read more »

Baraja
Business

Self-driving tech startup Baraja just shed 75% of its workforce

- February 13, 2023 2 MIN READ

Sydney autonomous driving technology startup Baraja has sacked around 75% of its workforce. The layoffs come just a month after the business received an undisclosed level of investment from Swedish automotive safety company Veoneer, which Baraja CEO and cofounder Federico Collarte said “validates the market traction” of the business. Baraja was founded in 2015 by… Read more »