Parcels delivery challenger brand Sendle is the latest startup to trim its sales, cutting 12% – around 26 positions – from its team. The eight-year-old company, which pitches itself as the pugnacious alternative to Australia Post, raised $45 million 12 months ago from the likes of ASX-listed AP Ventures and NRMA Insurance. In the past… Read more »
HealthMatch, a five-year-old medtech that’s like Tinder for clinical trials, matching researchers with patients, has been forced to halve its team, shedding 18 jobs, as the local tech sector braces for a long startup winter. The cuts come 18 months after Paul Bassat’s Square Peg Capital led an $18 million round in the Sydney-based startup, which… Read more »
Internet of Things deep tech company Morse Micro is being backed by the NSW government to expand its work into revolutionary long-range, low power Wi-Fi in Sydney’s Tech Central as part of the Jobs Plus Program. Enterprise, Investment and Trade minister Stuart Ayres told the Investment NSW 2022 Tech Central Summit today that as the… Read more »
The new Stone & Chalk-run Scaleup Hub at Tech Central opens its doors next month in July, and has signed up 7 companies for its initial roll-out As founders think about hybrid work and how to bring their teams together Stone & Chalk Sydney General Manager Marie-Anne Lampotang said that companies looking to set up… Read more »
The Reserve Bank of Australia has increased the official cash rate by 0.5% today to 0.85% in an aggressive jump that’s beaten market expectations for a 0.4% increase. The rise follows a 0.25% increase following the May board meeting. Governor Philip Lowe said the board’s concerns include “significantly” increased inflation, that’s “higher than earlier expected”,… Read more »
Creative marketplace Envato is one of the first globally-focused Australian tech companies to shed jobs amid a US tech downturn, with 100 jobs to go. While Tesla boss Elon Musk flagged cutting 10% of the EV maker’s 100,000-strong workforce, and the US tech sector shedding 16,000 jobs in May, cutting staffing continues in June, with… Read more »
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ordered his company’s executives back to the office for at least 40 hours a week or they should leave the business. In a leaked email titled “Remote work is no longer acceptble” [sic], Musk began: “Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum… Read more »
Deal activity in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, fell by nearly 30% in April according to new financial analytics firm GlobalData. A total of 1,166 deals were announced in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region during April 2022, which GlobalData says is a decline of 29.4% over the 1,651 deals announced in March. While the data looks… Read more »
Imagine there is a public speaking square in your city, much like the ancient Greek agora. Here you can freely share your ideas without censorship. But there’s one key difference. Someone decides, for their own economic benefit, who gets to listen to what speech or which speaker. And this isn’t disclosed when you enter, either.… Read more »
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published information from Facebook whistleblowers, alleging Facebook (which is owned by Meta) deliberately caused havoc in Australia last year to influence the News Media Bargaining Code before it was passed as law. During Facebook’s news blackout in February 2021, thousands of non-news pages were also blocked – including important… Read more »
Food delivery tech company DoorDash has signed a pioneering agreement with the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) that sets out safety and fairness standards for gig workers. Amid ongoing legal battles by global tech companies over the employment status of gig economy workers, the first-of-its-kind agreement between an Australian union and a delivery platform sets out… Read more »
Send, a 10-minute grocery delivery app, has been placed in voluntary administration less than 12 months after in launched, in an ominous sign for the rapid grocery delivery market. Matthew Kucianski and Matthew Jess of Worrells were appointed Voluntary Administrators of Send App Pty Ltd, on Tuesday this week. The company has around 300 employees… Read more »
In a surprise capitulation, the board of Twitter has announced it will support a takeover bid by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person. But is it in the public interest? Musk is offering US$54.20 a share. This values the company at US$44 billion (or A$61 billion) – making it one of the largest leveraged buyouts… Read more »
Meal home delivery marketplace ChefPrep has raised $3 million in a Seed round. The raise was led by Artesian Ventures and Global Founders Capital. Additional backing came from Yellow Brick Road chairman Mark Bouris, Circular co-founder Yaniv Bernstein and Hungry House founder Graeme Horne. Founded in May last year by Elle Curran and Josh Abulafia,… Read more »
Elon Musk has bought influential social media company Twitter for $61.5 billion (US$44 billion) after a month-long siege that saw Twitter on the brink of diluting its shares to keep Musk away. Current Twitter shareholders will be paid $75.80 (US$54.20) per share in an agreement that Musk has framed as a win for free speech.… Read more »
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