Employment Hero founder Ben Thompson
Business

Employment Hero founder Ben Thompson fired a broadside at one of his investors, Hostplus, claiming the super fund ‘wants to put us out of business’

- February 29, 2024 3 MIN READ

Disrupting a $3.5 trillion industry is difficult. Just ask fintechs like Cannon-Brookes-backed Spaceship, Superhero, and Verve Super. Australia’s superannuation industry gets a $362 billion compulsory cake from fees – more than $30 billion annually – and wants to eat it all too. Treasury put out a consultation paper titled Securing Australians’ Superannuation late last year… Read more »

Business

Five years after hitting the ASX with a $610 million market cap, small business lender Prospa is delisting with a $74m takeover bid

- February 27, 2024 2 MIN READ

Small business lender will disappear from the ASX within months following a $74 million takeover bid from the Melbourne-based Salter Brothers Tech Fund. While the offer of $0.45 cents a share is a 22% premium on Prospa’s (ASX:PGL) closing price of $0.37 cents on Monday, it’s a far cry from when the business listed at… Read more »

Octopus Deploy, Sonia and Paul Stovell.
Business

Queensland quiet software giant Octopus Deploy snaps up US rival for $43 million

- February 27, 2024 3 MIN READ

Brisbane enterprise software scaleup Octopus Deploy has acquired a US rival, Codefresh, in a deal worth reportedly worth US$28 million (A$42.6m). It’s the first major acquisition by the quiet achiever of the Queensland tech scene, one of the largest privately-held companies in the DevOps ecosystem. While no figure was mentioned in the announcement, media reports… Read more »

AMSL Aero chief engineer Andrew Moore, chair Chris Smallhorn, and COO Siobhan Lyndon
Business

Hydrogen aircraft startup AMSL Aero lands its first customer

- February 6, 2024 2 MIN READ

Sydney startup AMSL Aero, which has designed and built a Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft powered by hydrogen, has sold its first 10 aircraft to a commercial client. Aviation Logistics, which operates spanning regional passenger services, charter, freight and aeromedical flights, paid deposits on 10 aircraft, with the option to buy 10 more,… Read more »

Adatree, Shane Doolan. Jill Berry
Business

Open banking startup Adatree acquired by payments fintech Fat Zebra

- February 6, 2024 2 MIN READ

Open banking facilitation startup Adatree has been acquired by Sydney small business payments provider Fat Zebra for an undisclosed sum. The Sydney regtech platform was the first early-stage startup approved to take part in Australia’s open banking system as Accredited Data Recipient (ADR) for the Consumer Data Right (CDR). Adatree helps fintechs gain access to… Read more »

Kiki
Business

A Kiwi startup Blackbird backed with $7 million in its Seed round just pivoted to WTF

- January 19, 2024 6 MIN READ

Last year Blackbird Ventures made a massive bet on a New Zealand rental accommodation app, just six months after it had turned down a $200,000 pitch for cash. In August 2023, Blackbird instead tipped $7 million into a A$9.5 million Seed round for Kiki. The startup’s cofounder Toby Thomas-Smith, said Blackbird’s New Zealand partner, Samantha… Read more »

Sally-Ann Williams
Business

Cicada Innovations finds partnerships are as important to deep tech as funding when it comes to success

- January 4, 2024 3 MIN READ

The biggest impediment to Australia shifting from a services-based industry to one based on science and engineering is a longstanding deep tech “scaleup problem” according to a new report from incubator Cicada Innovations. The inaugural “Cicada x Tech23 2023 Insights” report is based on data from 128 deep tech applicants to Cicada x Tech23 2023,… Read more »

Lauren Swidenbank, Jess Ruhfus
Business

Brand collaboration platform Collabosaurus acquired by Cali Social founder

- December 31, 2023 < 1 MIN READ

Bootstrapped brand collaborations startup Collabosaurus has been acquired by marketing guru Lauren Swidenbank. The terms of the M&A deal were not disclosed. Swidenbank is CEO and founder of Cali Social, a performance marketing agency specialising in female-first brands. She said the acquisition as a strategic move to expand into tech and leverage Collabosaurus’s unique position… Read more »

Great white shark
Business

Linktree gobbles up and kills off competitor Koji

- December 15, 2023 2 MIN READ

Australia link-in-bio platform Linktree has acquired two-year-old competitor Koji from its parent company GoMeta for an undisclosed figure. In the tortured syntax beloved of tech titans. Linktree said in a blog post that Koji’s link-in-bio product “will be sunset” on January 31. We take that to mean shut down rather than a glowing golden light… Read more »

Business

Accidental edtech founder Edwina Sharrock exits Birth Beat to help more women succeed

- December 4, 2023 3 MIN READ

Founder Edwina Sharrock says the decision to exit from her 8-year-old edtech startup Birth Beat is like selling a child. The childbirth education platform has been acquired by Device Technologies for an undisclosed sum. Birth Beat offers comprehensive, interactive digital childbirth education, as well as baby and child first aid courses, that have helped more… Read more »