hostplus, Sam Sicilia
Business

‘No superannuation fund has done more’: Hostplus fires back on Employment Hero founder’s ‘tirade’

- March 13, 2024 3 MIN READ

Hostplus says Employment Hero CEO Ben Thompson wants them to “pay to play” to promote the super fund on the employee platform, but they’ve turned it down because it’s “undisclosed advertising”. In a statement to Startup Daily in the wake of Thompson publishing the letter from Hostplus to fellow investor, VC fund Airtree, which called… Read more »

Adrian Knack
Business

Queensland renewables startup Redback Technologies placed in voluntary administration

- March 11, 2024 < 1 MIN READ

Brisbane solar battery startup Redback Technologies has handed its books to voluntary administrators. McGrathNicol were appointed administrators of Redback Operations Pty. Ltd on March 5, as the company was in Sydney exhibiting at the Smart Energy Expo. Redback continues to trade as the administrators seek expressions of interest for the sale or recapitalisation of all… Read more »

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 »

Musk, twitter
Business

Elon Musk’s wrong about free speech on social media – the problem lies in the algorithms

- May 19, 2022 4 MIN READ

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 »

Mark Zuckerberg
Business

Whistleblowers accuse Facebook of deliberately taking down important non-news pages during its 2021 fight over paying for news

- May 10, 2022 4 MIN READ

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 »

DoorDash delivery
Business

DoorDash strikes landmark union deal for gig workers

- May 10, 2022 2 MIN READ

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 »