Auckland-based VC Icehouse Ventures has raised its first NZ$5 million towards a $20m target to invest in women-led startups. The new ArcAngels Fund II is Aotearoa’s largest fund investing exclusively in female-founded and led ventures. Theresa Gattung, Chair of Global Women and the Kiwi lead for women entrepreneur initiative SheEO, is a cornerstone investor in… Read more »
The Australian arm of New Zealand equity crowdfunding startup PledgeMe is back with a new name, Microwd, new owners and a new focus to back female-led startups. While the Kiwi side of the decade-old CSF venture continues, the seperate Australian business has been acquired by investment software company Finley Capital Partners, which has appointed Megan… Read more »
Melbourne startup Directo has raised $2.3 million in Seed funding for its B2B marketplace for the pharmacy sector. The round was led by Sydney seed VC Investible to scale its networked two-sided online marketplace, which offers B2C-like price transparency, immediacy and convenience while streamlining logistics and invoicing. Founder Gavin Upiter said Directo’s proprietary enterprise technology platform… Read more »
US billionaire Tim Draper, famed for investments in the likes of PayPal, Tesla, Twitter, Coinbase and Robinhood, has backed Australian-based drone planting eco-tech firm Lord of the Trees (LOTT) in a $US1.25 million (A$1.67m) pre-Seed round. The investment values LOTT, founded in 2019, at A$7 million. Lord of the Trees is a global reforestation company… Read more »
Biotech scale-up Microbio is looking to raise capital following positive domestic pilot study results for its bloodstream infection (BSI) test ahead of taking it to market The Brisbane-based venture’s InfectID-BSI test has the potential for significant improvement in detecting bloodstream infection and sepsis, the world’s mostly deadly infection, with 11 million deaths annually. InfectID-BSI is an in… Read more »
Byron Bay-based real-time merchant payments fintech Zepto (formerly Split Payments) has raised $25 million in a Series A. The round was led by Sydney VCs AirTree Ventures and Decade Partners. The cash is tagged for domestic growth as well as international expansion, strategic hires and developing new functionality for Zepto’s on top of the New… Read more »
The NSW government has opened applications for three new grant initiatives offering up to $95 million research, development and commercialisation of clean technologies. NSW treasurer and energy minister Matt Kean said the grants will help drive innovations developed by scientists and startups as part of the push towards net zero by 2050. “Boosting emerging innovations… Read more »
Superannuation fund UniSuper will invest $75 million into pioneering early-stage venture capital fund Uniseed in its first move into VC. Uniseed is the country’s oldest commercialisation fund, established in 2000. It is jointly owned by Universities of Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney, New South Wales and the CSIRO, and backs research and tech ventures developed by those… Read more »
Sydney startup Cascade has raised $40 million in a Series A on a promise to get strategy out of boardrooms. The round was led by former Sequoia investor Mickey Arabelovic’s Telescope Partners, alongside Five V and local VC Carthona Capital. The cash is earmarked for product evolution as well as expansion in North America and… Read more »
New Zealand audio capture startup Dotterel Technologies has raised NZ$3 million (A$2.8m) for its microphone tech, which captures clear sound over long distances. The round was led by Kiwi VC Icehouse Ventures, with support from RocketLab founder Peter Beck, Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1, US-backed NZVC, and private investors including Dotterel chair, Sean Simpson, founder of… Read more »
LA-based expat Australian chef Curtis Stone has signed on with the “Airbnb of dinner parties”, catering startup Gathar, as the Queensland startup expands into the US market. Gathar’s US expansion follows a $1 million in post-seed funding led by angel investment group ACAC Innovation, along with Up Bank co-founder, Dominic Pym among the new investors… Read more »
Expense management platform Cape has raised a staggering $33.1 million in a pre-Seed round. The raise is split between $3.1 million in VC equity and a $30 million debt facility Aura Ventures. The raise values the Sydney startup at $18 million. The equity cap table includes Investible, Scalare Partners, Mercury Capital and 15 business angels,… Read more »
Upstreet, a fintech that rewards shoppers with fractional shares in the ASX, NYSE and NASDAQ listed companies, has raised $3 million in Seed-plus funding. The round was led by Wattle Hill Capital supported by new backers Kelly+Partners Investment Office, McKinsey & Co. Partners and private investors including MadPaws CEO Justus Hammer, Wattle Hill Capital founder… Read more »
Driva, the two-year-old fintech that helps car buyers finance and insure their vehicle, has banked another $6 million as it looks to become a household name. The round was led by Carthona Capital and other follow-on investors, including Peter Gammell chaired Invictus, and angel investors such as CredibleStephen Dash, who made his fortune from creating… Read more »
Decentralised finance startup Minke has raised $650,000 in a pre-seed round to enter the fast-growing DeFi space. The startup is currently part of the Startmate summer cohort and was backed by angel investors Rayn Ong and Quentin Wallace, and ex-Outware Mobile founders Eytan Lenko and Danny Gorog. Co-founders Josh Reyes and Marcos Teixeira met as… Read more »
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