SecondQuarter Ventures , a venture capital secondary fund, has closed a $51 million round and announced stakes in two more startups. A secondary fund offers a potential exit and liquidity to investors and other shareholders, such as founders, prior to the venture going public or its sale. Secondary venture funds are well established in the… Read more »
Melbourne angel investment network Scale Investors has chose two co-CEOs, Chelsea Newell and Samar Mcheileh, to replace departed boss Ariane Barker. Scale invests in female-led startups and was founded in 2013 by a group of leading Melbourne businesswomen. With the backing of high net worth individuals, the organisation has backed 30 companies in that time… Read more »
Sydney-based seed investment group Investible has appointed financial services veteran Rod Bristow as CEO as it looks to raise $50 million for a second early-stage fund. Bristow was most recently CEO of ASX-listed Clime Investment Management Limited in a 25-year career that includes CommSec and the environmental NGO Greening Australia. His appointment comes as Investible… Read more »
Software startup Hudled, which has designed dashboard for growing companies to track and optimise their software stack, has raised $640,000 in a seed round as it officially launches the product and looks to expand into the US. The raise was backed by Black Nova Group, Antler and Sydney Angels, as well as several high profile… Read more »
Women-led early stage startups will have access to dedicated investment support from the $10 million Alice Anderson Fund – named after a pioneering Victorian businesswoman and innovator – to open for applications in July. The Alice Anderson Fund will run over three years as a sidecar investment fund committing between $50,000 and $300,000 into between 40 and… Read more »
Melbourne startup Sonnant, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for content discovery for the spoken word, has raised $750,000 in a seed round led by radio and TV company Southern Cross Austereo (SCA). The strategic investment by SCA will help support the recent launch of LiSTNR, the rebranded PodcastOne audio channel and… Read more »
Australian social media startup LITT, which touts itself as a ‘Facebook alternative’, broke Australian equity crowdfunding records when its campaign opened on Tuesday, raising $500,000 in just 40 minutes. The Western Australian venture then went on to have the second fastest to CSF raise to $1 million, taking 11 hours. That record was set just… Read more »
When an investor asks a founder to reveal their financial model, they are looking for the best possible attempt to provide a consistent, financial representation of the expected performance of the startup. It consists of well thought out projections about the future of the business, and a properly structured, understandable, and dynamic spreadsheet with easy-to-read… Read more »
Sydney-based car loan fintech Carclarity has raised a $1 million seed round led by Equity Venture Partners (EVP), just 12 months after launching. The funds will be use to build the startups product and development as it looks to expand from car financing to embedding itself in the car buying experience. Others in the funding… Read more »
Data and analytics startup smrtr has raised $2.5 million from property giant Stockland as it looks to use data to drive retail sales. Stockland has been a client of the data-as-a-service venture, founded in 2009 by Dr Boris Guennewig and Georgie Brooke, since 2013, and an earlier investment from the property company in October 2020… Read more »
If you’re certain you understand the business, and you are confident your investment in it will succeed, what you’re doing is not venture capital, it’s banking. Venture capital must have a high degree of risk in order to have a chance of earning the high returns venture capital investors expect from this asset class. Venture… Read more »
Digital lending and payments provider WLTH has opened $5 million seed funding round. The Brisbane-based fintech will use the funds to accelerate the growth of its proprietary technology platforms, ahead of the upcoming launches of its B2C payments app ‘WLTH Pay’ and loyalty program ‘WLTH + Loyalty’, as well as make key hires for its… Read more »
SME challenger bank Judo Bank is an even bigger unicorn after scooping up $284 million in a round 4 capital raise. The raise values the bank, founded in 2016, at $1.6 billion, an increase of 60% on its valuation following a previous raise seven months ago. Judo co-founder and co-CEO, David Hornery, said more than… Read more »
Fintech startup Effi has raised $1.2 million in seed funding as part of its push to become Australia’s leading mortgage broker platform. The round was led by Australian seed investment group Investible, US-based Hustle Fund and several mortgage industry leaders and brokers. Mandeep Sodhi, founder and CEO of the AI-powered company said he’s now looking to… Read more »
These days people trading on the stock market want more than just a strong financial return. They’re increasingly opting for investments that will also have a positive societal impact. The coronavirus pandemic showed us even established tech companies can suffer downturns in the short term. Apple, a tech behemoth, was left reeling when Chinese manufacturing… Read more »
Job-ready sales talent edtech Earlywork banks $1.5 million Seed round 
Sweat re-equity: Bikini Body founders Kayla Itsines and Tobi Pearce buy back their fitness app 
Airtasker cofounder Jonathan Lui’s proptech app, Soho, banks $750,000 to hit $20 million valuation 
B2B BNPL BizPay, which hoped to list at a $400 million valuation, has been placed in voluntary administration 
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