Morse Micro, which is reinventing Wi-Fi technology for the Internet-of-Things (IoT), has raised an extra $18 million in its Series A to take the total round to $42 million. The Sydney deep tech venture, founded in 2016, has some of original inventors of Wi-FI in the team and will use the funds to expand its… Read more »
Impact startup Like Family has raised $2 million in seed funding in a round led by Giant Leap Fund. Alberts Impact Capital and Pangaea Impact Investments also invested in Like Family (formerly Home Care Heroes) for its continued Victorian expansion and to grow the team. Jenna Leo and Mathieu Bertrand founded their NDIS-approved marketplace in… Read more »
Serial Australian entrepreneur Tim Kentley-Klay is back in founder mode two years after being fired from his autonomous mobility company Zoox, with a new robotics ventures that’s attracted support from mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest. His latest idea, launched this year, is HYPR – not to be confused with the US influencer marketing platform or… Read more »
New Zealand virtual pharmacy startup, ZOOM Health, which founder David Taylor calls the “Uber Eats of prescriptions”, is looking to raise NZ$3 million via Kiwi investing marketplace Snowball Effect. Taylor, ZOOM’s MD, founded the healthtech venture in 2017, targeting people on multiple medications who struggle to get to the pharmacy with a delivery option. “Whilst… Read more »
Software venture Marketplacer, which provides ecommerce solutions for leading Australian retailers such as Myer, Metcash and Bob Jane T-Marts, has raised $20 million as it plans to head to an IPO in early 2021. Founded in Melbourne in 2012, the company creates backend online marketplace software and raised $20 million 12 months ago in what… Read more »
There is a myth about great ideas. It is the fallacy that a winning idea simply sells itself to investors and lenders without too much effort. But what actually matters most is a founder’s ability to take an idea and mould it into a value proposition that is compelling to parties who have capital to… Read more »
Freelancer and solo entrepreneur accounting platform Bookipi has raised $1.6 million in a seed round co-led by Sydney VC Our Innovation Fund and Steve Baxter’s investment syndicate TEN13. Bookipi, founded in 2017, is targeting the freelancer and micro SME sector with its book-keeping platform and already has a user base of more than 640,000 customers… Read more »
MYOB has led a $22 million Series C round into workplace software startup Flare, with the accounting platform also announcing a new partnership with the five-year-old venture. Existing investors Point72 Ventures, Acorn Capital and David Fite joined the round with Malcolm Turnbull signing on as a new investor. Turnbull and Fite will become special advisors… Read more »
A household products company hoping to reduce the plastic waste by reusing containers for everyday products such as shampoo, liquid soaps and laundry wash has raised $2 million in seed funding, led by Skip Capital, the family VC run by Kim Jackson, wife of Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar. Zero Co has already attracted a series… Read more »
Workplace checklist app developer SafetyCulture has raised another $48.6 million just since six months after a $60.5 million round as early investors and staff cash in on the increasing worth of the company, now valued at more than $1.3 billion. Less than a third of the funds, $14 million, were invested as equity. Blackbird Ventures… Read more »
Melbourne-based social media venture Linktree has ended four years of bootstrapping, taking on $15 million (US$10.7m) in a series A round to expand globally. Linktree is a free tool to optimise internet presence for a celebrity, company or blogger, curating content across social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitch, sending viewers to other… Read more »
V2food, the fake meat joint venture between Hungry Jacks billionaire Jack Cowin and the CSIRO, has raised $77 million (US$55 million) in a series B round involving several Asian investors including Singapore’s state-owned Temasek Holdings as it looks to push into region with its plant-based burger mince. Investment companies ABC World Asia, Altitude Partners and… Read more »
The Morrison government and Big Four banks have committed $100 million each to the fund It will invest in around 30-50 high growth SMEs annually in return for a 10-40% equity stake The Business Growth Fund will have an independent management team selecting investments The fund will grow to $1 billion. The nation’s biggest banks… Read more »
Perth-based angel investor Greg Riebe has been named the Angel of the year for his contribution to and impact on angel investment in the startup community in the annual Techboard 2020 Australian Angel Investment Awards. Despite fears that it would be a lean year for angel investment, Techboard found that total funds deployed by… Read more »
Sydney software startup Pathzero, which launched in the middle of the Covid-19 lockdowns through the Antler Australia program, has raised $1 million in a seed round. Antler, Black Nova Group and senior business figures including former bank boss Brian Hartzer, climate campaigner, Simon Sheikh, and former Australian Ethical Investment CEO Phil Vernon, as well as two… Read more »
Is there a bit of nark and envy creeping into Australian venture when it comes to Blackbird? 
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