New Zealand’s most active venture capital firm Icehouse Ventures, says it has “VCed itself” after raising NZ$10 million (A$9.3m) in equity capital. The raise was supported by business leaders and family offices across Aotearoa, as well as Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, and the US. Icehouse’s backers are a who’s who… Read more »
New Zealand funds management software startup Caruso has raised A$3 million in Seed funding as it looks to cross the ditch as establish an Australian office. The round was led by Kiwi VC Icehouse Ventures, with support from GD1, Chris Heaslip, founder of Pushpay, and the Rae family of Gull Oil. Caruso plans to add… Read more »
Artificial intelligence loans assessments platform Rich Data Co has raised $28 million (US$17.5m) in a Series B as it looks to ramp up its North America expansion The round was led by Westpac and Nasdaq-listed cloud banking firm nCino, supported by existing backer BMYG and a new investor, Singapore-based Octava Fund. The funds will be used… Read more »
Crowd-sourced funding (CSF) fintech Birchal is hoping to raise $3 million in a second campaign on its own platform. The capital raising platform, which has been popular with brewers, medicinal cannabis ventures and impact cleaning products startup Zero Co launched in 2018 when crowd-funding was legalised, has facilitated more than 100 capital raises worth $190… Read more »
Virtual reality property walkthrough startup EnvisionVR has raised $2.585 million in a round backed by industry leaders. EnvisionVR, founded in 2019, is a mobile platform that uses virtual and augmented reality experiences for the off-the-plan property developments. In the last 18 months, more than $500 million worth of property has been showcased and sold by… Read more »
Financial industry professional development platform Nuggets Academy has raised $700,000 in a round led by Antler Australia. The edtech, which deals with the mandatory Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training people are required to undertake annually, emerged out of the Antler program last year with its initial pre-seed funding from the accelerator and VC. Also backing… Read more »
Brisbane lending fintech WLTH has raised $14 million alongside acquiring home loan manager Mortgage Mart. The funding came from Melbourne-based healthtech-focused investor Rajomon and ASX-listed PNG digital lender Kina Bank (ASX:KSL). WLTH CEO and cofounder Brodie Haupt has put the capital to immediate use as part of his ambition to build Australia’s leading digital lender,… Read more »
New Zealand healthtech startup Carepatron has raised A$6 million in a Seed round co-led by existing backer Blackbird Ventures and US-based TQ Ventures: Carepatron, launched in late 2021 by David Pene and Jamie Frew. It practice management software helps healthcare practitioners deal with administration, cutting the time spent dealing with it by around 8 hours… Read more »
HSBC Australia has added to the growing options for Australian companies seeking capital launching a venture debt product late stage venture capital-backed scaleups. It’s the first time a major bank has offered venture debt locally, with the option only appearing in recent years for early stage startups via the likes of OneVentures, Lighter Capital, San… Read more »
Property buying discovery app Soho.com.au has raised $750,000 from Singapore proptechVC Feedback Ventures in a deal that values the startup at more than $20 million. Launched in 2018 by Airtasker cofounder Jonathan Lui, and described as “Tinder for real estate”, Soho uses artificial intelligence to personalise real estate searches, creating an instant list of properties… Read more »
Sales training bootcamp EarlyWork has raised $1.5 million in a Seed round as it looks to help more people gain jobs in the tech ecosystem. The round was led by Ari and Lucy Klinger’s family fund, No Brand, with support from Jelix Ventures, existing backer Archangel Ventures and Ultraviolet Ventures, as well as several founders and… Read more »
Gifting platform Elliephant has raised $560,000 in pre-Seed funding with LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund supporting the round. Cofounders Sheree Andersen and Johnny Reid launched Elliephant a year ago, inspired by their own frustration with how companies tackle gifting for clients and staff, setting out to create a new way to approach sales and marketing engagement,… Read more »
Social enterprise incubator White Box Enterprises has secured $12 million from impact investors and philanthropists to develop startups helping disadvantaged people in regional communities. The raise has been a two-year labour of love for White Box CEO, Luke Terry, who set a $13 million goal. Most of the capital, 75%, came from 13 impact investors,… Read more »
Patience and persistence have paid off for US-based music licensing marketplace Songtradr, founded by expat Australian songwriter and entrepreneur Paul Wiltshire, after raising US$70 million (A$106m) in a Series E after a 20-month hunt for investors. That figure is well short of ambitions for a US$170m (A$235m at the time) raise at a US$500m valuation,… Read more »
CSIRO VC fund Main Sequence Ventures has continued its support carbon accounting software startup Avarni, leading a $2.5 million raise. Supporting Main Sequence were Brisbane early-stage fund Sprint Ventures and Afterwork Ventures. It’s the climate tech SaaS platform’s third raise since it was founded in 2021 and its second in less than 12 months, although… Read more »
Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar steps down as co-CEO 
The lessons from Uber, Ola and rideshare’s disruption is that in the end, the consumer still pays 
Kiwi tech skills startup NextWork pockets $2.3 million pre-Seed raise 
Logistics software startup Veyor Digital shifts $2.75 million pre-Series A for US plans 
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