The NSW government is establishing a new $703 million investment fund to back fast-growing local companies in the medtech, digital tech and clean economy spaces. Treasurer Matt Kean announced the Future Economy Fund in Tuesday’s state budget as “a once-in-a-generation chance” aimed at the full life cycle of innovative, high-growth business in priority sectors and… Read more »
Local largest climate tech startup accelerator EnergyLab has signed a partnership deal with New Energy Nexus (NEX) to help Australian startups expand into overseas markets. The deal will see EnergyLabs embrace international startups keen to expand into the Australian market, as well as giving local ventures access to offshore customers, capital, and resources in regions such… Read more »
Western Australian funeral industry challenger brand Bare has raised $10 million in a Series A. The round was led by Perennial Partners and Ord Minnett Private Capital. The company, previously known as Bare Cremation counts OIF Ventures, Athletic Ventures, Who Gives A Crap founder Simon Griffiths and former basketballer Andrew Bogut among its backers and… Read more »
Sydney fintech Brighte, which has been riding the wave of home solar funding, has cut its workforce by around 15%, laying off more than 30 staff. The move comes as homeowner interest in solar panels jumps in response to skyrocketing energy prices. Despite being backed by heavy-hitting investors, including the family VC firms of Atlassian… Read more »
NSW Treasurer and energy minister Matt Kean has announced another $38 million in charging infrastructure for electric vehicles on the eve of the state budget. With Kean handing down the 2022-23 NSW Budget on Tuesday, June 21, the pro-EV Treasurer announced the extra funds, taking the state’s EV investment to $633 million under its NSW… Read more »
Sydney startup hub Fishburners has changed its leadership with CEO Nicole O’Brien standing down, replaced by entrepreneur and investor Alan Jones as interim CEO. The organisation marked a decade of operation last year, and has received strong support from the NSW government to help it survive the pandemic lockdowns. Earlier this year it launched theTech… Read more »
Motoring association the NRMA is a cornerstone investor in a new agrifood tech fund backing startups focused feeding the world. The sustainability-focused agriculture and food technology venture fund Mandalay Fund I by Mandalay Venture Partners now has more than $21 million in commitments towards its first close, with an ultimate target of $50 million. NOVONIX co-founder… Read more »
Google’s LaMDA software (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) is a sophisticated AI chatbot that produces text in response to user input. According to software engineer Blake Lemoine, LaMDA has achieved a long-held dream of AI developers: it has become sentient. Lemoine’s bosses at Google disagree, and have suspended him from work after he published his… Read more »
Sixtree founders Ben Wylie and Yamen Sader have left their roles at big four consultancy firm Deloitte Australia to launch their own “engineering for equity” startup, Lab Eleven. It marks a full-time return to entrepreneurship for the duo six years after Sixtree, a software engineering shop, was absorbed by Deloitte in 2016, and they took… Read more »
Video collaboration scaleup Vloggi has secured a key angel investor at it looks to raise $1 million in a Seed round Vloggi founder Justin Wastnage said serial entrepreneur Sascha Manuel-Reuter, founder of file transcoding platform Doctape, made a “significant commitment” to the raise. Manuel-Reuter sold Doctap to Atlassian in 2014 and it’s now integrated into… Read more »
What you say and do on social media can affect your employment; it can prevent you from getting hired, stall career progression and may even get you fired. Is this fair – or an invasion of privacy? Our recent research involved a study of 312 news articles about people who had been fired because of… Read more »
A Melbourne-based startup is tackling the 250,000 tonnes of food waste generated each year in the food services industry with new monitoring technology – simply installed onto existing appliances. Operandio is helping hospitality and retail-based businesses to digitise processes, and support their teams to access training and communications. The new automated temperature sensors retail for… Read more »
Western Sydney is poised to produce Australia’s next generation of IT workers and high value tech companies, according to Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm. In her acceptance speech for the inaugural Florence Mary Taylor Innovation Medal, Denholm described her upbringing in Milperra, a suburb just past Bankstown in Southwestern Sydney. “My parents owned a service station in the… Read more »
The University of Melbourne is launching two new major investment funds, worth a combined $115 million, to help researchers commercialise their work in new startups. The $15 million University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund, established in conjunction with Breakthrough Victoria, will provide funding for early-stage research, ideas and new technologies and will facilitate access to… Read more »
Late-stage accelerator Impact Tech Ventures and early-stage VC Investible are collaborating to help drive international growth for promising Australian tech scaleups. The Sydney firms plan to collaborate cross a range of growth programs and engagement initiatives, including the 2022 Australian Technologies Competition (ATC), now in its 12th year. Impact Tech Ventures Executive Chair Patrick Mooney… Read more »
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