pot of gold
Investing

The Australian government is ignoring $500 million worth of annual startup investment. Here’s what they need to do to fix it

- June 10, 2025 4 MIN READ

Earlier this year, New Zealand launched a revamped investor visa scheme, the Active Investor Plus visa, designed to attract high-net-worth individuals by slashing minimum investment thresholds, removing English language requirements, and reducing time-onshore commitments to just 21 days over three years. In return, investors gain a clear and rapid path to permanent residency. The response… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

A taller poppy solution: why this VC believes $5 billion could turn Australia into a global AI powerhouse

- May 29, 2025 6 MIN READ

James Alexander from Galileo Ventures proposes a ‘Tall Poppy’ national strategy for an AI revolution in Australia. We are witnessing the dawn of a new computing revolution 66 years after the invention of the silicon chip. This time it’s an intelligence revolution that goes beyond hardware. For the first time, we can talk to computers… Read more »

Business

The future of StrongRoom AI remains up in the air as legal action, its administration and a potential sale all drag on

- May 27, 2025 4 MIN READ

Ongoing legal action over the assets of failed medications management startup StrongRoom AI have led the company’s voluntary administrators to extend their control to the absolute limit. A case management hearing due today has been moved to June 4, extending Federal Court-imposed asset freeze on four StrongRoom directors and the administrator, initiated by VC investor… Read more »

Funding

Kiwi deep tech VC Outset Ventures secures NZ$41.5 million for Fund II

- May 27, 2025 2 MIN READ

New Zealand’s deep technology incubator and venture firm, Outset Ventures, has secured NZ$41.5m (A$38.4m) close of Fund II. The final commitments from more than 150 investors are more than a third above the initial NZ$30m target. The Auckland-based firm’s alumni include Rocket Lab, LanzaTech and Mint Innovation. Outset’s Future House currently hosts more than 20 deep tech… Read more »

Kite Magnetics team
Funding

SQM Lithium puts $3.6M into EV tech startup Kite Magnetics

- May 21, 2025 2 MIN READ

SQM Lithium Ventures, the VC arm of a major international lithium producer, has invested $3.6 million in Melbourne’s Kite Magnetics, a company that produces advanced components for electric motors. Kite Magnetics CEO Dr Richard Parsons said he was “excited” about the new partnership with SQM. “Their support will help us scale our technology to revolutionise… Read more »

Business

StrongRoom AI’s administrators recommend liquidation

- May 12, 2025 5 MIN READ

The administrators of medication management startup StrongRoom AI have recommended putting the business in liquidation ahead of a 2nd creditor’s meeting on Tuesday. The decision comes a fortnight before the Federal Court is due to hold another hearing in the legal action by VC firm EVP to recover $10.4 million it invested in the business… Read more »

Climate Tech

3 things Australian universities need from the Albanese government to commercialise research and help startups succeed

- May 9, 2025 5 MIN READ

The recent call for submissions into the Strategic Examination of Australia’s R&D system has revealed ideas and frustrations that have long been articulated on numerous discussion panels. However, through this recent consultation, it has felt like more practical solutions have surfaced across the ecosystem, and many of the ideas align.  So if we could request… Read more »

Mahesh Muralidhar
Funding

GD1-backed Kiwi VC Phase One Ventures closes early-stage fund with NZ$2.1 million backing 14 startups

- May 8, 2025 2 MIN READ

Four years after it launched, New Zealand VC fund Phase One has fully deployed its NZ$2.1 million (A$1.94m) early stage fund into 14 tech startups, including five (36%) with female founders. The fund, launched in April 2021, following the establishment of its early stage incubator community in 2020, the attracted GD1 as its anchor investor… Read more »

Funding

Trumponomics and startup raising: how to navigate turbulent waters

- May 7, 2025 2 MIN READ

As a founder who has successfully navigated the choppy waters of fundraising through the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the Covid-19 pandemic, I find myself facing yet another storm, this time, stirred by Trump’s recent trade policies. The current funding environment bears an uncanny resemblance to those past crises, and the implications for early-stage startups… Read more »

Business

How ‘smart’ investors are killing your future – and theirs too

- April 15, 2025 19 MIN READ

As I sat at the second ever Systemic Investing Summit in London in March, among 180 hand-picked global wealth holders and controllers, philanthropists, academics and industry practitioners, one disturbing image kept coming to mind. While we discussed innovative financing models and systemic approaches to capital deployment that could save humanity from collapse, I couldn’t shake… Read more »