News
M&A, IPOs & Exits
SohoAI, Airtasker co-founder Jonathan Lui’s AI property search portal, and Inspace, the 3D inspection platform for commercial property, are merging under a new parent backed by Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital, with Lui as group CEO (BNA)
Capital Markets
Atlassian’s September-quarter revenue rose 24% to $2.56b (US$1.78b) and it posted a US$189m operating profit, reversing a loss a year earlier, yet its shares fell about 18% after hours (Startup Daily)
Partnerships & Deals
Westpac is cutting ties with Palantir, the US surveillance company that enables Israel’s genocide in Gaza, after shareholder and activist pressure over that role, and will commission an independent human rights review of its sourcing (Capital Brief)
Canva has expanded its OpenAI partnership for broader access to GPT-6 Astra and lower running costs, days after launching Brush, its second in-house model; it is among the five most-installed apps in ChatGPT (Startup Daily)
Forge Photonics, whose fibre optic gyroscopes let ships and uncrewed systems navigate without satellite signals, is testing its system on Revelare’s Timor Sea seabed survey for the Australian government, its first real-world trial (Spatial Source)
Mutinex, the marketing measurement platform that builds AI models of what drives each business’s growth, has signed Coles Group’s supermarkets - after a competitive pitch - plus UniSuper, Jaguar Land Rover, Keystart, Adore Beauty and Pillow Talk (LinkedIn)
Uluu, which ferments seaweed into a biodegradable plastic spun into polyester-like fibre, has signed a funded development deal with Norwegian outdoor brand Norrøna for waterproof, windproof clothing, with a first range due late 2027 (BNA)
Product Launches, Milestones and Expansion
Aquila, the Blackbird-backed startup that beams power by laser, says it delivered more than 800W to a drone in flight from 1,000 feet away - a claimed world record - meaning drones need never land to recharge (LinkedIn)
Janus Electric, the ASX-listed company converting diesel trucks to run on swappable batteries, has built a 124-truck, $64.6m North American order book, with its first US conversions due on the road this month (BNA)
Lorikeet, the maker of AI customer service agents, has launched Dreamweaver, which gives every customer an AI account manager that works towards a goal - such as a first transaction - over weeks, deciding each next step (LinkedIn)
Spiral Blue, the satellite AI computer maker, is building satellite LiDAR to refresh councils’ 3D bushfire fuel maps every 20 days rather than every few years; its first mapping mission is planned for 2028 (Space Connect)
Venture Capital & Other Funding
Victoria’s state VC fund Breakthrough Victoria posted its first profit, a $165.8m FY26 surplus on exits from Infleqtion and World View, weeks before an election the Coalition has pledged to wind it up after (Startup Daily)
Clutch Industries, the 75-year-old auto parts maker, has won $6.77m from ARENA towards a $19.35m pilot line for PowerNet, a 20kg 4kWh solid-state battery pack that stacks into a home battery or detaches for camping (Startup Daily)
Hadean Energy, whose electrolyser uses industrial waste heat to make hydrogen with up to 30% less electricity, has won a $15m ARENA grant towards a $30m pilot plant supplying BlueScope’s Western Port steelworks (BNA)
LeadStory, the news streaming service that puts Bloomberg, CNBC and Reuters clips into car dashboards and apps, is raising a $5m-plus Series A after a $3.6m (US$2.5m) seed at a $32.5m valuation (AFR)
Rest Super will put $250m into MPower, the solar and battery developer Wollemi Capital bought off the ASX last year, to build sub-5MW projects that plug into local networks and avoid the transmission queue (AFR)
Government, Policy & Regulation
A NSW parliamentary inquiry has found data centre approvals failed to consider the cumulative effect on resources and infrastructure but stopped short of recommending a moratorium, drawing a rebuke from its own chair (InnovationAus)
The Productivity Commission wants VC fund tax concessions loosened so funds can make investments outside the eligibility rules, the sophisticated investor test widened to count startup experience, and SAFEs recognised when the money goes in (Capital Brief)
New priorities for the $25b Medical Research Future Fund will steer more grants to digital health systems, AI and multiomics research under a five-year Medical Research and Innovation Strategy released on Tuesday (InnovationAus)
Reddit and NSW MP John Ruddick’s group have begun High Court challenges to the under-16 social media ban, Reddit calling the law ‘inept’ as the government argued addiction and ADHD risks drove it (InnovationAus)
Uber must pay NSW $81.5m in payroll tax after the High Court ruled the fares it collects for drivers are wages under contractor provisions, a ruling that exposes gig platforms in every state except WA (AFR)
Ecosystem & Hubs
The Precinct, Queensland’s government-backed startup hub in Fortitude Valley since 2017, will close at the end of November after talks with the building’s owner collapsed, leaving dozens of tenant ventures and investors weeks to relocate (InnovationAus)
People Moves & Spotlights
Lee Hickin will step down as executive director of the National AI Centre in January after under two years, ending a 33-year career at Microsoft and Amazon; recruitment of his successor has begun (Capital Brief)
Others News & Updates
Anthropic has named eight Australian brokers - CommSec, Bell Potter, LGT, Macquarie, Morgans, Morgan Stanley, Sharesies and Stake - for a local retail offer in its $143b (US$100b) Nasdaq IPO, with an Australian prospectus due next week (Capital Brief)
Canva will cut, change or relocate 1,271 roles - 22% of its staff - in its first company-wide redundancy round, making Sydney its main product hub, after growth slowed for the first time in a decade (Newsroom - Latest Canva news announcements, brand guidelines and media kit.)
Culture Amp, the employee engagement software unicorn, has cut the exercise price on staff options 46% to US$24.67 after an independent valuation, while revenue grew 7% and the company turned cash flow positive in FY26 (AFR)
Heidi, the AI medical scribe maker, is cutting 18% of its staff - at least 108 roles - six weeks after its $140m Series C, as co-founders Yu Liu and Waleed Mussa leave (Startup Daily)
Best Practice, the Sonic Healthcare-backed GP software company, has warned doctors that running Heidi II with its Bp Premier software breaches their licence, citing patient safety; Heidi calls the stance anticompetitive (AFR)
NAB Ventures’ team is being disbanded in the bank’s 2,500-job restructure - staff offered redundancy or other roles and portfolio companies told - though the brand and its startup investments remain (Capital Brief)
RealtyAssist, the Metrics Credit Partners-backed proptech that lends vendors their upfront selling costs, is losing more than $1m a month and talking to rivals about consolidation after revenue fell 36% to $4.5m (AFR)
Funding Rounds
Future Secure AI, an AI agent platform for corporate finance and operations teams to automate routine tasks and cut processing time, has raised $118m (US$82m) from Square Peg Capital, Yarra Capital Management, Macquarie Asset Management and Firetrail Investments (Capital Brief | AFR)
GPN Vaccines, a clinical-stage biotech developing a serotype-independent pneumococcal vaccine for adults and children to prevent pneumococcal disease, has raised $14.2m (US$10m) (PR Newswire)
i14, an AI infrastructure platform for enterprises to train large models to cut compute energy use, has raised $9m in a Seed round from Salus Ventures, IP Group, Tin Alley Ventures, HostPlus, Archangel Ventures and Virescent Ventures (AFR | LinkedIn)
Indrus, a logistics platform that uses site cameras to automate yard and dock orchestration for yards and terminals to cut truck turnaround, has raised $750k in a Pre-Seed round from Purpose Ventures, Melt Ventures and Curtin University (Startup Daily)
Soho AI, a proptech chatbot that answers property search and investment questions for buyers and investors to assess suburb rental yields, has raised an Undisclosed amount from B Capital (BNA)