🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #151, 1st March 2026

Feb 28, 2026

News

Canva acquires Cavalry, a UK motion and animation design platform, and MangoAI, a US algorithms company that optimises creative content using learning loops, building on its Affinity and MagicBrief acquisition to power the entire marketing and content lifecycle so content can automatically improve based on real performance data - also appoints MangoAI co-founder Nirmal Govind as its first Chief Algorithms Officer (LinkedIn)
Culture Amp paused a 2025 liquidity event after investor feedback that the valuation did not match its financial profile, and has put any IPO on hold (AFR)
Domain, owned by CoStar since its $3b takeover, has started divesting five non-core real estate workflow and valuation software assets, appointing Ad Astra to run the sale process and line up buyers (AFR)
Heidi Health acquires AutoMedica for an undisclosed sum, the UK healthtech behind SmartGuideline, an AI search tool for clinical guidance, and relaunches it as Heidi Evidence (The Australian)
Yume, a surplus inventory platform that automates selling and donating excess food stock, has been acquired by Procurement Australia for an undisclosed sum (LinkedIn)

NextDC secures $4.2bn to fuel huge data centre expansion with recycled water (The Australian)
Nuix swings to first-half profit of $11m as software licence revenue lifts (Capital Brief)

Archangel Ventures is raising a $40m Fund II with about half already committed, without backing from institutional LPs (Capital Brief)
Blackbird’s early Eucalyptus investment is projected to return 34.5x, turning $6m into $206m from the $1.6b Hims & Hers deal, with additional follow-on funds returning 3.6x ($23m to $83m) and 1.7x ($59m to $101m) as cash, deferred payments and earn-outs are paid through to 2029 (AFR)
Good Return, an impact investment manager, secures $1m from the Macquarie Group Foundation for Impact Investment Fund II to provide finance for women-led and climate-smart micro, small and medium businesses across Asia-Pacific. (Financial Newswire)
Australian Government awards Adelaide quantum tech company TeraGlo a $2.4m grant to build Australia’s first real-time mine-site sensor to measure recoverable rare-earths in clay deposits and lift extraction yields (Australian Mining)

Australia risks losing share of $850b AI windfall to slow approvals (AFR)
ESG screens in super backed LP agreements constrain VC co-investment in the Australian Government’s new $500m defence fund because many mandates exclude weapons and “controversial weapons” exposure (Capital Brief)
NSW Government awards 22 startups over $1m in MVP Ventures Program grants to fast-track building and commercialising new products and services (NSW Government)
WA Government Launches $1.75 Million Grant to Attract Commercial Spaceport Operators (Startup News)

SafetyCulture CEO Kelly Vohs will step down after one year, citing the need for a consistent Sydney HQ presence, with founder Luke Anear returning as interim while a permanent CEO search runs (The Australian)

Victoria leads Australian VC funding in 2025 with $2.2b across 134 deals, overtaking NSW (SmartCompany)

Eucalyptus’ $1.6b sale to Hims & Hers creates 100+ staff millionaires and about $300m in employee equity payouts, seeding new founders and angel capital back into Australia’s startup ecosystem (AFR)
Sendle enters liquidation, six weeks after sudden shutdown (SmartCompany)
WiseTech plans to cut 2,000 jobs, nearly a third of its workforce, says the “era of manually writing code” is “over” and AI agents can replace roles in product, development and customer service (The Australian)

EatClub, a startup that lets restaurants offer last-minute deals via its app to fill empty tables, has raised $27m in a Series B round from Marbruck, CoAct, EVP (AFR | SmartCompany)
PAM, a smart navigation platform for event organisers to give attendees interactive maps to find places and services at venues, has raised an undisclosed amount from The PGA Tour (The First Call Golf)
UpGuard, a cybersecurity platform that continuously monitors and manages third party vendor and external cyber risk, has raised $105m in a Series C round from Springcoast Partners, August Capital, Square Peg, Pelion Venture Partners (Forbes | Capital Brief)