🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #133, 12th October 2025
$189.2m raised across 7 rounds, Employment Hero hits $300m ARR, Affinda acquires Pathfindr, Birchal report says equity crowdfunding is more diverse than VC, Matrak launches UK office
You’ll notice a slight update in the format of today’s newsletter, each article in news is now categorised into themes to make for easier reading. Got any other feedback or suggestions, let me know!
News
M&A, IPOs & Exits
Affinda buys Pathfindr in $15 million AI deal (Startup Daily)
Carbar acquires HelloCars Subscription from Loopit to cap off the group’s second deal this year (BNA)
Carma IPO pegged at $242m to $316m, roadshow under way (AFR)
South Australian startup WorkSafe Guardian acquired by UK risk management software firm Ideagen (Startup Daily)
Compass acquires Music Monitor to expand K‑12 school information system suite (Tom Gagiero)
Capital Markets
IREN’s AI revenue booms as it seeks up to $1.5b in fresh capital (Capital Brief)
Partnerships & Deals
Who Gives a Crap backs electrified freight startup New Energy Transport in pioneering zero emissions supply chains for small business (Startup Daily)
Canva doubles GiveDirectly partnership with a US$100m cash‑transfer commitment (Jennie Rogerson)
HEO partners with Pixxel to bring non‑Earth imaging to India’s space sector (HEO)
Product Launches, Milestones and Expansion
AI is disrupting software, so TechOne built its own ChatGPT (AFR)
Employment Hero on track for its first full-year profit as recurring revenue hits $300m (BNA | AFR)
Qoria valuation surges past $1b on demand for online safety tool (AFR)
Gilmour Space Technologies’ plan to outcompete satellite internet providers Starlink, Amazon (The Australian)
US AI medtech to expand Victorian R&D hub (InnovationAus)
Melbourne startup Matrak launches UK office on growing Europe demand (Capital Brief)
DroneShield taps into SA’s emerging defence tech sector with $13m research facility in Adelaide (BNA)
Venture Capital & Funds
‘You just get a bit over it’: Why women are quitting VC for coveted operator roles (Capital Brief)
Remedy Robotics raises US$35m led by Blackbird & DCVC; completes first remote neurointervention (Michael Tolo)
Heidi shares the Series B deck behind its US$65m raise and physician‑first strategy (Dr. Thomas Kelly)
OIF Ventures leads R$160m (A$45m) round in Brazil’s BNPL Pagaleve (OIF Ventures)
Paul Bassat on Rokt’s Bruce Buchanan and the AI tailwinds driving growth (Paul Bassat)
Leonardo.Ai launches US$50k Imagination Fund backing five creator AI projects (Cameron Adams)
Birchal report says equity crowdfunding is more diverse than VC (SmartCompany)
Government, Policy & Regulation
Australian Banking Association welcomes draft legislation to modernise the regulation of payment service providers (Australian FinTech)
Australian Writers’ Guild takes aim at OpenAI over AI training opt-outs (Capital Brief)
APRA disqualifies former Xinja Bank CEO and director over failures in accountability obligations (BNA)
Tech giants lobby Australia’s government over AI as Amazon warns of a ‘two-tier economy’ (Startup Daily)
Why new open banking limits could hurt Australian fintechs (SmartCompany)
Diversifying Australian risk capital: why megafunds leave a gap — and four policy fixes (Jessy Wu)
Ecosystem & Hubs
AWS taps two Australian startups for its 2025 Generative AI Accelerator (SmartCompany)
Funding Rounds
Heidi Health, which develops a AI-powered medical scribe and clinical workflow automation tool to reduce admin for clinicians, has raised $98m ($65m USD) in a Series B round from Point72 Private Investments, Blackbird, Headline and LocalGlobe (Capital Brief | AFR | The Australian)
Personr, which helps organisations of all sizes comply with KYC/AML obligations in an all-in-one platform, has raised an undisclosed amount from FundWA (Direct)
Airtasker, the online services marketplace, has raised $5.1m in a Media-for-Equity round from 4 Ventures (BNA | Startup Daily)
Octopus Deploy, which helps software teams deploy, verify, and stress-test new code at the enterprise scale, has raised $45.6m ($30m USD) from Insight Partners (SmartCompany | AFR)
Nakatomi, a venture studio, has raised $3.5m from Angel Investors (Forbes | Capital Brief | The Australian)
Nexl, an all in one platform for law firms to collaborate across marketing, business development and operations, has raised $35m in a Series B round from Tidemark Capital (Startup Daily | AFR)
Lucent, which creates behavioural datasets for frontier labs grounded in real product usage, has raised $2m in a Pre-Seed round from Long Journey Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Browder Capital, Weekend Fund and Firestreak Ventures (Startup Daily | Capital Brief)