🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #115, 18th May 2025
An unplanned break last week but the news and funding does not stop.
For the week commencing 5th May we saw $90.7m raised and another $29.6m this week - all the details about every raise in the bottom of today’s newsletter.
Plenty of news to catch up on as well - if you’ve only got 2 mins now here’s my pick of the headlines;
Gilmour Space Technologies has indefinitely postponed the launch of Australia's first locally-built orbital rocket, after a "pre-launch anomaly" unexpectedly opened its nose cone (SmartCompany)
VCs say ‘It will completely kill us’ (AFR) and Angel Investors are pulling back from startups (Capital Brief) in reaction to Labor’s plan to tax unrealised super gains
Blackbird Ventures says MedTech AI startup Heidi Health has overtaken over Canva and Leonardo AI as the fastest-growing company ever in its portfolio - on track to make $23m in revenue this year (AFR)
Australia’s richest families have overtaken superannuation funds for the first time as the biggest investor group behind local venture capital and private equity (AFR)
CoStar signs $3b deal to acquire Domain as Nine backs US takeover (BNA)
Blackbird has issued a capital call to limited partners for $60m ahead of Airwallex’s Series F capital raising (AFR)
Top News
Applications for the mid-year intake of AO StartUps are now open ahead of the Australian Open (Startup Daily)
Stratoship has surpassed its expectations after running a successful 11-hour test flight of its high-altitude airship, marking a key step toward long-duration stratospheric missions (BNA)
Ta'eed-backed Esparq Ventures is ready to fund Indigenous founders (Capital Brief)
UTS Startups moves to Tech Central with desk discounts for staff and students (Startup Daily)
Diraq expands into Chicago’s quantum cluster after landing US gov contracts (Startup Daily)
Local tech sector buoyed by ‘sovereign capability’ focus (InnovationAus)
Family offices are pouring money into private markets — just not VC (Capital Brief)
Quiet optimism for local startups as $17b VC warchest grows despite global private capital slowdown (Startup Daily)
Telstra joins Silicon Valley rush to sort customer woes (The Australian)
The Plus Eight Accelerator has announced its 2025 Phase One cohort of 16 ambitious WA startups (Startup News)
Fishburners adds two new NEDs Jason Maletic and Paul Umbrazunas (Startup Daily)
Stripe’s Australian lead steers clear of Tyro takeover talks (SmartCompany)
StrongRoom AI’s administrators recommend liquidation (Startup Daily)
'A real loss': Australian VCs mourn Ed Husic’s cabinet exit (Capital Brief)
5 Australian startups have been selected for the 2025 LawTech Hub by Lander & Rogers (Startup Daily)
UNSW Founders, Luminary Partners to back 18 deeptech startups with $3.6m (BNA)
‘Green Macquarie’ Pollination fails to raise $150m venture fund (AFR)
R&D funder Advanced eyes a potential $100m raise for startups after success of initial $25m round (BNA)
Finder is getting out of crypto, shutting down its Wallet (Startup Daily)
GP booking app HotDoc hires advisory boutique; eyes $200m valuation (AFR)
Software Combined Group acquires ‘troll busting’ reputation manager Removify (BNA | Software Combined)
1Breadcrumb acquires SignOnSite in major construction software shake-up (Capital Brief)
Defence tech firm Anduril to acquire Ireland’s Klas (InnovationAus)
Dovetail CEO seeks dismissal of explosive harassment lawsuit (Capital Brief)
Fleet Space enlisted by Saudi Arabian miner Maaden to sustainably unlock kingdom’s mineral potential (BNA)
Health start-up Eucalyptus to ditch Woolworths, cash in on Wegovy online (AFR)
Funding Rounds
5th May to 11th May - $90.7m
Hoogly, an AI-powered platform that enhances employee engagement and wellbeing by facilitating real-time anonymous conversations, has raised $1m (Startup Daily)
Relevance AI, a no-code platform to build and deploy custom AI agents, has raised $37m ($24m USD) in a Series B round from Bessemer Venture Partners, King River Capital, Insight Partners and Peak XV Partners (Daniel Vassilev | The Australian | AFR)
Levur, a biotech startup using precision fermentation to produce sustainable, nature-identical oils as alternatives to environmentally harmful plant and animal oils, has raised $1.2m in a Pre-Seed round from Main Sequence, GrainCorp Ventures, SparkLabs Cultiv8 and UNSW Founders (Startup Daily | Capital Brief | SmartCompany)
Blinq, a digital business card platform, has raised $38.7m ($25m USD) in a Series A round from Touring Capital, HubSpot Ventures, Blackbird and Square Peg (Jarrod Webb | AFR | Capital Brief)
Advanced, a capital platform helping startups and innovators unlock their R&D tax refunds early, has raised $2.3m from Angel Investors (Alex Knight | AFR)
Haast, a RegTech that provides an AI-powered platform to automate marketing and content compliance, has raised $6m in a Seed round from Airtree Ventures, defy.vc, Aura Ventures and Black Sheep Capital (Capital Brief | Startup Daily | BNA)
1Breadcrumb, digital site check-in, safety compliance, and contact tracing platform for worksites, has raised $4.5m in a Seed round from Five V Capital (SmartCompany)
12th May to 18th May - $29.6m
Bovotica, which makes probiotics to help cattle put on weight and cut down on the methane they produce, has raised $3.4m in a Seed round from AgriZeroNZ, InnovationClub (AFR | SmartCompany | Startup Daily)
York Street Brands, which builds and scales innovative skincare brands such as BOOST LAB and tbh Skincare, has raised a $2m Series C from iPartners (SmartCompany)
EatClub, a startup that lets restaurants offer last-minute deals via its app to fill empty tables, has raised $18.2m in an Undisclosed round from Co:Act Capital, Gandel Invest, Marbruck and EVP (AFR)
Plexus, which is building a platform for in-house legal teams for contract management, legal automation, and matter management, has raised $6m from Lighter Capital (SmartCompany | BNA)