🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #155, 29th March 2026
$110m raised across 9 rounds, Canva acquires Doohly for $30m, Andromeda expands to the US, Stone & Chalk appoints Stela Solar as CEO, Investible launches $100m Global Talent Fund
News
M&A, IPOs & Exits
Canva acquired Doohly for $30m for Doohly, a Melbourne startup whose software manages the ad screens inside Rebel Sport, Mitre 10 and airports - giving Canva a path from design tool to physical display (Capital Brief)
Capital Markets
Convicted insider trader Oliver Curtis is cleared to lead Firmus to the ASX - the $6b data centre company is raising up to $3b in what could be the decade’s biggest float (AFR)
Blood cancer biotech HaemaLogiX prepares for $20m ASX IPO (AFR)
Koala raises $20m in new capital and lists on the ASX on March 31 at a $305m valuation (Startup Daily)
Partnerships & Deals
ASX-listed Stakk signs its biggest-ever deal; a $7.85m contract to embed AI decisioning technology into a US healthcare platform (Australian FinTech)
Xero embeds Anthropic’s Claude into its accounting platform to automate invoicing and reports - as its shares sit 35% below their peak on AI disruption fears (AFR)
Product Launches, Milestones and Expansion
Zoho opens its first Sydney office and plans to more than double Australian headcount, after 42% local growth last year (Capital Brief)
InDebted launches a standalone compliance API so any lender can run its AI collections rules - the same engine it uses across the US, UK, Australia and four other markets (Australian FinTech)
Andromeda founder and CEO Grace Brown announces they are expanding to the US (LinkedIn)
Venture Capital & Other Funding
NZ cattle-collar startup Halter raises $315M at $2.9 billion; Blackbird is its biggest backer as Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund leads the round (AFR)
Investible launches $100m Global Talent Fund to make celebrities true co-founders - not just endorsers - in consumer brands across food, sport and women’s health (AFR)
Government, Policy & Regulation
Australia will deprioritise data centre approvals for developers that don’t commit to renewables, local jobs, and startup access - the new rules explained (Capital Brief)
The Australia-EU trade deal gives local startups access to the world’s largest research fund - $155b via Horizon Europe for tech, clean energy and health (Startup Daily)
Copyright laws must change in AI age, claims the government. Artists say big tech should just pay under existing laws (Crikey)
People Moves & Spotlights
Stone & Chalk appoints former Microsoft AI director Stela Solar as CEO, with plans to give its startups shared access to hiring, legal and marketing services (Startup Daily)
Reports & Data
Tech Council of Australia claims the sector is now worth 9% of GDP and drives more productivity growth than any other industry (Startup Daily)
Funding Rounds
Future Maintenance Technologies, an autonomous robotics inspection platform that scans rolling stock for rail operators to reduce maintenance downtime, has raised $8m from QIC, Brighter Super and Taronga Group (AFR)
Support Fusion, an integration platform that syncs helpdesk tickets between different ticketing systems for MSPs and IT teams to stop manual re-entry, has raised $1m in a Pre-Seed round from Func Ventures, Exhort Ventures, Antler Australia and Angel Investors (ARN | Startup Daily)
Grub Lab, a restaurant platform that turns kids’ menus into licensed interactive experiences for family diners to boost engagement and sales, has raised $6m from Quantaco (Startup Rise)
Silicon Quantum Computing, a quantum software platform that simulates materials and molecules for researchers and developers to accelerate discovery, has raised $20m from The National Reconstruction Fund (AFR | Capital Brief)
Cuttable, an AI advertising platform, has raised $4.5m from Square Peg Capital, Rampersand, Airtree Ventures, Glitch Capital and Angel Investors (Startup Daily | AFR)
Cauldron Ferm, a biomanufacturing platform that scales continuous hyper-fermentation for precision-fermentation companies to cut production costs, has raised $19.2m ($13.25m USD) in a Series A2 round from Main Sequence Ventures, Horizons Ventures, SOSV and NGS Super (SmartCompany)
Arlula, a space-tech platform that automates tasking and delivery of satellite imager, has raised $3.4m from Paspalis Capital, Main Sequence Ventures, Startmate and Moonshot (Space Connect)
Rumin8, an agtech developer of feed additives that reduces methane from cattle for farmers to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, has raised $4.3m from AgriZeroNZ (Startup Daily)
Disruptive Packaging, a reusable waterproof closed-loop recyclable packaging supplier for retailers and brands to replace polystyrene and waxed cardboard, has raised $43.5m ($30m USD) from Idealist Capital (Sustainable Packaging News)