🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #160, 10th May 2026

May 09, 2026

News

Canva’s local filings show revenue surged past $4.1b and the Australian business swung to profit as the design giant prepares for an AI-era IPO (AFR)
Catch co-founders Gabby and Hezi Leibovich have acquired collapsed online sales platform Click Frenzy and plan to relaunch it around more consistent retail deals (SmartCompany)
Acorn Capital-backed Dredge Robotics, an Australian industrial robotics company using proprietary technology to clean critical water infrastructure, is seeking a buyer at a $50m to $100m valuation (AFR)
Stockholm legal AI platform Legora acquires Melbourne regtech Graceview to add real-time regulatory monitoring for global law firms (Capital Brief)

ASX-listed Decidr AI is raising $15m to fund M&A, develop Sugarwork and expand its agentic AI platform in the US and Singapore (AFR)
Pengana plans ASX-listed trust to give public investors exposure to private AI companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Groq (AFR)
Sharon AI’s planned ASX listing faces scrutiny after US short seller questions its $1.25b customer contract, debt funding and CEO’s track record (AFR)

Atlassian promises operating profit in 2027 as it opens its Teamwork Graph to AI agents and shifts toward usage-based AI pricing (AFR)
Databricks will invest $416m in Australia, open a larger Sydney office and hire 150 staff as enterprise AI adoption accelerates (Capital Brief)
$17b AI voice startup ElevenLabs opens a Sydney office and hires former Slack executive Damian Naughton to lead ANZ expansion (Capital Brief)
Q-CTRL announces its quantum software delivered a 3,000x materials simulation speedup on IBM’s platform, cutting runtime from 100 hours to two minutes (LinkedIn)
Trellis Data launches Agentaus, a Canberra-built sovereign AI platform that keeps government and enterprise data hosted in Australia (LinkedIn)
Nasdaq-listed IREN eyes billion-dollar Australian data centre buildout from 2028 as demand for AI infrastructure accelerates (Capital Brief)

NSW grants $7.4m to Baymatob, Roam Technologies, Amazing Gut and Kraken Coding to advance medical devices for maternal health, respiratory care, bowel function and clinical decision-making (NSW Government)

Startup leaders including Paul Bassat, Michael Biercuk and Luke Anear warn Labor’s CGT changes could drive founders offshore by reducing the upside from employee equity and venture investing (AFR)
Victoria’s LaunchVic replacement gets no specific funding in the state budget as the government folds its startup agency into Breakthrough Victoria (Startup Daily)
Uber Australia’s profit halves as it fights Revenue NSW in a High Court case that could reshape payroll tax for gig economy platforms (The Australian)

Eucalyptus co-founder Charlie Gearside launches Build Australia to turn startup patriotism into a movement for national tech ambition (Capital Brief)
Repeat Builders launches in Sydney with a venture builder model that gives founders $3m, two years of support and no need to fundraise (StartUp ScaleUp)
Fishburners enters voluntary administration after rental debt and operating losses put one of Australia’s most influential startup hubs up for sale (SmartCompany)
UNSW Founders opens 2026 10x Accelerator with $100k SAFE investments and new global expansion pathways for health, climate and general startups (Startup Daily)
Spacecubed rebrands after 14 years as the Perth-born coworking and startup support organisation plans to launch permanent innovation hubs in every major Australian city (Startup News)

Lyrebird Health appoints Dr Ray Boyapati as its first Chief Clinical Officer to build trust in AI clinical documentation (Pulse+IT)
Nuix makes John Ruthven permanent CEO after a 12-month interim stint, giving the ASX-listed software company a stable leader for its next growth phase (Capital Brief)

Canva pauses normal work for 5,300 staff to run a week of AI training and hackathons instead of using AI to justify layoffs (The Age)
Culture Amp faces a court claim from a former AI specialist who alleges he was fired after raising concerns about unclear role expectations (AFR)

ReadySteadyPlug, an EV charging system that installs metered smart-plugs for strata buildings to enable pay-per-use, scalable overnight charging, has raised $1.51m from Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) (Startup Rise)
Enaxiom, a data-centre cooling system that captures and recycles water for AI and high-density compute operators to cut cooling energy use, has raised $2.5min a Seed round from Epic Angels, BlackNova and Antler (Startup Daily | LinkedIn)
On the House, a FemTech platform providing free period products in public venues through advertising-funded dispensers, has raised $1.7m in a Seed round from Purpose Ventures, Startmate and UniQuest (Mediaweek)