🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #97, 8th December 2024

This week I republished two articles and wrote a new one as part of a longer piece I’ve title ‘The Battle for Online Groceries in Australia’.

In the last couple of years we've seen the rise and fall of Send, Voly, and Quicko - this left MILKRUN left standing as the last player.

They were then faced with a consolidation of their own, not immune to the post ZIRP era and rising cost of capital. Woolworths acquired them, in what was likely an asset sale. The major supermarkets have been investing in their own online experiences, with Woolworths launching their subscription model first, Everyday Extra, and Coles now launching their own.

Now with the ACCC looming with separate proceedings underway - they are trying to divert attention to Amazon as a true competitor. Whilst in my opinion this should have no bearings on the claims of duopoly it does raise an interesting point about Amazon's strategy and opportunity in Australia. Amazon is certainly not a legitimate competitor at the moment - even in the US their most mature market they only have 3% market share in the groceries category.

Personally, I would think hard and long before betting against Amazon - at their core they are a logistics company. Shopify tried to take the fight to them with the acquisition of Deliverr for $2.1b USD which was then offloaded just a year later to Flexport.

Regardless of the outcome - more competition is great.

And if anyone from Amazon reads this, please can get Whole Foods!

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Top News

• Lauren Humphrey has shared on LinkedIn the decision to shut down the Tandem product (Lauren Humphrey)

• Blossom App expands into New Zealand market as funds under management near $100m (BNA)

• NBN left in the dust by Musk’s Starlink (The Australian)

• Tech just got bumped up the list as a priority for skilled migration (Startup Daily)

• WTF: Why West Tech Fest might be the best technology conference in Australia (SmartCompany)

• ACCC steps up attack on Google, saying AI is failing to dent its monopoly (The Australian)

• Australia's Redbelly says its new blockchain is first ever designed for real-world assets (Capital Brief)

• Birchal’s new LaunchVic-backed investment syndicate has helped raise $1.9 million for hardware startups in 90 days (Startup Daily)

• Google is facing a year of challenges to its business model in Australia in the form of two potential class actions over its ad tech practices (Capital Brief)

• Nicola and Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo are spearheading the $100 million seed investment in Future Generation Women, a new high-net-worth fund exclusively managed by female portfolio managers (Forbes)

• Splend has secured a $300m debt financing facility from Macquarie to add thousands of electric vehicles to its fleet (AFR)

• WAVC Initiative Awards $45m in VC Funding to Purpose Ventures, FundWA, Brandon Capital Partners, Health Translation Group, Skalata Ventures, Melt Ventures, and Artesian Venture Partners (Startup News)

• Former science and innovation minister Arthur Sinodinos joins deep tech VC Salus Ventures (Startup Daily)

• TRaCE launches Australian university’s first seed fund with reinvestment model, backed by Investible and Hampton Capital, to drive the growth of climate technologies (Startup Daily | TRaCE)

• Startmate's $500 voucher prize for a women's leadership award has ignited fierce debate over how to meaningfully support female talent in technology. (Capital Brief)

• The BNPL sector is now being regulated as credit in Australia (Startup Daily)

• Deeligence’s Elena Tsalanidis on overcoming venture capital’s gender problem (Capital Brief)

• Zip co-founder Larry Diamond sells $100m in shares after stepping down to focus on philanthropy (AFR)

• Dovetail teases virtual customer concept alongside new AI tools (SmartCompany)

• Labor grants ACCC new powers to crack down on digital platforms (The Australian)

• Nearly 9000 taxi drivers just scored $152 million from Uber as compensation for its illegal launch in Australia (Startup Daily)

• Co Ventures is gifting 5% of it’s carry in Fund 1 to its founders (Maxine Minter)

• 2024 Wrap up by Canva (Canva)

• Tesla’s Robyn Denholm is an awkward choice to lead Australia’s R&D review (Crikey)

• Leonardo.Ai releases Flow State - it’s newest tool for infinite creativity (Leonardo.Ai)

Funding Rounds

• Umps, who work with home care providers, allied health professionals and retirement village operators to provide remote monitoring and personal alarms, has raised $4m in a Series A round from Breakthrough Victoria, Cerebral Palsy Alliance, InterValley Ventures, 5Point Foundation, Sprint Ventures and Agnes Health (BNA | Startup Daily)

• Visibuild, a construction tech platform that keeps track of quality and compliance during a build, has raised $6.6m from Skip Capital (Startup Daily | BNA | The Australian)

• MGA Thermal, who is on a mission to remove 30 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030, has raised $200k in a Pre-Series B round from Electrifi Ventures, Climate Salad and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (BNA | Startup Daily)

• Josef, a no-code software platform that empowers lawyers and legal professionals to automate legal tasks, has raised an undisclosed amount from Carthona Capital, OIF Ventures and TheLegalTech Fund (LawSites | Josef)

• Liven, an alll in one tech solution for hospitality businesses, has raised an undisclosed amount from Living Lab Ventures (Sinar Mas Land)

• MapAI, which provides geospatial insights through AI-driven chat, has raised $1.3m in a Seed round from FrontierSI and University of New South Wales (Toorak Times)