🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #165, 14th June 2026

Jun 13, 2026

News

Fresho, a Melbourne-based food-wholesale ordering platform, has acquired Nation Wilcox, a UK ERP provider for food suppliers, for an undisclosed amount to expand in Britain and accelerate its AI product roadmap (BNA)
Vinyl Group, an ASX-listed digital media company, has agreed to acquire Nine’s youth media business Pedestrian Group for a nominal sum to add a 9.4m monthly-reach media portfolio (BNA)
Vinyl Group has agreed to acquire Time Out Australia for a nominal sum and raised $2.4m to integrate it with Pedestrian Group (BNA)
Monvia is seeking to raise $17.5m in an ASX IPO at a $103.5m market capitalisation, with most proceeds used to pay out Series B preference shareholders (AFR)
Sydney-based SCX.ai, which offers governments and businesses a locally hosted AI services platform, has mandated Canaccord Genuity and Henslow to prepare for an IPO in the coming months and wants to list on the ASX by the end of the September quarter (AFR)

Megaport has opened the $309m retail leg of its $827m entitlement offer to fund AI infrastructure contracts and a GPU pool (Capital Brief)
Spenda has launched a heavily discounted $8.545m entitlement offer to repay debt, reduce liabilities and recapitalise the ASX-listed fintech (BNA)

1414 Degrees has signed a $500,000 evaluation deal to test its silicon-anode battery technology on Ukrainian military drones (BNA)
DorsaVi has licensed NTU Singapore robotics IP for about $320,000 as it pivots from wearable sensors into collaborative robotics and robot learning (BNA)
X2M Connect signed a five-year partnership with Resi Ventures to develop integrated data centre and energy infrastructure precincts across regional Australia, starting with a planned Ballarat-area project (BNA)

Andromeda Robotics has moved into a 2,500sqm Melbourne facility to scale production of its AI companion robot Abi for aged care (SmartCompany)
Carevo says it has crossed A$1m ARR 14 weeks after starting as an idea, using AI to cut care-provider matching from days to minutes (LinkedIn)
Rent.com.au has reported record RentBond loan volumes and says it is on track to double revenue and reach EBITDA-positive status by Q2 FY27 (BNA)

UniQuest Extension Fund has released its 2025 annual report, saying it is now a $44m fund after portfolio wins across UQ-linked startups (LinkedIn)

TPG has warned NBN Co’s Amazon Leo-backed satellite service could be undercut by Starlink after aggressive discounts helped it reach more than 552,000 Australian services (The Australian)
Labor discontinued the Startup Year program after only eight participants used it, despite the original plan for 2,000 HELP-style loans a year and a $15.4m four-year allocation (SmartCompany)
Labor is weighing a startup carve-out from its CGT overhaul after founders and VCs warned the changes could damage investment and employee share schemes (SmartCompany)
The WA government announced a $10m AI Investment Fund and Public Sector AI Centre of Excellence, including a centralised purchasing mechanism to connect departments with established AI businesses (Startup News)
Defender Ventures CIO Martin Rogers says Labor’s CGT overhaul would damage investment in biotech, AI and advanced manufacturing (Capital Brief)

LaunchVic has backed Press Play Ventures to deliver an AI pre-accelerator for women founders building AI-native and AI-enabled startups (LinkedIn)
Startmate has secured an $8m Minderoo Foundation commitment to help more women founders access capital and build high-growth startups (SmartCompany)
Cyan Ventures has launched a green fuels accelerator with ARENA, Qantas and Boeing to help seven Australian low-carbon fuel projects reach commercial scale (Startup Researcher)

Diraq has appointed former Broadcom CEO Scott McGregor as chair as the UNSW quantum spinout targets growth in the US-backed quantum sector (Capital Brief)

AirTrunk has asked the Federal Court to force rival Zerra DC to produce documents as it weighs legal action over suspected use of information from former staff (AFR)
Airwallex CEO Jack Zhang has responded to false allegations with an independent security assessment, as the Australian-founded fintech defends its global trust credentials in the US (LinkedIn)
Canva will slow hiring, stop some advertised roles and redeploy staff to AI, product and sales priorities as it reassesses headcount needs in the AI era (AFR)
Firmus co-CEO Oliver Curtis is set to give evidence in a legal dispute over shares in the AI data-centre company ahead of its expected ASX listing (AFR)
Agtech startup Goterra has entered voluntary administration after failing to secure the investment needed to scale its food-waste processing operations (SmartCompany)

Firmus Technologies, who builds renewable-powered, liquid-cooled “AI factories” to deliver efficient and sovereign AI compute across Australia and Southeast Asia., has raised $150k from 333D (MarketScreener)
Earlytrade, a construction fintech platform that lets general contractors fund subcontractors’ early payments to boost margins, has raised $14.2m in a Series A round from S3 Ventures and Brick & Mortar Ventures (SmartCompany)
ReSmart, a cleantech startup that offers on-demand doorstep pick-up of hard-to-recycle items then sorts and redirects them to certified partners to ensure over 98% is recycled, reused or repurposed, has raised $1.138m in a Crowdfunding round including investment from Antler (BNA)
Dentroid, a MedTech device that uses light to provide largely needle-free dental anaesthesia for dentists to reduce patient pain, has raised $32m in a Series A round from Septodont and Angel Investors (SmartCompany | AFR)
Silicon Quantum Computing, a quantum software platform that simulates materials and molecules for researchers and developers to accelerate discovery, has raised $40m from the National Reconstruction Fund (Startup Daily | Capital Brief)