News
M&A, IPOs & Exits
Codan, the ASX-listed maker of communications equipment and metal detectors, has agreed to acquire Eventide Communications, a US maker of recording systems for emergency call centres, for about $244m in cash and shares (Capital Brief)
Guardhouse, which makes rostering and workforce software for security companies, has acquired Gallinet, a UK provider of 24/7 control room monitoring and rostering software, for undisclosed consideration - its second acquisition this year (BNA)
Meiban, a Singapore contract manufacturer, has acquired the rest of Planet Innovation, the Australian medtech product developer with more than 300 staff, for undisclosed consideration, after buying about 20% in 2025 (Australian Manufacturing)
Morse Micro, the chipmaker behind long-range, low-power Wi-Fi HaLow chips, booked $1.9m of revenue and a $45m loss in FY26, with $85m in cash, ahead of an ASX float expected next year (Capital Brief)
Orbit2Orbit, the space logistics startup building reusable cargo vehicles to service satellites, plans to list on the Canadian Securities Exchange through a reverse takeover of Credissential; Nasdaq-listed PMGC Holdings has subscribed to its pre-listing placement (GlobeNewswire)
Sharon AI, the Nasdaq-listed neocloud renting Nvidia compute, is reportedly close to a $4.7b (US$3.2b) debt package led by KKR with Pimco and BlackRock, ahead of a planned secondary listing on the ASX (AFR)
Swipejobs, the AI job-matching platform touted for a $2b ASX float, has reportedly pushed its listing from November into next year after converting to a public company, as fund managers question its AI story (Capital Brief)
Third Door Ventures, the owner of off-the-plan property portal Apartments.com.au, has acquired Villages.com.au, a marketplace of 5,000-plus retirement village, land lease and aged care listings, for undisclosed consideration (BNA)
Capital Markets
Scott Farquhar will sell up to 3.39 million Atlassian shares, worth about $760m, by December 2027 to fund his Skip Foundation, while Mike Cannon-Brookes buys - the first time the co-founders’ stakes have diverged (Startup Daily)
Carma, the online used-car retailer that listed on the ASX a year ago at $2.70 and now trades at 60c, has reaffirmed 80%+ revenue growth for FY27 after a record $44.3m quarter (BNA)
Morgans’ staff and clients put more than $560m into Firmus before its failed float for a 9.7% stake, second only to co-founder Oliver Curtis, while the broker stood to earn about $60m in fees (AFR)
Nodestream, the ASX-listed maker of low-bandwidth video and data links for remote operations, formerly Harvest Technology Group, has gone into voluntary administration four months after completing a $6.5m placement to fund a pivot into defence (BNA)
PEXA, the ASX-listed property settlement platform, has cut FY27 revenue guidance to $355m-$380m as property transfers fell 15%, and warns of job cuts if regulators adopt a proposed 20% cut to its regulated revenue (BNA)
Xero will buy back up to $1b of shares and has lifted full-year revenue guidance, as half-year profit fell 86% to $15m (NZ$18.5m) on losses at US payments business Melio; CFO Claire Bramley is leaving (Forbes Australia)
Partnerships & Deals
Build Club, the AI education community with more than 70,000 members, is working with Singtel to train Singapore’s educators on the seven AI tools offered free under the country’s SkillsFuture program (Startup Daily)
SunDrive, the solar cell maker that replaces silver with copper, and Space Machines Company will spend six months designing, building and testing solar panels for SMC’s Optimus Viper spacecraft (InnovationAus)
Product Launches, Milestones and Expansion
Aravax, the biotech developing a peanut allergy immunotherapy for children, has reported positive Phase 2 results, with 45% of high-dose patients able to tolerate a whole peanut, and needs $146m-plus (US$100m) for Phase 3 (Forbes Australia)
Diraq, which builds quantum computers on silicon chips, has moved its parent to Delaware to chase US government contracts, months after a $20m NRF investment, as its first machine goes live at Equinix in Sydney (Capital Brief)
Employment Hero grew revenue 37% to $332.6m in FY26 and lifted annual recurring revenue to $400m, though its pre-tax loss widened to $44m; founder Ben Thompson says it plans no layoffs and no listing (AFR)
Enhance Labs has launched Enhance, a free design canvas that imports from Figma and lets AI coding agents design alongside teams; co-founder Haziq Nordin says one engineer built it in 100 days with AI agents (LinkedIn)
GetSweaty, a marketplace where founders trade equity for expert help on scoped projects, with the expert’s options vesting as milestones are met, has gone live in Australia (LinkedIn)
InDebted, the debt collection fintech, has launched Voice, an AI agent that makes outbound collections calls and hands hardship cases to staff, and says plans agreed with it are twice as likely to be kept (Australian FinTech)
Isaacus, the Australian legal AI company, has open-sourced a conflict detector that compares a contract against a playbook or policy and lists every clash, using its own non-generative models rather than an LLM (LinkedIn)
Trellis Data, which builds AI for defence, intelligence and law enforcement agencies, has launched Agentaus 1, a 220 billion-parameter model it says ranks 43rd globally, and will seek an eight-figure raise (AFR)
Venture Capital & Other Funding
Australia’s Antipodean Capital has backed a $2.44m (NZ$3m) round for Aimer Farming, a New Zealand startup whose app measures pasture by phone and satellite so farmers know where to graze next (Startup Daily)
NSW’s latest MVP Ventures round gives 20 startups a share of $1m in grants, with more than half the money going to female and regional founders after the government changed the program’s rules (InnovationAus)
The federal government has moved its Silicon Quantum Computing shareholding, worth about $70m, from the Industry department to the National Reconstruction Fund, which now holds the Commonwealth’s entire stake (InnovationAus)
Government, Policy & Regulation
Tasmania has released a government-wide AI policy requiring agencies to appoint an accountable official for AI and list higher-risk uses on a public register (InnovationAus)
The federal government will legislate six safety obligations for frontier AI developers, enforced by a new regulator, and has accepted all 18 recommendations of the OpenAI Medicare breach review (Startup Daily)
SpaceX is pressing the communications regulator ACMA for 2GHz spectrum so Starlink can offer voice and broadband direct to Australian mobile phones; ACMA says it will allocate licences before December 2027 (The Australian)
People Moves & Spotlights
Athletic Ventures, the VC backed by athletes including Sam Kerr and Pat Cummins, has signed NBA all-star Kevin Love as a venture partner to recruit US athletes and help its founders expand there (AFR)
Deputy, the workforce management software company, has brought back founders Ashik Ahmed and Steve Shelley as interim co-chief executives; Silvija Martincevic, chief executive since February 2023, leaves on 20th November (Capital Brief)
Silicon Quantum Computing has hired W.H. Teh, who led Nvidia’s US manufacturing, as chief manufacturing officer to scale up its atomic-precision chip making - its third executive hire since June (Startup Researcher)
Others News & Updates
Anthropic’s Australian retail offer opened on 11th November through eight brokers and closes on the 17th, at $101-$113 (US$70-US$78) a share, ahead of a planned 20th November Nasdaq listing; CommSec reported delays (AFR)
About 300 Canva staff attended union meetings after its job cuts, up to five times the usual turnout, as Professionals Australia pressed it to extend the deadline for choosing between relocation to Sydney and redundancy (AFR)
Potentia Capital has sounded out advisers and banks on options for Nitro, the PDF and e-signing software company it took off the ASX in 2023, in what is seen as groundwork for a sale (AFR)
Funding Rounds
Q-CTRL, accelerating the pathway to commercially useful quantum computers through the power of quantum control, has raised $415m (US$290m) in a Series C round from Salesforce Ventures, Bullhound Capital, Affinity Partners, AMD Ventures, EDGE Group, MPower Partners, National Reconstruction Fund, SPARX Asset Management, Alpha Edison, Alumni Ventures, Data Collective, In-Q-Tel, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Main Sequence, Ridgeline, Salus Ventures and Square Peg Capital (AFR | Q-CTRL | Forbes Australia)
Alta, a blockchain network for banks and payment providers to settle cross-border payments around the clock using stablecoins, has raised $67m (US$47.5m) in a Series A round from Index Ventures, Blackbird Ventures, GV, Square Peg Capital and Capital 49 (Startup Daily | Squarepeg)
Vudoo, a commerce technology that embeds checkout into ads and content for brands and retailers to convert discovery into purchases, has raised $22m in a Series B round from Blue Sky Capital (Startup Daily | Capital Brief)
AutoSwift, an AI customer-engagement platform for car dealerships to answer enquiries, qualify leads and book appointments, has raised ~$10m from X Star Technology (Startup Daily | PR Newswire)
Refilled, a smart drinks dispenser for offices and hotels that serves flavoured still and sparkling water to cut plastic bottles, has raised $5.6m in a Series A round from OIF Ventures, Melt Ventures and Angel Investors (Startup Daily)
Ida Sports, female sports performance footwear brand, has raised $4.3m (US$3m) from CoverFour (Femtech Insider | SGB Media)
Morgan AI, a software platform that helps insolvency practitioners analyse financial records and prepare statutory reports for each case, has raised $3.65m in a Seed round from Blackbird Ventures, Black Sheep Capital, Archangel Ventures, TEN13, Side Stage Ventures, The Eights and Angel Investors (AFR)
Provectus Algae, a biotech focused on programming microalgae using AI, robotics, and synthetic biology to produce high‑value bio‑based chemicals, specialty ingredients, and sustainability‑driven solutions, has raised $2.8m from QIC (Direct)
Hyro, a hydration brand that makes sugar-free electrolyte drink mixes for active people to replace minerals lost through sweat, has raised $2.4m in a Seed round from Side Stage Ventures (LinkedIn)
Forward, a private credit origination platform that turns unstructured borrower info into fund-ready deals for funds to speed underwriting, has raised $2.18m in a Pre-Seed round (LinkedIn)
Nagaris, a practice platform for Australian accounting firms that replaces their stack of tools with one client file and an AI assistant, has raised $1.26m in a Seed round from Angel Investors (PRLog)