This Week in Australian Startups #95, 24th November 2024
So this is actually edition #95, not #94 in case you’ve been counting - turns out I double counted #86 by mistake!
If you’re in Sydney this week make sure to come along the Startup Palette Show on Thursday where the topic this is all about scaling successful consumer businesses.
A great lineup of speakers including;
Elli Hanson: Co-Founder of Flaus (TIME Magazine’s Invention of the Year) and currently Principal Investor at Side Stage Ventures
Bronte Campbell: 3x Olympic Champion and Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Earthletica Activewear, turning athletic grit into sustainable brand success.
Daniel Wan, CFA, CPA: Former CFO who’s led a successful IPO, now the founder of FlavourIQ blending data with innovation to build a deliciously unique startup.
Register here and use the code ‘TWIAS’ for a free ticket
Top News
$5.9bn and counting: WiseTech reveals cost of White scandal (The Australian)
ACCC assesses claims of PEXA’s anticompetitive behaviour (InnovationAus)
Mighty Kingdom hit by another CEO resignation after just 8 months (BNA)
Deloitte Tech Fast 50: Honey Insurance defies capital crunch to clinch top spot (BNA)
Looking to 2025: What’s next for Climate Salad (SmartCompany)
Uber back in court over payroll tax in NSW (Capital Brief)
Vow launches Forged Gras this week in high-end restaurants across Hong Kong and Singapore (The Age)
Drone delivery startup Swoop Aero lands in liquidation (Startup Daily)
Perth’s LatConnect 60 to employ Gilmour Space satellite bus to track methane and carbon emissions (BNA)
Popular restaurant ordering app me&u lays off 10% of staff (AFR)
Advanced Mobility Analytics Group, which uses AI to improve road safety and traffic management gets acquired by Transoft Solutions (The Australian)
Airtree raises $650m for new start-up investment funds (AFR)
Aussie startups optimistic about the year ahead despite funding challenges, survey finds (BNA)
Finder acquires cashback rewards company Grow My Money (BNA)
Q-CRTL scores $2.3 million in $60m federal government plan to back quantum in defence (Startup Daily)
The gender pay gap is shrinking and the good news is tech’s better than most industries, but don’t expect equal pay as an older woman (Startup Daily)
Canva finally gets a new CFO as IPO plans loom, hiring Zoom’s Kelly Steckelberg (Startup Daily | AFR)
Car subscription platform Karmo picks up rival Motopool amid plans to rev up growth (BNA)
Quantum Brilliance sells Europe's first room-temperature quantum accelerator (Capital Brief)
Virescent Ventures closes second climate tech fund as QIC invests $10m (Capital Brief)
Boman Group launches a $1 billion fund for Australian startups to crack the Chinese market (Startup Daily | AFR)
Flying vehicle startup AMSL Aero has completed the first untethered test flight of its Australian designed and manufactured electric aircraft (InnovationAus)
From a garage to a $2.5b start-up: SafetyCulture founder Luke Anear steps down as CEO with Kelly Vohs taking over (The Age)
Two new scholarships that will send founders and investors from Australia to study at the Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Program have launched (Bede Moore)
Giant Leap releases their FY24 Portfolio Impact Highlights Report (Report)
Funding Rounds
Pronto Pilates, a virtual trainer network of Reformer Pilates studios nationally, has raised $1.64M in an equity crowdfunding campaign (BNA)
Total Synergy, a leading provider of project management software for architecture and engineering practices, has raised an undisclosed amount from M33 Growth and PSG (The Manila Times)
Identitii, a platform which powers the way organisations store, transmit and share sensitive data, has raised $1.8M on the ASX (Australian FinTech)
TALY, an intelligent personality profiling platform that helps put personality data back at the heart of recruitment and team decision making, has raised an undisclosed amount in a Seed round from Skalata (Skalata)
Alt.Leather, a world-class 100% biobased leather alternative that turns waste and regenerative plants into a material, has received a strategic investment from Main Sequence as part of the Atmosphere initative (Tina Funder)