🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #112, 20th April 2025

Top News

• ASIC’s WiseTech investigation goes from preliminary to formal (AFR)

• Aussie scientists plot US ‘brain gain’ as a Trump dividend (InnovationAus)

• Startup ARC Ento Tech to launch Australia’s first commercial waste-to-resource plant as landfill capacity nears crisis point (StartUp ScaleUp)

• StrongRoom AI boss denies investor claim he admitted to fraud (AFR)

• Macquarie University and Australian Cancer Research Foundation secure $2m to develop AI and 3D printing for personalised cancer treatments (SmartCompany)

• The Coalition and Peter Dutton flag ending Labor's $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund (Startup Daily)

• Cut Through Venture has released it’s Q1 2025 report of Australian VC Funding (Cut Through)

• Zip Co cash earnings triple despite lower revenue margin (BNA)

• Melbourne scale-up Book An Artist buys Silicon Valley's Wescover to 'supercharge' US growth (BNA)

• Mike Cannon-Brookes needs $157m for SunCable; flyer hits inboxes (AFR)

• Clipboard Hospitality backer Mayfly Ventures merges with Brisbane's Oka Studio (BNA)

• Five V appoints Goldman Sachs to run $500m-plus Automic sale (AFR)

• Q-CTRL claims ‘quantum advantage’ with GPS-free navigation (InnovationAus)

• EY rolls out AI tools for 140,000 auditors (Capital Brief)

• Australian VCs tread carefully amid Trump’s tariff turbulence (Capital Brief)

• Canva makes its pitch to take on Microsoft with an AI Excel rival (AFR)

• Google to ‘swarm’ early-stage startups across Australia and APAC (SmartCompany)

• Innovation Blueprint: A long-term vision for NSW (InnovationAus)

• Plenty of bidders have lined up to acquire what's left of StrongRoom AI (Startup Daily)

• Uber Eats to expand to 67 new locations in regional Australia, promising $45 million boost to restaurants (SmartCompany)

• Gen Z VC fund NextGen Ventures scores Blackbird cofounders as investors in $2.5 million fund build (Startup Daily)

• Fiserv acquires Pinch Payments, enhancing payment services for business partners in APAC (Australian FinTech)

• Gravitas Technologies, an advanced materials maker gets $1.5m grant (InnovationAus)

• Qantas and Airbus tip $15 million into VC Climate Tech Partners for aviation emissions reduction startups (Startup Daily)

• Tech bosses call for more immigrants to make Australia ‘richer’ (The Australian)

• Athletic Ventures, backed by Sam Kerr and Pat Cummins, launches $25m VC Fund (AFR)

• Sydney Uni has created a $25m Pre-Seed Launch Fund to bring more of its pioneering health and technology research to market (InnovationAus)

Funding Rounds

This Week $40m - 14th April to 20th April 2025

• Seer Medical, a MedTech company that provides home-based, long-term video-EEG-ECG monitoring solutions for diagnosing and managing epilepsy and other neurological conditions, has raised $40m from Cadwell Industries, Breakthrough Victoria and TrialCap (SmartCompany | BNA)

• Devicie, a cloud-native platform automating Microsoft Intune deployment and management, has raised an Undisclosed amount from Insight Partners (PR Newswire)

Last Week $92.5m - 7th April to 13th April 2025

• Gridsight, an AI platform that helps electricity network operators monitor and manage distributed energy resources, has raised $7.5m in a Series A round from Airtree Ventures, Energy Transition Ventures, Aera VC and Angel Investors (Startup Daily | BNA | The Australian)

• Hola Health, a telehealth startup, has raised $6m in a Series A round from Healthylife (Capital Brief | Startup Daily | AFR)

• SiSU Health, a startup which provides self-service health check stations and digital tools that enable individuals to monitor key health metrics and support preventative healthcare initiatives, has raised $2.59m (£1.25m) in a Seed round from Praetura Ventures (UKTN)

• Raygen, who develops renewable energy systems combining concentrated solar power with thermal storage to deliver reliable on-demand electricity, has raised $75m in a Series D round from Equinor Ventures, AGL Energy, Photon Energy Group, Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), Quanta Services and Oxy Technology Ventures (Startup Daily | The Australian | BNA)

• InsightWise, an AI-powered platform that helps consultants and strategy teams unlock insights from large volumes of qualitative data quickly and efficiently, has raised $1m in a Pre-Seed round from Aliavia Ventures, No Brand Holdings, Wollemi Capital Group and FB10x (Startup Daily | AFR)

• MyNu Energy, a startup who repurposes end-of-life electric vehicle batteries into scalable, cost-effective energy storage systems, has raised $500k from Melt Ventures (SmartCompany)