News
M&A, IPOs & Exits
Superhero, the share trading and superannuation platform, has bought 10% of ASX-listed micro-investing rival Raiz Invest through Barrenjoey, calling it strategic with no plans to bid for the $34m company, Street Talk reports (AFR)
Capital Markets
Aurora Labs, the ASX-listed maker of 3D-printed turbojet engines for defence drones, has firm commitments for a $6m placement at 5.5c a share, with Walkinshaw Group taking a strategic stake, to expand manufacturing (ASX)
Partnerships & Deals
SCX.ai, the ASX-listed company selling Australian-hosted AI inference on SambaNova chips, has joined SpaceX’s Grok partner network as its only Australian launch partner, and reported ARR of $8.3m, up 54% since its prospectus (Startup Researcher)
Audax Biosciences, the biotech developing targeted cancer immunotherapies, has given Japan’s Astellas an option to license its drug DAX-044 in a deal worth up to $1.9b (US$1.34b), including $405m (US$285m) upfront and on exercise (Direct)
Product Launches, Milestones and Expansion
HEX, the edtech running work-readiness and entrepreneurship programs with universities, has launched WorkSim, a simulated remote workplace where students solve business problems and use AI - RMIT has put 400 students through it (Startup Daily)
Kindling, the go-to-market platform pairing software with dedicated strategists to run B2B companies’ marketing, has launched publicly after opening its beta to 10 companies in July (LinkedIn)
DoorDash and US robot maker Serve Robotics have started Australia’s first footpath delivery robot pilot on the Gold Coast, delivering from one Southport restaurant with remote supervisors, Serve’s first operation outside the US (SmartCompany)
Sitemate, the no-code platform for construction site processes, has released Storm 2.0, an AI agent that lets workers complete safety, quality and fleet forms by phone, SMS or WhatsApp in their own language (LinkedIn)
Canva has launched Brush, a vision language model that edits designs on instruction - one text box or a whole deck - up to 69% faster and 46% cheaper per edit than its previous design agent (Capital Brief)
Venture Capital & Other Funding
Blackbird deployed a record $297m across 16 companies in the September quarter, its biggest yet, and says it is on track to invest more than $1b across its funds and co-investment vehicles in 2026 (Capital Brief)
NonPublic, the platform giving Australian wholesale investors access to private US tech companies, put $118m of Australian money into Tenstorrent’s $2.1b (US$1.5b) Series E, the Jim Keller-led Nvidia challenger now valued at $8.8b (US$6.2b) (The Australian)
The National Reconstruction Fund returned 7.7% on its general portfolio in 2025-26, ahead of its 5.9-6.9% target, after trimming its Liontown stake in the lithium rally, and committed $1.67b across 22 investments (Startup Daily)
AO Ventures, Tennis Australia’s $57m (US$40m) fund, has invested an undisclosed sum in Jump, the US sports AI platform co-founded by Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez that runs teams’ ticketing, fan data and marketing (Tennis Australia)
Commonwealth Bank’s $153m stake in Anthropic could be worth $3b if the AI company lists on the Nasdaq next month as planned; Hostplus, AustralianSuper, QIC, Pengana’s AI trust and Airtree’s co-founders also hold shares (AFR)
Alchemy Charge, whose metered smart power sockets with cloud load management let apartment residents charge EVs at home, has won a $2m ARENA grant towards its $7.4m Strata Assist program with Origin Energy (Startup Daily)
DryFlow Magnetics, whose dry magnetic separators upgrade magnetite ore to high-purity iron concentrate without water, has won up to $48.4m from ARENA for a 1.5 million tonne a year demonstration plant in South Australia (Australian Manufacturing)
Blackbird has co-led a $142m (US$100m) Series A in General Compute, the AI inference cloud that rents out SambaNova, Cerebras and Positron chips, at a $1.1b (US$800m) valuation, up from $85m (US$60m) in May (TechCrunch)
Glytherix, the biotech developing Miltuximab, an antibody that images and then irradiates GPC-1-expressing solid tumours, is raising $3m for a 16-person trial, with former Macquarie executive Bill Moss backing it, Street Talk reports (AFR)
The Queensland government has given Lockheed Martin Australia $6.38m to build a mobile launch rail for low-cost hypersonic test flights with Queensland rocket motor maker Rocket Technologies International, Airways Trade Australia and UQ (Defence Connect)
Government, Policy & Regulation
VC managers would keep the 50% CGT discount only on carry from qualifying startups under the new concession; other carried interest faces up to 47% tax from July 2027, about $58,750 more on $250,000 (Startup Daily)
Labor’s startup tax bill cleared the lower house: the CGT concession’s innovation test eases from 75% to 50% but the R&D rewrite keeps its 10-year refund cut-off, and the Greens want fossil fuel R&D excluded (Startup Daily)
Australia hopes the US will extend the visa waiver program without a biometric data-sharing deal, Home Affairs officials say, after the US told partners to sign its Enhanced Border Security Partnership by 31st December (InnovationAus)
Independent MP Allegra Spender wants Labor’s startup CGT concession replaced with a flat 40% discount on active business assets, which Parliamentary Budget Office costings say would raise similar revenue with far less complexity (Startup Daily)
Labor has accepted Kate Chaney’s amendments adding AI chatbots that foster children’s emotional dependence to the harms covered by its digital duty of care bill, which passed the lower house and needs Senate support (Startup Daily)
Labor will ban AI data centres near homes, force them onto renewable energy with power cut-offs for non-compliance, and has dropped its plan to let AI companies train on Australian content for free (AFR)
People Moves & Spotlights
Beforepay, the ASX-listed pay advance and personal lending fintech, has named deputy CEO Kasey Kaplan to replace Jamie Twiss from 7th December, after a record September quarter with revenue up 45% to $16.5m (BNA)
Others News & Updates
AirTrunk has closed a $4.25b green loan from 32 banks to complete its SYD3 campus by mid-2028, syndicating the debt package first reported in July and taking its committed Australian debt to $19.8b (ARN)
ASIC has told Liberal senator Dave Sharma it is examining whether Firmus’s bankers misrepresented demand in the failed $44b float, as the company’s annual report shows a $110m (US$77.3m) loss and $2.6b (US$1.8b) cash burn (AFR)
Mitti, the workplace safety software company formerly SafetyCulture, grew FY26 revenue 16% to $229.7m with a $40.8m loss, has been cash-flow positive since August and will begin underwriting part of its insurance business (AFR)
Funding Rounds
MP Space, a spacecraft power company that designs and manufactures batteries and power systems for satellite constellation operators, has raised $23m in a Seed round from Blackbird Ventures, MFV Partners, Seraphim Space, Speedinvest and Systemiq Capital (Capital Brief | The Australian)
Forward Deployed, a chemical threat detection company that builds field-ready sensors for defence and security teams to identify hazards within seconds, has raised $1m in a Undisclosed round from Innovation Victoria and Swinburne University of Technology (Startup Daily)
Metacognition, a robotics operating system that adds memory reasoning and safety controls for people to train and control robots using natural language, has raised an additional $5m in its Pre-Seed round from AirTree Ventures (Startup Daily | Forbes Australia)
Copy Geek, a non-custodial crypto trading platform for professional traders to automatically copy trades across partner exchanges, has raised $2m in a Pre-Seed round from Angel Investors (Startup Daily)
Negroni Software, a loan management platform for non-bank lenders and private credit managers to automate origination and compliance, has raised an Undisclosed amount from Angel Investors (Investor Daily)