🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #152, 8th March 2026
$125.2m raised across 9 rounds, Airwallex launches its treasury product Yield in the US, Canva folds Leonardo.AI into its core platform, Hypersonix hits Mach 8 with DART AE
News
M&A, IPOs & Exits
Hoyts to sell Val Morgan unit to Richard White-backed Vinyl Group (AFR)
IPscape, an Australian cloud contact centre platform, acquires agentic AI voice startup VoxHero to accelerate its AI agent deployment capabilities (Startup Researcher)
Partnerships & Deals
Firmus lands $600m-plus tech giant deal as it eyes ASX float (AFR)
Hello Clever and GMO Aozora Net Bank announce transactional API integration to enable payment capability in Japan (StartUp ScaleUp)
Product Launches, Milestones and Expansion
Airwallex launches its treasury product Yield in the US as it reaches $1.42b in AUM (Capital Brief)
Canva folds Leonardo.AI into its core platform, insists no jobs will be cut despite reports (Startup Daily)
HAMR Energy to build Australia’s first methanol-to-jet fuel plant in SA in an $800M deal backed by Qantas and Airbus (The Advertiser)
Hypersonix hits Mach 8 with DART AE - the world’s first 3D-printed, hydrogen-powered hypersonic aircraft (New Atlas)
Venture Capital & Other Funding
Scalare Partners posts 360% revenue surge as recurring revenue momentum reshapes its startup model (StartUp ScaleUp)
Government, Policy & Regulation
NSW opens $20m commercialisation fund for deep tech startups, with grants of up to $2m for physical devices and life sciences (InnovationAus)
Reports & Data
Australia’s gender pay gap is reducing – unless you’re in tech, where it’s getting worse (Startup Daily)
Other News & Updates
Shutterstock-owned Envato to lay off 200 employees due to AI (SmartCompany)
Funding Rounds
Firmable, a sales intelligence platform that uses AI to automatically score leads for enterprise sales teams to prioritise deals, has raised $14m in a Series A round from AirTree Ventures and Angel Investors (SmartCompany | Capital Brief | AFR)
Operata, a call-centre monitoring platform that uses AI to detect scams and compliance issues for banks and contact centres to protect customers, has raised an Undisclosed amount in a Series A round from Tidal Ventures, Black Nova Venture Capital, Flying Fox Ventures, Ghost VC and Glitch Capital (Direct)
PlasmaLeap Technologies, a modular chemical reactor platform that produces nitrogen fertiliser for farmers and local hubs to cut emissions, has raised $30m in a Series A round from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Investible, Yara Growth Ventures, Agnition Ventures, Artesian, GrainCorp Ventures, SVG Ventures, Twynam, UniSuper and Uniseed (AFR | SmartCompany)
Lyka, a fresh pet food subscription platform that delivers tailor-made, human-grade meals for dog owners to improve their pets’ health, has raised $67m in a Series C round from LGVP (SmartCompany | The Australian)
Veyor, a construction logistics platform that schedules and tracks materials and equipment for builders to reduce delays and site costs, has raised $10.6m ($7.5m USD) in a Series A round from Marbruck Investments, CoAct, Investible, SpringCapital (SmartCompany | The Australian)
Future Minds Network, an education non-profit that runs hands-on entrepreneurship and career programs for young people to build job-ready skills, has raised $650k (SmartCompany)
Cortical Labs, a biocomputing platform that runs computations with human brain cells for researchers to model brain functions, has raised an Undisclosed amount from Gobi Partners, Horizon Ventures, 3C and Angel Investors (TNGlobal)
Guardhouse, a workforce-management platform that automates rostering and payroll for security companies to reduce admin time, has raised an Undisclosed amount from Sundance Growth (Gulf&Main)
Lumonus, a HealthTech platform that uses AI to automate radiation oncology workflows for care teams to speed treatment delivery, has raised an additional $3m in its Series B round from Aviron Investment Management, Brandon Capital, Investible and Oncology Ventures (Startup Daily)