🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #158, 26th April 2026
$79m raised across 7 rounds, Heidi Health hits US$50m ARR, Techboard finds 750 funding rounds were not announced in 2025, Microsoft to invest $25b in Australian AI data centres
A day late due to a scheduling issue on my side, apologies for anyone who missed their Sunday morning read!
News
M&A, IPOs & Exits
AirTrunk has acquired Lumina CloudInfra, an Indian data centre operator, for an undisclosed amount as part of a $7b push into India’s AI and cloud infrastructure market. (AFR)
Firmus talks up sale-and-leasebacks in IPO pitch; eyes on client book (AFR)
Australian proptech MYBOS eyes 2027 ASX listing after reaching $6m ARR and expanding its building management software into the US (AFR)
Navis Capital begins early talks to sell Australian medtech distributor Device Technologies in a potential $1b exit (AFR)
Nuix, an Australian investigative analytics software company, has acquired French AI platform Linkurious for $27m upfront to add graph technology and data visualisation to its product suite (Capital Brief)
Protecht, a risk management software firm, has acquired AI-powered risk assessment tool VISO Trust to expand its product offering as AI disruption threatens traditional SaaS platforms (Capital Brief)
Capital Markets
NextDC to raise $2.2B as AI demand drives record data centre growth (ARN)
Partnership & Deals
4DMedical lands GlaxoSmithKline deal to supply lung imaging analytics for drug development (BNA)
Australian activewear brand LSKD signs 10-year deal to use Samsara Eco’s enzyme-recycled nylon in key product lines from 2028 (Capital Brief)
Product Launches, Milestones and Expansion
Employment Hero launches HeroForce, an AI co-employment platform that handles payroll, HR admin and workplace compliance for businesses (Capital Brief)
Heidi Health co-founder Thomas Kelly says they’ve hit $US50m in ARR - faster than any company in Blackbird’s portfolio (AFR)
Canva-owned Leonardo.ai launches 105MP image upscaler to make AI-generated visuals ready for billboards, print and commercial campaigns (SmartCompany)
Sitemate’s Gearbelt fleet and asset product is on track to 4x revenue two years after its Nomad acquisition (LinkedIn)
Vitura Health’s $25m acquisition of Doctors on Demand starts to pay off as the telehealth platform tops 1m consultations and reaches EBITDA profitability (BNA)
Venture Capital & Other Funding
Skip Capital leads Timeshifter’s latest funding round as the US circadian tech startup reaches $5.3m raised to date (Timeshifter)
Archangel Ventures hits $25m first close for its 2026 fund to back pre-seed and seed startups across Australia and New Zealand (LinkedIn)
ARENA commits $11 million to First Nations-led microgrids in remote Northern Territory (BNA)
Australian VC Shearwater leads $13.4m Series A for New Zealand consumer insights startup Ideally (Startup Daily)
Ecosystem & Hubs
Perth accelerator Plus Eight opens 10th cohort with $700,000 SAFE seed pool and San Francisco immersion. (Startup News)
People Moves & Spotlights
Airtree partner Helen Norton departs after 11 years (Capital Brief)
Canva’s head of design Andrew Green departs a week after Canva AI 2.0 release (Capital Brief)
Wolverine star Hugh Jackman joins ticketing startup Humanitix as Head of Impact (SmartCompany)
Isabella Rich has been promoted to Partner at OIF Ventures (LinkedIn)
Reports & Data
Startup Muster report finds Australian climate tech startups are creating jobs and rebuilding local manufacturing, but face a deep early-stage funding gap (Startup Daily)
Techboard finds most Australian startup funding may go unannounced, with more than 750 possible hidden investments in 2025 (Startup Daily)
Other News & Updates
Finder cuts 54 jobs in latest global redundancy round (SmartCompany)
Microsoft will invest $25b in Australian AI data centres over three years, the largest local commitment by a global tech company (AFR)
Nuix defeats ASIC’s investor disclosure case after the Federal Court finds it had reasonable grounds to reaffirm IPO revenue forecasts, with ASIC ordered to pay all costs (AFR)
Funding Rounds
BiomeBank, a biotechnology company that develops donor-derived microbiome therapies for patients to restore gut microbial ecology, has raised $10m from Blackmores (The Aussie Corporate)
Sovereign Green Compute, an AI infrastructure platform that builds renewable export-grade compute for cloud and AI operators to access low-cost scalable capacity, has raised $700k from ACTAI Ventures (Fund Momentum)
Renewable Metals, a recycler that uses an alkali process to recover critical metals from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries for reuse by battery makers, has raised $12m in a Series A round from Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Neglected Climate Opportunities, European Metal Recycling, Investible and Climate Tech Partners (Startup Daily | BNA)
Render Networks, a platform for telecom and electric utilities to plan and deliver infrastructure projects faster using geospatial asset data, has raised $20m (Businesswire)
Syenta, who is architecting the future of AI computing through its revolutionary Localised Electrochemical Manufacturing (LEM) technology, has raised $36.32m ($26m USD) in a Series A round from Playground Global, National Reconstruction Fund, Investible, Salus Ventures, Jelix Ventures and Wollemi Capital (SmartCompany | BNA)
Instant, an all-in-one retention marketing platform for the e-commerce sector, has raised an Undisclosed amount from HubSpot Ventures (Instant)
Aurora Materials, an advanced materials company that makes fluorescent tagging materials for defence and high-security supply chains to improve traceability, has raised an Undisclosed amount in a Pre-Seed round from Australian National Fabrication Facility (Australian National Fabrication Facility Limited)