🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #99, 22nd December 2024

ICYMI - this week I launched the first edition of a new annual series; This Year in Australian Startups.

You can check out the wrap up below, featuring some of Australia’s best minds in tech.

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Top News

• $100m in a month: The NRF cranks investment pace (InnovationAus)

• Employment Hero spent $43m to buy Employment Innovation, founder Ben Thompson's other company (AFR)

• SoftwareOne and Crayon Group have agreed to merge, forming a combined entity with a total revenue of $2.85 billion (ARN)

• The cofounder of Seer Medical is fighting investor Breakthrough Victoria in court, claiming he was unfairly dismissed from the startup (Startup Daily)

• Gilmour Space Technologies aims to launch two rockets and raise $150m (Capital Brief)

• Humanforce has finalised its $17.2 million takeover of LiveHire (AFR)

• A 21-year-old has secured $10m to fund an initial portfolio for a lending model specific to early-stage deep tech and biotech companies against the R&D tax incentive (AFR)

• Fintech lender MONEYME secures $125m funding facility (Capital Brief)

• Google’s AI-First Accelerator showcases 8 Aussie startups pioneering AI innovation (StartUp ScaleUp)

• Reckon acquires Cashflow Manager, gains 20,000 new clients and 1,000 accounting and bookkeeping partners (Australian FinTech)

• Two independent Australian media companies lead new class action against Google alleging misuse of ad-tech market power (BNA)

• Zool Capital acquires ThinCats Australia (Australian FinTech)

• Australian-made ‘Roo-ver’ lands spot on Moon mission (InnovationAus)

• Martech startup Upflowy is launching a neuroscience-based marketing AI copilot (Startup Daily)

• Medtech startup Ceretas has secured the licence to commercialise a promising ultrasound therapy developed at The University of Queensland that could potentially restore brain function in people with Alzheimer's disease (BNA)

• Meta agrees to pay Australian Facebook users $50m to settle Cambridge Analytica scandal (BNA)

• Skip to the Moon: the team behind a $42 million Australian Space Agency project to build Australia’s first lunar ‘Roo-ver’ revealed (Startup Daily)

• TikTok, Meta frozen out in final months of tech levy talks (Capital Brief)

• Titanium Ventures cracks $1bn revenue for its portfolio (The Australian)

• E-scooter group Benzina Zero supercharges partnership with clean tech innovator Beam Global (BNA)

• Leonardo. Ai has partnered with University of Technology Sydney to create a new doctorate program (The Australian)

• Sydney nuclear fusion startup HB11 inks deal with European laser giant ELI ERIC, a top laser R&D consortium, to supply laser targets (Capital Brief)

• The Albanese government will develop an AI capability plan to arrive next year (InnovationAus)

• UNSW enters OpenAI tie-up that protects users’ IP (InnovationAus)

• Energy giant Chevron will use renewable energy blocks from Newcastle start-up MGA Thermal to power a five megawatt per hour unit to store and process heat in the US. (The Australian)

• Jachin Bhasme co-founder of Leonardo.Ai is changing roles from COO to CPO (LinkedIn)

• Ten out of 12 startups in the 2024 Techstars Tech Central Sydney accelerator had at least one woman founder (Forbes)

Funding Rounds

• Vinyl Group, a music technology company that owns and operates multiple platforms, has raised $7.6m on the ASX (AFR | Josh Simons)

• Cormagna, a remote heart monitoring device, has raised $704K in a Crowdfunding round (SmartCompany)

• Wosup, who is helping shopping centres, sporting venues and more to ditch single-use plastic cups, has raised $301K in a Crowdfunding round (SmartCompany)

• Vault Cloud, a provider of secure, sovereign, and hyperscale cloud infrastructure to government, defence, and critical infrastructure sectors, has raised $22.5m in a Series B round from National Reconstruction Fund (SmartCompany | BNA)

• Myroita, whose nanosatellite technology facilitates IoT connectivity across industries like agriculture, mining, and defence, has raised $50m from The National Reconstruction Fund, Main Sequence Ventures and InterValley Ventures (BNA | Startup Daily | InnovationAus)

• JET Charge, which manages an electric vehicle charging infrastructure and provides a Charging as a Service, has raised $72m from Mirova, Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Virescent Ventures, RACV, Kilara Capital (Capital Brief | Startup Daily | AFR)

• 8seats, a next-generation messaging platform for businesses looking to disrupt WhatsApp and Slack, has raised $2m in a Seed round from Black Nova, Angel Investors (BNA | The Australian | Capital Brief)

• Avolution, a business architecture modelling tool which helps businesses model and optimise their IT systems and business processes, has raised an undisclosed amount from Whiteoak (AFR)

• Networks X, an expert network that connects clients with industry specialists to provide on-demand, bespoke insights for informed decision-making, has raised $2m from Pitch Venture Capital, Arbor Capital (AFR)

• WearOptimo, which makes AI-enhanced wearable hydration monitors, has raised $8m from Aspen Medical (AFR)

• DigitalX, who specialise in blockchain product development and digital asset funds management, has raised $15.4m from public markets (The Australian)

• AZZO, an engineering company specialising in systems integration for energy management and renewable energy transformation, has raised $20m in a Series A round from Angeleno (AFR)

• BioScout, who automated agricultural disease detection, has raised an undisclosed amount from GrainCorp (GrainCorp)