🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #122, 6th July 2025
$22.2m raised across 4 rounds, Tractor Ventures hits $100m lending milestone, SoftwareOne completes $3b acquisition of Crayon, and OpenAI hires former TCA CEO Kate Pounder to lead policy work.
Top News
Applications for UQ’s iLab accelerator close this Monday (Startup Daily)
Matt Leibowitz-backed podcast Equity Mates sells to BetaShares in $8.5. million deal (Startup Daily)
Tractor Ventures hits $100m lending milestone (Capital Brief)
A very analogue startup, Owls Eat Rats, wins the $50,000 Taronga Zoo accelerator program (Startup Daily)
Flagship Innovation Centre at Adelaide's Lot Fourteen gets government backing to start next year (BNA)
JPMorgan is dominating M&A and ECM dealmaking this year (AFR)
OpenAI's Australian lobbying machine takes shape with Kate Pounder hire (Capital Brief)
SoftwareOne completes mega billion-dollar acquisition of Crayon (ARN)
Top NRF exec resigns, as the $15b fund grapples with audit findings (Capital Brief)
Wingate bankrolls start-up lender Kashcade with $50m facility (AFR)
Boston-based Luminous lands $4.9m from ARENA's Solar ScaleUp (Capital Brief)
Swyftx signs record $100m-plus crypto deal for Caleb & Brown to target wealthy US investors (BNA)
‘Nobody needs $1b’: Wave of tech money to reshape philanthropy (AFR)
AirTree-backed Grow Inc back on fund-raising trail after $70m Series D (AFR)
Here are the 23 deep tech startups in presenting at the Cicada x Tech23 showcase (Startup Daily)
Objective Corporation to acquire NZ-based govtech rival Isovist (Capital Brief)
Audit reveals the NRF has no financial strategy despite $436m in deals (Capital Brief)
Investing in Australian startups gives investors the best bang for their bucks (Startup Daily)
Funding Rounds
MagnaTerra Technologies, which develops magnetic resonance sensing systems to detect explosives, narcotics, and minerals with precision and speed, has raised $11m from RFC Ambrian Funds Management, Shaw and Partners (Startup Daily | AFR | Capital Brief)
Coinstash, an Australian owned and operated crypto exchange, has raised $4.7m in a Series A round (Startup Daily | BNA)
MogoPlus, which provides AI-powered data analytics solutions to financial institutions enabling real-time credit decisioning and customer insights, has raised $1.5m in a round (SmartCompany)
Mobile Tyre Shop, a tech-enabled service that allows customers to purchase tyres online and have them fitted at their location by a mobile technician, has raised $5m from Sailun (SmartCompany)