Yesterday
Blackbird leads fundraising round for EV ultra-fast charging start-up
NZ start-up Kwetta is chasing global growth after banking equity cheques from Blackbird, Virescent Ventures and Icehouse Ventures.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
This Month
Top doctors tip into AI medtech capital raising
The raise was led by Chris O’Brien Lifehouse chief executive and oncologist Michael Boyer and leading orthopedic surgeon Michael Solomon.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Big VCs are getting bigger as fundraising pulls out of year-long slump
Seven firms closed new vehicles totalling $3 billion in the last year, money which disproportionately went to the most established start-up investment players.
- Tess Bennett
Travel fintech Mint Payments gears up for $20m secondary round
Perennial Value Management, Duncan Saville’s ICM Allectus Capital and Kelly Partners Investment Office may seek to part with their minority positions.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Rokt soars to $5.6b as employees cash out, Barrenjoey cashes in
The Aussie tech firm has closed a $US300 million acquisition and secured a $538 million secondary offer, delivering a $US1.1 billion valuation boost.
- Yolanda Redrup
Atlassian backs British start-up that creates AI avatars for CEOs
Synthesia’s $290 million fundraise will help it build a presence in Australia, and dovetail its products with Atlassian, which joined a series D funding round.
- Paul Smith and Hans van Leeuwen
Robot surgeon start-up scores $5m deal from US investors
An orthopaedic doctor turned tech entrepreneur has developed a robot to help perform common knee and shoulder operations, and it’s gaining international attention.
- Tess Bennett
There’s a new tech VC fund wanting a seat at the table
Arbor’s new $20 million evergreen fund will be one of the few venture capital open-ended structures on the market.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
How VC-backed founders in China end up blacklisted
Once on the debtor list, it is nearly impossible for individuals to start another business. They are also blocked from a range of economic activities.
- Ryan McMorrow, Wenjie Ding and Nian Liu
December 2024
‘Unicorn’ tech firm spent $43m to buy its founder’s other company
Heavily backed HR technology firm Employment Hero paid $43.4 million for a company owned by its co-founder Ben Thompson, a new regulatory filing has revealed.
- Tess Bennett
Natixis’s Mirova backs millions into EV charging biz JET Charge
Natixis Investment Managers-affiliate Mirova led the $72 million funding round via its energy transition strategy.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
This 21-year-old has just banked $10m for his R&D funding venture
Charlie Selth brought the idea to his boss, executive chairman Jonathan Dooley, 18 months ago to create a lending model for early-stage companies.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Arbor Capital backs homegrown scuttlebutt research firm targeting PE
The venture capital upstart has taken a minority stake in expert research platform Networks X.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
NRL star turned Rich Lister backs Brisbane healthtech WearOptimo
WearOptimo has gathered $8 million in fresh funding to get into its go-to-market strategy.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
With Canva as a client, this start-up just hit $100m thanks to Airtree
The Brisbane company has raised $22 million, and is now backed by Scott Farquhar and Kim Jackson’s Skip Capital along with Employment Hero founder Ben Thompson.
- Updated
- Tess Bennett
Adrian Whittingham’s Scarcity Partners gets into the VC game
The former Pinnacle executive has snapped up a 20 per cent stake in $500 million Singapore-based January Capital.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Sidelined by VCs, women are taking their start-up ideas to the public
The three biggest raises of 2024 on Birchal, the country’s dominant equity crowdfunding platform, are businesses run by women. And largely backed by women.
- Yolanda Redrup
Musk raises $9b for ‘anti-woke’ AI company
xAI’s funding round signals the battle with OpenAI and Anthropic is intensifying.
- Paul Smith
November 2024
Alium in deployment mode as its innovation fund draws capital
Alium was founded in 2016 and has also backed the likes of Nitro Software, now owned by Potentia Capital and online shopping rewards platform Cashrewards.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Start-up stars: what’s happened to tech’s Class of 2021
VC firms that wrote huge cheques on very generous valuations in 2021 are now nervously watching Australia’s most heavily backed start-ups. How are they going now?
- Tess Bennett