Today
Atlassian makes it easier to cash out of stock to land top talent
The Nasdaq-listed productivity software giant has quietly allowed staff to begin selling shares after just three months. Critics say they may as well pay cash.
- Tess Bennett
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
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
These founders with nothing to lose are coming back for a second act
A chance at being part of tech’s next wave was too great an opportunity for founders Sam Kroonenburg and Leigh Jasper to resist, even though they’ve already staged billion-dollar exits.
- Yolanda Redrup
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
How this reluctant CEO sold his company for $600m
When Payapps co-founder Geoff Tarrant was selling his software company early last year, he was given some sage advice: ‘it’s not Canva’.
- Yolanda Redrup
High-profile lab-grown meat start-up makes staff redundant
Vow, which raised over $80 million from investors including Blackbird Ventures, Square Peg and Hostplus, shocked employees by slashing headcount.
- Paul Smith
Linktree concocted ‘nonsensical’ claim to sack me, staffer claims
The high-profile social media start-up has rejected the allegations, including that a friend of its co-founder was given special treatment.
- Max Mason
- Updated
- Software
Employment Hero makes $112m acquisition to break into Canada
Like the Australian software start-up, Humi makes cloud-based software which handles hiring, payroll and employee benefits for small and mid-sized businesses.
- Updated
- Tess Bennett
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
Sydney entrepreneurs build $35m crypto-backed loan book
Deep in the private credit universe, some lenders have warmed to the idea of accepting cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ethereum as collateral for personal and business loans.
- Tess Bennett
Culture Amp accounts reveal start-up’s big growth – and a sea of red
One of the country’s biggest private software companies, with a valuation of more than $2.4 billion, has lost $155 million over the past two years.
- Tess Bennett
December 2024
Millions in debt, but this CSL challenger is still tapping investors
Aegros has promised new management and a new board in the hopes of wooing investors. But its promising blood plasma technology looks further away than ever.
- Yolanda Redrup
The 10 most memorable Lunches with the AFR of 2024
From Young Rich Listers to BlackRock’s chief strategist and Donald Trump’s former daily intelligence briefer. These were the 10 most read Lunches with the AFR in 2024.
- Staff writers
‘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
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
Mark Carnegie, HongShan back $US100m crypto neobank
HongShan Capital Group and Peak XV Partners have led KAST’s $US10 million seed funding round.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport