Telstra Ventures and Mobile Tyre Shop lead this week’s tech capital raisings with a $50m target
Fresh from presenting at Apple, Mobile Tyre Shop is seeking to raise $10m from investors, while Telstra Ventures is leading a $40m raise for a burgeoning AI outfit spun out of KPMG.
Melbourne dealmaker David Williams and Telstra’s venture capital arm are leading this week’s tech capital raisings, tapping investors for more than $50m collectively.
Mr Williams is best known for orchestrating the $460m deal that returned Vegemite to Australian ownership via Bega Cheese’s acquisition of Mondelez’s grocery business, and more recently Canadian seafood giant Cooke’s $1.7bn takeover of Tasmanian salmon producer Tassal.
But he has been deepening his exposure to the technology - in both biotech and e-commerce.
He is the biggest shareholder of Mobile Tyre Shop - an online business that is seeking to disrupt the $5.6bn retail tyre market - and his firm Kidder Williams is seeking to raise $10m for the company.
Fresh from presenting Apple’s development team with how Mobile Tyre Shop used the tech behemoth’s software to create its own sales, booking and logistics platform, it is targeting a $40m pre-money valuation.
Australia has closely followed Europe and the US where online tyre sales are growing significantly and stores are closing just as rapidly. In Europe there are several businesses capitalising on the move to online and fitting at home including the listed German online tyre disruptor Delticom which had sales of €509m ($849.6m) Euros in 2022. Meanwhile, Halfords in the UK has grown its mobile service vans from three to 748 in the past five years.
Mobile Tyre Shop, founded by Travis Osborne, has grown to operate a fleet of 36 vans across all major capital cities since appearing on Shark Tank in 2015, despite a $25o,000 funding deal offered on the show quietly falling through. The company is targeting revenue of more than $100m, with its sales exceeding 75,000 tyres to more than 25,000 customers in 2023.
Mr Williams says so far Mobile Tyre Shop has attracted interest from major European, Japanese, and Chinese brands.
Telstra Ventures, meanwhile, has led a $US25m ($39.5m) raising for Cranium - a start-up spun out of KPMG that provides software to companies to ensure their AI systems are compliant and secure against hackers.
Cranium emerged from stealth six months ago and spun out of KPMG with additional investment from SYN Ventures. KPMG and SYN Ventures both participated in the latest raising, which brings Cranium’s total funding to $US32m. The funds will be used for
innovation, research and development and business expansion.
Chief executive and co-founder Jonathan Dambrot said AI was being embedded into every business process and function at an unprecedented speed - including his own corporate headshot.
“Prioritizing responsible AI now, at the beginning of the AI revolution, will allow enterprises to scale more effectively and not run into major roadblocks and compliance issues later,” he said.
Marcus Bartram, general partner at Telstra Ventures said the rapid rate of innovation fuelled by the emergence of generative AI capabilities has created fresh challenges for cybersecurity teams, particularly raising questions over compliance and trustworthiness.
“Cranium stands at the forefront of AI security and trust software, empowering organizations to navigate the crowded cybersecurity industry with its groundbreaking product and pioneering innovations addressing enterprises’ urgent needs grappling with AI regulation,
compliance, and security frameworks,” Mr Batram said.
Cranium’s proprietary software is designed to address the gap between data science, compliance, and cybersecurity teams by providing a single source of truth for AI security risks. The company says it achieves this without requiring teams to change their processes, tools, or workflows.
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