Last Week in Australian Startups #86, 30th September 2024

$76.42M raised last week across 6 rounds (below) - another steady week and I imagine we’ll see more of these weeks come before the year closes.

The main driver will be startups looking to announce rather than deals not being done. There’ll be plenty of deals done in late Q4 this year that likely won’t get announced till early 2025.

Acquisitions continue to happen, and nothing is suggesting this drive won’t continue as we see more consolidation happening - what’s more interesting is that more recently I’m seeing these happening where one entity is not Australian, a really promising sign especially when it’s a large acquisition or a smaller one where the acquirer is Australian.

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Top News

• Digital health start-ups are jostling for a piece of the nation’s lucrative healthcare market but are facing questions over their strategies, pricing and efficacy (The Age)

• I-MED bidders wrap their heads around data breach (AFR)

• Startmate’s $35K stake in cybersecurity company Bugcrowd is now worth $2.1M (AFR)

• 12 Australian women-led businesses have secured more than $1M in financial and strategic backing from Sister Pitch (SmartCompany)

• ASX-listed Douugh to acquire US B2B fintech platform services business R-DBX (Australian FinTech)

• Penten, Inovor Technologies and Advanced Design Technology have been named the Australian winners of the first-ever trilateral AUKUS innovation challenge (InnovationAus)

• Super fund Spaceship has been acquired by eToro in an $80M merger (Startup Daily)

• Element 25 Chosen for US$166 Million Grant from US Department of Energy (The Asset Observer)

• REA Group acquires 19.9% of fintech lender Athena Home Loans for $62 million (Australian FinTech)

• Secret Helfie AI investor documents reveals huge revenue, profit claims (The Australian)

• 4 more early stage companies have been awarded $4M in grants under the government’s commercialisation program (InnovationAus)

• Google to test its artificial intelligence-powered search in Australia (AFR)

• New scaleup hub destined for NSW manufacturing facility at Bradfield City Centre near the incoming Western Sydney International Airport (InnovationAus)

• OneVentures MD and founding partner Michelle Deaker says valuations at startups have stopped falling dramatically in 2024, and returned to a healthy level for investors, after peaking during 2021 ZIRP era (AFR)

• AI has permeated into all aspects of the CSIRO’s research operations, leading it to invest $16M into a new high performance computer (InnovationAus)

• Compound disinterest: telehealth brands creator Eucalyptus suspends $3,000 healthier blokes bootcamp to tackle ‘teething issues’ (Startup Daily)

• The SA government wants at least 10 innovative companies from interstate or overseas to set up in SA this year under a new $1M a year Investment Accelerator Program (InnovationAus)

• ASIC green lights $8M raise for Scalare Partners back door ASX listing (Startup Daily)

• CBA crypto experiments held up in regulatory bottlenecks (AFR)

• Plenti and National Australia Bank launch ‘NAB powered by Plenti’ car and EV loans (Australian FinTech)

• Regal throws its weight behind ‘takeover target’ Zip Co (AFR)

• SA research and innovation fund under review (InnovationAus)

• Australian AI project Kangaroo LLM calls for more unpaid volunteers (ACS)

• LinkedIn Top Startups 2024: The 20 Australian companies on the rise (LinkedIn)

Funding Rounds

• DemTech.ai, which creates a white label citizen action platform, has raised a $325K Pre-Seed round from MoveOn.org, OPEN (The Online Progressive Engagement Network) and Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies (SmartCompany)

• Restoke.ai, an AI-powered management platform that integrates with restaurant systems to automate operations like food costing, inventory, team management and accounting, has raised a $5.1M Seed round from Rampersand, Mandalay Venture Partners, Archangel Ventures (Startup Daily | BNA | Forbes)

• InDebted, a fintech that helps with consumer debt collection, has raised a $50M Series C round from Airtree Ventures, Australian Retirement Trust, Premier Capital Partners, Reinventure, Carthona Capital and Perennial (Startup Daily | AFR)

• Evolt, which makes medically graded machines that employ bioimpedance technology to provide comprehensive insights into body composition health, has raised $20M from Regal Funds, Washington Soul Pattinson (BNA)

• Vald, which makes musculoskeletal assessment and rehabilitation technologies, has raised an undisclosed sum from FTV Capital (businesswire)

• Matilda Migration, which is looking to automate the visa process, has raised a $1M Pre-Seed round from Afterwork Ventures, Wollemi and CoVentures (Forbes)