This Week in Australian Startups - 2nd November, 2022
This Week in Australian Startups - 2nd November, 2022
Welcome to the very first edition of This Week in Australian Startups.
For the last few years I’ve been running the newsletter This Week in London Startups. Now back home after 4.5 years in London, the natural progression was for me to do the same but this time for Australian startups.
Each week, I’ll curate top startup news across Australia from trends, economic and political updates, funding rounds, events and jobs and share them in an easy digestible format.
I’d love to hear from you, whether you have something newsworthy or just some feedback and suggestions.
Whilst it seems raising capital is harder than ever, Australian VC’s continue to raise record amounts for new funds. The latest raise is a whopping $860 million from Square Peg Capital.
The raise is the funds fifth so far, taking their total to $2.5 billion since starting 10 years ago. In their announcement they explain how the new fund will be split
The capital raised will be deployed across two strategies, (1) our core venture fund Square Peg Fund 4 which typically invests in early stage companies from Seed to Series B, and (2) our follow-on fund Opportunities Fund 2, which typically invests in later stage rounds of our emerging winners, once we have utilised available venture funds.
Square Peg hasn’t been alone in raising some serious cash, earlier this year AirTree announced a $700 million fund, with a sizeable $200 million earmarked for its seed fund. Meanwhile Blackbird Ventures has been gearing up to raise at least $1 billion this year.
That’s a lot of cash up for grabs for Australian startups, but what’s nice to see is majority of these raises also have a focus outside of home - whether it’s across the pond in New Zealand or further afield in APAC.
If you want a piece of the pie for your startup, you can submit your pitch using these links for Square Peg Capital, AirTree Ventures and Blackbird Ventures.
Top News
Australia to toughen privacy laws with huge hike in penalties for breaches, more here
Russian-Born Revolut Billionaire Gives Up His Citizenship, more here
Queensland VC Sprint Ventures nails first close on $50 million 2nd fund, more here
Two more executives are leaving Apple, more here
Budget 2022: Startup founders seeking support for women, STEM careers and tax cuts, more here
Twitter braces for layoffs, more here
Australian Funding Rounds
Animal-free fat startup Nourish Ingredients lands a meaty $45 million funding round, more here
Lyka raises $30 million in monster Series B round as more Australians serve up premium chow for furry friends, more here
Psychedelic biotech startup Psylo raises $5 million Seed round, more here
Urban Swan, the RedBalloon of gen Z dating, scores $2 million seed funding, more here
ReciMe, the shared recipes app you need for the perfect meal, just chowed down on $500,000 in pre-Seed funding, more here
NAB Ventures leads investment in Greener the cleantech startup, more here
NRMA backs CBA-linked electricity retailer Amber in $13.4 million Series B, more here
Gen Z fitness app Stepppen raises $1.65 million Seed round, more here
International Highlights
British VC deal volume at lowest level since 2016, more here
BNPL startup Tymit gets £23m boost from Frasers Group, more here
London Start-Up Flyp Raises £5 Million To Revamp Selling A Home, more here
Netflix is acquiring cozy game developer Spry Fox, more here
Volocopter raises $182M to bring air taxi closer to certification, more here
Egypt's Money Fellows raises $31m to digitise money circles, more here
Events
Sydney: Idea to Unicorn: 2023 Tech Playbook, November 17
Melbourne & Online: Startup Tools for Uncertain Times - Panel Discussion, November 9
Adelaide: Startup Weekend Adelaide, December 2