This Week in Australian Startups - Issue #24, 9th June 2023
This Week in Australian Startups - Issue #24, 9th June 2023
It’s been a busy week on my end moving houses so apologies that this week’s newsletter dropping later in the week, and there is a lot to catch up on in Australian tech.
With the biggest headline of the week is Apple’s Vision Pro announcement, I’m going to take the weekend and write a deep dive for next week - until then here’s some of the top headlines worth reading on the topic:
Disney is developing ways to watch sports with Apple's Vision Pro that could give fans new control over the action (Business Insider)
Metaverse investments: Opportunities and risks of the trillion-dollar VR market (Cointelegraph)
Apple’s Vision Pro & Meta’s Vision Oh No (500ish)
Apple rejected nearly one million apps over privacy since 2020 (AppleInsider)
Here’s what Mark Zuckerberg thinks about Apple’s Vision Pro (The Verge)
I wore the Apple Vision Pro. It’s the best headset demo ever. (The Verge)
Reality Pro could be the ultimate Mac display that Apple would never make (9to5Mac)
Mark Zuckerberg randomly unveiled the Meta Quest 3 just days before Apple unveils Reality Pro (9to5Mac)
Hands on with Apple’s Vision Pro: bringing the metaverse to life (FT)
Aussie 3D startup JigSpace stars in Apple's massive Vision Pro AR headset announcement (SmartCompany)
Top News
Australia
Deep tech incubator Cicada Innovations unveils its very first Tech23 cohort (Business News Australia)
How this Aussie start-up helped Apple launch its biggest product in 9 years (Forbes)
Canva investor cuts valuation by 10 per cent again (SMH)
Meet the woman leading Australia’s AI industry into the US (AFR)
Tech crowd takes its dose of reality and knuckles down (AFR)
Modernising Australia's Payment System (Treasury)
Agtech accelerator Sparklabs Cultiv8 is backing 10 cleantech startups in a new program (Startup Daily)
How AI can help make humans more productive (AFR)
Pandemic frenzy spawns 1.2m new Australian investors (AFR)
Linktree reduces ANZ workforce by 27% to focus on US (Startup Daily | Linktree)
UK TV station Channel Four takes 20% stake in Airtasker’s British arm for $6.5 million (Startup Daily)
Online health brands startup Eucalyptus picks the online meat off the bones of Jenny Craig collapse (Startup Daily)
The Australian government is going to force Big Tech to scan your photos and emails for illegal things (Startup Daily)
Antler scales up its portfolio with $425 million fund for later-stage startups (SmartCompany)
Wealthy families are backing start-up factory Antler with over $200m (AFR)
Around the World
How Microsoft Fabric aims to beat Amazon and Google in the cloud war (VentureBeat)
Amazon Pay taps Affirm to be its first buy now, pay later player in the US (TechCrunch)
Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from its unpopular API pricing changes (The Verge)
Amazon's Newest Partnership Is About to Make Your Streaming Life a Lot Easier (TheStreet)
This is what Instagram’s upcoming Twitter competitor looks like (The Verge)
Apple’s Messi Vision (500ish)
Google has officially changed its mind about remote work (Quartz)
Mark Zuckerberg announces Meta’s plans for AI in company wide meeting (Axios)
Google and Facebook urged by EU to label AI-generated content (The Guardian)
Spotify lays off 200 people from podcasting team (The Hill)
Reddit Laying Off 5% of Workforce, Cuts Back Hiring Plans (Variety)
Twitter's ad sales have reportedly dropped by 59 percent since last year (Engadget)
Microsoft Fined $20 Million Over Charges Of Illegal Data Collection Involving Children (HuffPost)
SF-based Zendesk, worth $10.2B, cuts dozens of Calif. managers, 8% of staff (SFGATE)
Inside Stripe's latest moves (TechCrunch)
Amazon Is Reportedly Planning on Offering Its Prime Subscribers Free Cell Phone Service (Hypebeast)
Shopify's Shop app introduces a new 'Shop Cash' rewards program (TechCrunch)
Maryland school district sues Meta, Google, and TikTok over “mental health crisis” (The Verge)
Time to ban TikTok, EU lawmakers tell governments (POLITICO)
Job site ZipRecruiter cutting 20% of its staff (CNN)
Netflix Shareholders Reject Executive Pay Packages in Symbolic Move; WGA Had Urged Investors to Vote Against Them (Variety)
Meta Tells Office Workers to Come In Three Days per Week This Fall (Bloomberg)
Google to start factoring office attendance into performance reviews (Computerworld)
Meta will test blocking news for some Canadians ahead of new law (The Verge)
Apple touts $1.1 trillion in App Store commerce in 2022, with $104B in digital sales (TechCrunch)
Amazon’s Ring doorbell was used to spy on customers, FTC says in privacy case (The Guardian)
Australian Funding Rounds
OneVentures backs cancer biotech ImmVirX in $25 million Series B (Startup Daily)
Biotech incubator CUREator tips $12 million into 19 startups tackling global health (Startup Daily)
Queensland sustainable packaging startup Earthodic bags $1.85 million pre-Seed round (Startup Daily)
Nutromics bags $11M in pre-Series A funding (mobihealthnews)
Nuheara secures $4.4M to accelerate growth in US markets (The Market Herald)
Bombora backs Autism 360 with $2M (AFR)
Curtis Stone-backed catering platform Gathar serves up $800,000 crowdfunding round (Startup Daily)
Citadel Achieves Significant Milestone with Oversubscribed $1M Seed Funding Round (Citadel.run)
International Funding Highlights
Finch, a unified API for employment systems, announces new funding (VentureBeat)
PayPal Ventures Leads $52M Round for Crypto Firm Magic (CoinDesk)
8Flow.ai raises $6.6M to automate customer support workflows (TechCrunch)
Cortex raises $35M Series B for its internal developer portal (TechCrunch)
Hyro doubles down on plug-and-play AI assistants with $20M funding (VentureBeat)
Cohere Announces $270M Series C to Bring Generative AI to Enterprises (Cohere)
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