This Week in Australian Startups - 15th December, 2022

Sam Bankman-Fried, SBF, founder and CEO of FTX has finally been arrested in the Bahamas on charges of defrauding investors. It’s estimated at least $1-2 billion of customer funds simply went missing.

There is a lot of misinformation, or misunderstanding on what has actually happened here and what this means for crypto as an industry and asset. To be clear, what’s happened is a good old case of fraud.

SBF took $10 billion of client funds from FTX, and moved them across secretly to trading firm Alameda of which he owns 90%. This doesn’t have much or anything to really do with crypto.

Most of the analysis has already happened, The Verge has summarised it really well and the best forward looking view I’ve found is an interview with the Coinbase Founder and CEO Brian Armstrong on Stratechery. I’d encourage everyone to take the time to read it.

Top News

• Naked Life gives away 12,000 zero-alcohol drinks to keep work parties trouble free, more here

• Milkrun adds next-day market deliveries as ‘instant’ grocery platforms chase new revenue streams, more here

• Australian VCs went earlier and smaller with deals in 2022, more here

• TikTok inches further into YouTube’s territory with a new horizontal full screen mode, more here

• iOS 16.2 arrives with improved always-on display and iCloud end-to-end encryption, more here

• Google won’t launch ChatGPT rival because of ‘reputational risk’, more here

• FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas, more here

• Microsoft to acquire 4% stake in London Stock Exchange Group as part of 10-year cloud partnership, more here

• Online furniture retailer Brosa collapses into voluntary administration, more here

• Atlassian, Canva, Culture Amp founders back new Startmate fund. More here

• Apple is reportedly preparing to allow third-party app stores on the iPhone, more here

• Canva’s Magic Write AI generator won’t be stealing jobs anytime soon, more here

• Software ate the world. Now it’s AI’s turn - Opinion by GitHub’s CEO. More here

• Why new Fishburners CEO Martin Karafilis wants to champion regional startups, more here

• The ‘work from anywhere’ movement finding a home in Australia, more here

• Here are the winners of the UNSW Founders Awards, more here

Australian Funding Rounds

• Farmbot is finalising $5 million in Series A+ with Telstra leading the herd, more here

• Urban analytics startup Neighbourlytics raises $1.3 million in pre-Series A, more here

• Sydney-based Pathzero, which helps investors track their portfolios’ carbon, emissions, raises $8.6m in Series A+ round. More here

• Vaxxas receives $34m capital injection to advance manufacturing of needle-free vaccine, more here

• Rapid blood infection detection scale-up Microbio banks $3.5 million, more here

• Monash 3D printing spin out Additive Assurance lands $4.1 million for global plans, more here

• Carbon management startup Avarni has raised $3 million in venture funding, less than 12 months after launching. More here

International Highlights

• Checkout.com slashes internal valuation to $11bn, more here

• NAB Ventures invests in Banked, more here

• Shield AI raises another $60M at a $2.3B valuation for its military autonomous flying tech, more here

• Zappi, a brand platform used by Pepsi, raises £139m, more here

• 222 wants to match perfect strangers for bespoke, real-life experiences - raises $1.4m pre-seed. More here

• Vic.ai raises $52M, shows that automating accounting processes can be profitable, more here

• AI talent platform Beamery raises £41m, becomes UK’s latest unicorn, more here

• SafeStack closes NZ $4 million funding round led by Blackbird, more here

• Kiwi car parts startup Partly banks record $NZ37 million Series A, more here

Events

• Melbourne: What it means to be investor ready, December 16

• Melbourne: Sustainable Tech Pitch Night, December 15