This Week in Australian Startups - Issue #21, 19th May 2023
This Week in Australian Startups - Issue #21, 19th May 2023
As we conclude another work week, the rising cost of capital continues to impact the startup ecosystem which I’ve written about a few times this year now. Mr Yum and me&u have initiated preliminary talks for a potential merger. Both experienced unprecedented growth during the pandemic era with their QR menu’s and payment solutions in hospitality.
However, meeting high and often unrealistic valuations set in the last few years, has proven challenging for well-funded startups like Mr Yum; often starting with layoffs, focusing on core products, and abandoning side projects before having to make difficult decisions to either merge, fold or sell.
The AFR continues to criticise the Australia's tech community — this time Vinomofo founder Andre Eikmeier recently addressed inaccuracies from an AFR article in a LinkedIn post.
Revolut has launched its business banking product in Australia— a move that will increase competition with local players such as AirWallex and Big 4 Banks.
Around the world, AI continues to be a big talking point with OpenAI CEO speaking in Congress about AI regulations and also separately launching of a new iOS App (only available in the US currently).
One topic that has finally progressed, for better or worse, is the ongoing discuss of a potential TikTok ban in the US - Montana has become the first state to pass this as law with a $10,000 fine per breach, how this will actually play out and even enforced is yet to be seen.
Top News
Australia
Australia just nailed its first central bank digital currency transfer (Startup Daily)
Binance Australia Loses Crypto Ramp PayID ‘With Immediate Effect’ (Decrypt)
Applications for Tennis Australia’s latest accelerator program for sports and entertainment startups have just opened (Startup Daily)
Restaurant tech start-ups Mr Yum and me&u in merger talks (Startup Daily)
Susan Oliver & Carol Schwartz hand over women-focused angel startup fund Scale Investors to the next generation (Startup Daily)
ServiceNow A/NZ revenues swell to $481M (ARN)
Vinomofo founder provides corrections to a recent AFR article (LinkedIn)
British fintech Revolut launches business offering, chasing Australian banking licence (The Australian)
Around the World
Xero's net profit dives $113.5M further into the red (ARN)
A good contrary opinion by Michael Hutchens (LinkedIn)
OpenAI launches an official ChatGPT app for iOS (TechCrunch)
The Emperor Has No Tech: Why the Insurance Industry Desperately Needs Startups (Foundation Capital)
Kustomer, the CRM startup acquired by Meta last year for $1B, spins out on a $250M valuation (TechCrunch)
Emirates Pays Employees SIX MONTHS Worth Of Salary Bonus After Posting $2.9B Record Profit (LoyaltyLobby)
More Penguins Than Europeans Can Use Google Bard (Wired)
‘The Velvet Hammer’: who is Twitter’s new CEO and can she fix its problems? (The Guardian)
Midjourney’s fate in China is up in the air after launch post vanishes (South China Morning Post)
Zoom will soon integrate Anthropic’s chatbot across its platform (The Verge)
Uber will start rolling out teen accounts with safety features next week (Engadget)
Is ‘shareholder supremacy’ driving the layoffs in tech? (Al Jazeera)
Online age verification is coming, and privacy is on the chopping block (The Verge)
After layoffs and an AI scandal, CNET's staff is unionizing (Engadget)
OpenAI CEO in "historic" move calls for regulation before Congress (Axios)
Amazon May Want to Change Delivery Expectations (TheStreet)
Netflix Advertisers Clamor for Fledgling Ad Tier to Grow Faster (WSJ)
Pew Research Center: ‘Majority of U.S. Twitter Users Say They’ve Taken a Break From the Platform in the Past Year’ (Daring Fireball)
Years after its Audm acquisition, The New York Times launches its own audio app (TechCrunch)
First US state officially bans TikTok, $10,000 fine per violation (9to5Mac)
EU approves Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard (The Guardian)
Apple's new 'Personal Voice' feature can create a voice that sounds like you or a loved one in just 15 minutes (9to5Mac)
Amazon is building an AI-powered “conversational experience” for search (The Verge)
Product-Led Growth Is in the Past - Community-Led Growth Is the Future (HackerNoon)
TikTok parent ByteDance sued by former California executive alleging China had ‘supreme access’ to all data (Fortune)
Apple Headset's Capabilities Said to 'Far Exceed' Those of Rival Devices (MacRumors)
Meta introduces AI tools to create ads and predict performance (South China Morning Post)
Anthropic leapfrogs OpenAI with a chatbot that can read a novel in less than a minute (The Verge)
Australian Funding Rounds
Constantinople banked a $32M Seed round in May last year and just announced it now (Startup Daily)
Satellite imagery start-up Arlula lures $2.2m in funding (The Australian)
Mortgage fintech Finspo raises $2.55 million Series D (Startup Daily)
AI-based eye disease detection startup, Eyetelligence, raises $18 million from US investors (Startup Daily)
Carbon accounting firm FLINTpro closes $13.5m Series A (Business News Australia)
Healthtech Kismet raises $4 million to combat NDIS fraud (Business News Australia)
Collie-based medicinal cannabis firm Cannaponics sets equity crowdfunding record after raising $5m (The West Australian)
International Funding Highlights
New Zealand procurement startup Cotiss has raised $2.2 million in pre-Seed funding (Startup Daily)
NewLimit, co-founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, raises $40M to extend life (TechCrunch)
Insurtech bolttech gets $196M at $1.6B valuation from investors like MetLife (TechCrunch)
Cybersecurity startup Huntress raises $60M Series C round, eyes IPO (Axios)
AI startup Together raises funding for open-source AI and cloud platform (VentureBeat)
Wingcopter bags €40M from EU to scale ‘new era for drone delivery’ (The Next Web)
Internet infrastructure startup raises $81 million in Series A fundraising (Axios)
Everseen raises over $70M for AI tech to spot potential retail theft (TechCrunch)