This Week in Australian Startups #70, 2nd June 2024

It’s been 18 months since ChatGPT launched, and things have never quite been the same, at least that’s been reflected in every one’s social media feed and tech news cycle.

Every startup is now an ‘AI’ startup. Every tech company has been working on investing more and more into AI. Every cloud provider is the best place to run your AI work loads.

There’s been a lot of hype, and that’s the natural cycle of how things work. With the exception of a few genuine players, that’s what it has mostly been - hype. But we’ve yet to see any real commercial innovations come out of this which isn’t just bringing ChatGPT to an existing product and asking an AI assistant to generate an image, text or something along those lines.

This week has been the same, when it comes to AI in the news, but also different. It’s the first time after reading a few announcements that I feel there’s some genuine progress in Australian AI innovation.

1/ Build Club launched Build House

Annie Liao has been building Build Club, almost single-handedly creating a genuine grass roots AI community and ecosystem in Australia. This week she shared the news on LinkedIn she’s launched Build House: a co-living Hacker House to bring top startup founders together.

I’m a huge believer in manufacturing serendipity whenever possible. You can’t just wait for the magic to come to you, but put yourself in positions where it’s possible for magic to happen.

Read the writeup in The Australian.

2/ Curious Thing AI launches Lucy, a free AI phone agent to replace voicemail

Curious Things AI was founded in July 2018, well before ChatGPT and the current hype cycle we see ourselves in. They’ve been at this for almost 6 years now, but what I find exciting is how big this new bet is. They’re going for the full court press releasing their new AI phone agent for free in Australia and the US for now.

When the PC first released, it was through businesses most people got their first experience and created demand for personal use. It’s how Microsoft won early one, with the mission of being in every home. I don’t think Curious Things AI is now on a mission to be a B2C startup, although who knows, but this strategy could play out well - letting consumers use it for free to drum up interest for businesses.

3/ Sapia.ai is launching its ML algorithms and data as an API via AWS

A darling of Aussie tech Sapia.ai now has it’s sights set much higher than simply being the go to platform for high volume recruitment. It’s now commercialising it’s core IP (although perhaps not it’s complete secret sauce) available via AWS as an API.

In an interview in The Australian, founder Barb Hyman said “We’re really a data company and what we’ve done is take data and build the ability to figure out humans through a conversation,”

It’s going to open up the door to many new startups, but also significantly increases the TAM for Sapia.ai - always a great play and signal ahead of any major funding round, especially when sights are on global expansion.

The bold big bet this enables is Barb Hyman’s belief that recruiters will disappear in the next 5 years, and that Sapia.ai’s technology will help to phase out resumes altogether. Not sure about recruiters disappearing, but resumes phasing out I do agree with.

During my time at AWS one thing that was clear is that Enterprises want to bring AI models to their own data, not the other way around. By enabling any customer to use Sapia.ai through an API rather than having to utilise it’s SaaS offering is really going to help increase customer acquisition, particularly across Enterprise.

---

Top News

• Victoria launches an AgTech Grants program offering $50K for startup (Startup Daily)

• Plant-based meats venture ProForm Foods in voluntary administration (Startup Daily)

• Angel investor Bilyana Smith steps into the chair on Fishburners board (Startup Daily)

• CSIRO and TRaCE partner to empower clean energy startups in Australia (SmartCompany)

• “Another blow”: Government culls Women in STEM Ambassador initiative (SmartCompany)

• Women in tech paid 14% less than men, twice as likely to be harassed (SmartCompany)

• Husic’s $17 million AI déjà vu: Similar program, smaller budget (SmartCompany)

• Insect protein scale-up Goterra signs breakthrough offtake deal with fish feed group Skretting (BNA)

• Canva enterprise boss out after six months (AFR)

• Bardee, the deep tech start-up faces liquidation (AFR)

• $547,300 Awarded To Six WA Innovators In Latest X-TEND WA Grants (Startup News)

• Australian start-up Pathzero becomes world’s largest private markets emissions data network (StartUp ScaleUp)

• Breezepay secures $130K US funding grant to expand stablecoin payments platform (StartUp ScaleUp)

• ‘Not quite there’: Govt yet to ink $1bn PsiQuantum deal (InnovationAus)

• Atlassian's Figma fling (Capital Brief)

• Labor shelves overhaul of ‘sophisticated investor’ test (AFR)

Funding Rounds

• Updoc, a telehealth startup, has raised $20M from Bailador Technology Investments (Startup Daily | SmartCompany | BNA)

• Phonely, which makes a humanlike AI receptionist that can answer questions, schedule appointments, and transfer calls, has raised $749K from YCombinator (BNA | SmartCompany)

• Citizen Wolf, a fashion tech startup that re-engineers how clothes are made at scale, has raised $381K from an equity crowdfunding campaign (Birchal)

• LyngoAI, a startup which makes an AI receptionist for clinics, has raised an undisclosed amount from Antler (Tanmay Patel)