This Week in Australian Startups - Issue #19, 3rd May 2023
This Week in Australian Startups - Issue #19, 3rd May 2023
So it’s been a couple of weeks since the last edition, for those of you wondering where I was or if the newsletter stopped fear not I am back!
I decided to take some time off to celebrate the end of Ramadan and Eid with family and friends and fully switch off.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks since, and a lot that has happened (all links below) but here’s a quick summary
More layoffs and shutdowns at home (Culture Amp, Zoomo, Providoor, Airtasker) and abroad (Dropbox, Lyft, Amazon, Microsoft, Clubhouse)
$263.6 million raised by Australian Startups
AI continues to be a focus - Hugging Face launches open-source version of ChatGPT, OpenAI raises $300M on a $27-29B valuation, IBM looks to replace 7,800 jobs with AI
Venture rounds get closer to pre-pandemic levels (via Carta)
Meta and Uber stocks up with positive revenue growth, WeWork dips below 50c a share
Next week will back to the normal schedule with more in depth analysis of what’s happening in tech.
Top News
Australia
Growth makes Airwallex a target for APRA under outdated laws (AFR)
Top Companies 2023: The 25 best workplaces to grow your career in Australia (LinkedIn)
Canva could stall staff share sales, as tech valuations slump (AFR)
Instagram now offers multiple URLs in user profiles, challenging Linktree’s $1.7 billion ‘link in bio’ empire (SmartCompany)
Subscription e-bike startup Zoomo cuts jobs again after raising $24 million (Startup Daily)
Providoor is the latest food delivery startup to go belly up (Startup Daily)
“It’s not great”: CyRise closure leaves Australia without a cybersecurity startup accelerator (SmartCompany)
Jobs marketplace Airtasker cuts staffing by 20%, shedding 45 jobs in push to turn cashflow around (Startup Daily)
Headphone startup Nura gets acqui-hired by Denon parent, Masimo (TechCrunch)
Ideagen acquires Aussie ISV OnePlace Solutions in collab play (ARN)
HR unicorn Culture Amp is the latest tech company to shed jobs, cutting 90 roles (Startup Daily); bonus note from CEO (Culture Amp)
Around the World
The UK has gone rogue with its AI policy — and that could be bad news for the rest of Europe (Sifted)
Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition blocked by UK regulators (The Verge)
AI, NIL, and Zero Trust Authenticity (Stratechery)
‘Godfather of AI’ quits Google with regrets and fears about his life’s work (The Verge)
Hugging Face launches open-source version of ChatGPT in bid to challenge dominance of closed-source models (VentureBeat)
Some Apple staff are sounding off about Tim Cook's back-to-office drive and say it's 'silly, and very un-Apple' (Insider)
Amazon Begins Another Round of Mass Layoffs (Gizmodo)
Amazon's ad business is growing at just the right time (Axios)
Clubhouse is laying off more than half of its workforce (The Verge)
What is Bluesky, and why is everyone on Twitter talking about it? (Vox)
Meta stock jumps after company reports first revenue growth in nearly a year (CNN)
The Kingdom Of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin For Years (Forbes)
People Put Nearly $1 Billion Into Apple Savings Accounts in First 4 Days (Gizmodo)
Amazon Is Acting More Like a Normal Company (TheStreet)
Twitter’s pay per-article service lets you avoid subscriptions. (The Verge)
IBM to pause hiring in plan to replace 7,800 jobs with AI (Reuters)
Microsoft quietly supported legislation to make it easier to fix devices. Here’s why that’s a big deal. (Grist)
Capital efficiency is the new VC filter for startups (TechCrunch)
Push to unionize tech industry makes advances (Axios)
Google DeepMind CEO Says Some Form of AGI Possible in a Few Years (WSJ)
Samsung bans use of A.I. like ChatGPT for employees after misuse of the chatbot (CNBC)
Apple is reportedly developing an AI-powered health coaching service (TechCrunch)
Uber revenue beats expectations and the stock is up (CNBC)
Dropbox lays off 500 employees, 16% of staff, CEO says due to slowing growth and ‘the era of AI’ (TechCrunch)
Google’s Bard AI chatbot can now generate and debug code (TechCrunch)
Australian Funding Rounds
Eucalyptus stitches up $50m on the quiet, $560m post-money val (AFR)
Blackbird among backers in Propeller’s fresh $22m round (AFR)
Fresh Equities rebrands after raising $4 million (Startup Daily)
CEFC pours $100 million more into Mike Cannon-Brookes-backed renewables finance firm Infradebt (Startup Daily)
Business strategy platform Empiraa avoids VC again to raise $518,000 in Seed round (Startup Daily)
Pub meal ordering platform Me&u raised $30 million 4 months ago – but didn’t mention it until now (Startup Daily)
Adelaide-based restaurant management system Restoplus receives $1.1 million Maggie Beer’s blessing (Business News Australia)
Music licensing platform Melodie raises $1 million (Startup Daily)
Open banking payments fintech Waave lands $4.7 million Seed round (Startup Daily)
Cortical Labs, behind the petri dish of brain cells that played Pong just raised $15 million (Startup Daily)
Crisis management startup CommandPost banks $200,000 Seed round (Startup Daily)
Novalith Technologies secures $23 million to accelerate clean lithium technology (pv magazine)
Volunteer management platform Rosterfy banks $9.8 million from Bailador (Startup Daily)
Circle In lands $2 million to expand its platform beyond support for working parents (SmartCompany)
Perth designer and architect marketplace CO-architecture banks $330,000 pre-Seed round (Startup Daily)
International Funding Highlights
Define Ventures Raises $460 Million For Early-Stage Digital Health Investments (Forbes)
Simpplr raises $70M for its AI-powered intranet platform (TechCrunch)
A Kiwi deep tech startup helping produce green hydrogen launches with NZ$2.5 million Seed round (Startup Daily)
Mavenir raises $100M to build more AI into its cloud-based automated network technology for telecoms services (TechCrunch)
AI startup Pinecone raises $100 million as vector database market for LLMs heats up (VentureBeat)
OpenAI closes $300M share sale at $27B-29B valuation (TechCrunch)
Razor Group, an e-commerce aggregator, closes Series C at $88M at $1.2B valuation, acquires Stryze to consolidate (TechCrunch)
Vice Ventures raises $25M to fund startups in ‘bad’ industries (VentureBeat)