This Week in Australian Startups #62, 7th April 2024
The most interesting things in Australian startups this week:
Vow becomes the first Australian company approved to sell cultured meat
Quite the achievement, and you can now buy it next time you’re in Singapore, their first product is Forged Parfait. It’s also the first of its kind to be approved in the world.
Read more here on Forged by Vow.
Across the Pacific however, Republican politicians are trying to ban lab-grown meat having compared it to bugs and the threat to ranches. So far at least 7 stats have considered bills in 2024 that would prohibit the distribution or sale of lab-grown meat. An interesting story to keep an eye on.
Canva completes the second biggest global secondary share sale - $1.58B USD
I’ve written plenty about the next startup mafia to come in Australia and why it’s so crucial for the development of our ecosystem. Well that moment has now come in its first wave through this secondary sale.
It’s going to be interesting to see how many startups, funds and investments are made from Canva alumni. Perhaps more interesting what they’ll be called - the global standard in nomenclature is Mafia, think PayPal, Revolut etc.
Go deeper;
Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht confirms ‘investors should have their money’ as $1.6b share sale finalises (AFR)
Instant millionaires: Canva makes staff rich in $3.6bn share sale (The Australian)
Canva completes US$1.58b secondary, closes in on new CFO (Capital Brief)
Australia
Top News
First Australians Capital scores $500,000 from QBE to back Indigenous startups with Seed funding (Startup Daily)
The retailer that bought luxury fashion startup The Daily Edited from voluntary administrators 15 months ago went into VA today (Startup Daily)
CSIRO is spending $20 million to help up to 750 startups and small businesses dive deeper into R&D (Startup Daily)
hipages launches Australia’s first all-in-one app, hipages tradiecore, combining leads and job-management (hipages)
Diraq makes breakthrough - meaning quantum computers may not require such extensive cooling systems taking up entire warehouses (Startup Daily)
Software aggregator has Software Combined acquired it’s seventh B2B SaaS company Activate (ARN)
Stopping ads on HR platforms just a way of limiting superannuation choices says Employment Hero founder (Ben Thompson)
Aussie Broadband goes through with Superloop share reduction (ARN)
Zea Relief gets a healthy boost to its retail footprint through Woolworths distribution deal (BNA)
Sentient Vision Systems acquired by US defence tech giant Shield AI (BNA)
Embattled software group Plutora’s fate rests with rescue proposal expected to come from CEO (BNA)
Tritium completes reverse stock split to keep Nasdaq hopes alive (BNA)
AI medtech Artrya secures first Australian commercial agreement with The Cardiac Centre NSW (BNA)
Compounded Ozempic ban would hit 20,000 Australians ‘with no transition period’ (AFR)
Potentia Capital mulls exit at booking software group NewBook (AFR)
Macquarie, PSP ready to part with 88pc of AirTrunk; DD kicks off next week (AFR)
Google ‘ghosts’ Aussie staff on promotions as cloud boss quits (AFR)
Tech titan Meta guilty in Northern Territory youth crime crisis, says Chief Minister Eva Lawler (The Australian)
Why Australia needs government-backed start-up funds like Breakthrough Victoria (The Australian)
Innovation needs government backers like Breakthrough Victoria (InnovationAus)
Inside Canva’s mission to combat AI deep fakes (The Australian)
SA is offering grants of up to $100K for local startups and small businesses to collaborate with international partners on low-cost space technologies (InnovationAus)
Uber lawyers confirm it used spyware against competitor GoCatch (The Australian)
GoCatch unearths Uber’s secret emails as it seeks millions in damages (The Australian)
Uber and GoCatch stagger out for round two of court case (AFR)
‘Not honourable, but lawful’: Uber justifies using spyware on rival GoCatch (AFR)
Uber admits to illegal activity at launch in Australia (AFR)
Funding Rounds
Constantinople, an all-in-one software and operational platform for banks, has raised a $50M Series A led by Prosus Ventures with participation from Square Peg, Airtree and Great Southern Bank (Startup Daily | BNA | SmartCompany)
Medibis, an Australian phyto technology innovator and researcher of high-quality medicinal cannabis products, raised $736K in equity crowdfunding (Birchal)
Around The World
Top News
Serena Williams Has Invested In 14 Companies That Have Gone On To Reach Unicorn Status, A Value Of $1B Or More (AfroTech)
Google Pledges to Destroy Browsing Data to Settle ‘Incognito’ Lawsuit (WSJ)
Tiger Global VC Fund Closes 63% Below Target With $2.2 Billion (Bloomberg)
Sam Altman no longer owns OpenAI Startup Fund. (Axios)
Apple Maps may soon customize directions based on your car type (Mashable)
Yahoo is acquiring Instagram co-founders’ AI-powered news startup Artifact (TechCrunch)
WeWork targets Chapter 11 exit by May 31, secures $8 billion in rent reduction (NYP)
Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Stevie Wonder and more musicians demand protection against AI (The Guardian)
The startup fundraising squeeze could persist as VCs struggle to refill their own coffers (TechCrunch)
Apple has been secretly building home robots that could end up as a new product line, report says (Business Insider)
AWS cuts hundreds of jobs in sales, training, and physical stores tech group (GeekWire)
Google parent Alphabet weighs offer for HubSpot (Reuters)
As deal rumors fly, Alphabet and HubSpot would be a strange pairing (TechCrunch)
Jony Ive and Sam Altman’s AI Device Startup in Funding Talks With Emerson, Thrive (The Information)
Investors in Talks to Help Elon Musk’s xAI Raise $3 Billion, Adding to Industry Arms Race (WSJ)
Instagram Generated Almost 30% of Meta’s Revenue in Early 2022 (Bloomberg)
Funding Rounds
Disability tech accelerator and investor Remarkable goes global, backing US catheter startup’s $9.1 million Seed round (Startup Daily)
Kiwi sea crimes startup Starboard Maritime Intelligence floats $4.6 million seed funding round (Startup Daily)
Commerce Startup Flip Raises $144 Million to Challenge TikTok (Bloomberg)
Team management app Homebase welcomes $60M Series D to give SMBs ‘superpowers’ (TechCrunch)
Aerospike raises $109M for its real-time database platform to capitalize on the AI boom (TechCrunch)
Business planning startup Pigment raises $145M in rare French tech mega-round (TechCrunch)