Australia & Oceania
The latest startup and technology news coming out of Australia & Oceania.
Airtree Ventures already returned its first fund thanks to Canva while maintaining the majority of its stake
Airtree Ventures uses the secondary market to slim down its stakes while waiting for its portfolio companies to exit.
Australian space startup Esper wants to build hyperspectral sats for cheap
Australian remote sensing startup Esper wants to capture hyperspectral imagery from space at a fraction of the price of its competitors. The company, which will launch its first demonstration satellite…
How Neara uses AI to protect utilities from extreme weather
Over the past few decades, extreme weather events have not only become more severe, but are also occurring more frequently. Neara is focused on enabling utility companies and energy providers…
Rippling opens Asia-Pacific HQ as its international expansion gears up
After recent launches in the United Kingdom and Ireland, workforce management platform Rippling is continuing its ambitious international expansion with the opening of its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Sydney, Australia today.…
Yume’s platform helps manufacturers turn potential food waste into money
While running a bar in Melbourne, Katy Barfield was taken aback by the large amount of ingredients thrown out at the end of each day. After doing some research, she…
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Why Australia is ripe for VC
The addition of new technology sectors into Australia’s landscape could also help attract the necessary capital and business acumen, while creating a more inclusive environment.
From graphic design to visual workflows, Canva’s new AI core is changing its business
With Canva, generative AI hits different. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a better technology to boost Canva’s user growth and revenue generation.
The Australian VC firm that sponsored California’s diversity bill
Beyond just giving women money, F5 Collective wants to create generational change for a billion women across India, Southeast Asia and Australia.
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Australia’s climate tech industry is booming, but it could bust without funds
To date, $435 million has been invested into Aussie climate tech startups from international investors.
Relevance AI’s low-code platform enables businesses to build AI teams
Many companies already use generative AI tools, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which can help improve workers’ performance by as much as 40% compared with workers who don’t use it. However, only…
Sydney, Australia-based Leonardo.Ai is one of the latest generative AI startups to raise funding. Today, the AI art production platform for consumers and enterprise users announced a $31 million USD…
Investors say New Zealand has ‘all the right ingredients’ to be a startup nation
This is part of a survey of investors focused on Australia and New Zealand. The following responses are from the New Zealand investors.
Australian investors say capital limitations push founders to ‘new heights of creativity’
This is part of a survey of investors focused on Australia and New Zealand. The following responses are from the Australian investors.
Avarni gets backing to help large enterprises hit their net-zero goals
For a lot of companies, Scope 3 emissions make up the bulk of their carbon footprint, but are time-consuming and expensive for them to track. As more regulation mandating Scope…
Blackbird invests in Carepatron’s ‘radically accessible’ healthcare management platform
When TechCrunch covered Carepatron’s pre-seed last year, the startup was focused on serving solo practitioners and small health practices. Now the healthcare management system has scaled along with its clients,…
Many doctors are overwhelmed by paperwork, leaving them stretched thin, with less time to see patients. Based in Melbourne with plans to expand around the world, Heidi Health wants to…
Varda Space will land its next capsule in Australia as it continues to coordinate first mission reentry
In-space manufacturing startup Varda Space Industries will land its next spacecraft in Australia as it continues working with U.S. regulators to get its first mission approved for reentry in Utah,…
Poshmark to shut shop in India, Australia and UK in abrupt retreat from international markets
Poshmark is shutting down its international businesses — operations in India, Australia and the U.K. — as the social shopping marketplace shifts attention to “core markets,” the company informed customers.…
Darwinium brings digital security and fraud prevention to the perimeter
Back in 2018, LexisNexis acquired the digital identity platform ThreatMetrix for just under $820 million in cash. In 2021, ThreatMetrix co-founders Reed Taussig and Alisdair Faulkner returned to the world…
Australia fines X for failing to provide information about child abuse content
eSafety, the Australian regulator for online safety, issued a $386,000 fine against X (formerly Twitter) Monday for failing to answer “key questions” about the action the platform is taking against…
ALIAVIA Ventures fights gender funding inequalities in the US and Australia
Founded by two tech veterans, ALIAVIA wants to close the funding gap for female founders. It invests in female-led startups, especially those that want to bridge the Australian and American…
Singapore’s tech subscription service Circular wants to keep devices out of the landfill
Circular, backed by Y Combinator, is a service that offers consumers in Singapore and Australia subscriptions to high-end electronics, like iPhones, Samsung Galaxy, iPad Pros and MacBook Pros. Not only…
Greener for Business launches to help Australian SMBs move to net zero
Greener, the Australian cleantech startup that creates custom action plans to help its customers become more environmentally sustainable, is launching Greener for Business today. Aimed at Australian SMBs, Greener for…
Elon Musk’s X removes general option to report misleading info about politics
X (formerly Twitter) appears to have removed an option that allowed users in a handful of markets to directly report misleading information about politics. An Australian digital research group called…
Social media giants urged to tackle data-scraping privacy risks
A joint statement signed by regulators at a dozen international privacy watchdogs, including the U.K.’s ICO, Canada’s OPC and Hong Kong’s OPCPD, has urged mainstream social media platforms to protect…
Meet Relume, the bootstrapped AI web builder that wants to supercharge Figma and Webflow
Despite the abundant venture capital available for startups in the current wave of generative AI breakthroughs, totaling $14 billion in equity funding as of August this year, Relume has turned…
Meta firms fined in Australia over ‘Onavo Protect’ consumer protection breach
Remember Onavo? The Israeli mobile market intelligence company that Meta (aka Facebook) bought back in 2013 and used to power a free VPN/data management app which claimed to users it…
Main Sequence hits first close of $450M AUD for its third deep tech fund
Main Sequence, an Australian venture capital firm, said Wednesday it has raised the $450 million AUD (approximately $303 million) first close of its third fund. The venture capital firm, founded…
Deal Dive: Futureverse is a metaverse company that might actually get it
Futureverse is making tools that brands can use to build content for the metaverse, but not the one that Meta is envisioning.
Oritain raises $57M for its forensic, big-data science approach to tracking the origin of goods
Global supply chains have made the world smaller by enabling us to have virtually anything we want at the tap of a finger. But when it comes to things like…