Every round, fund close and exit we can source, with the article it was reported in and what it actually said.
Payments firm Split Payments promotes Chris Jewell to CEO and hires Matthew Zaina as COO and Graham Hayworth as CFO, strengthening leadership during rapid revenue and headcount growth at its Byron Bay base.
Canva has acquired Austrian AI startup Kaleido.ai and Czech mockup tool Smartmockups for undisclosed sums, adding AI and automation capability, and announced monthly active users have doubled to 50 million.
Also TechCrunch Venture·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia
Daily roundup: Canberra pulls ads from Facebook amid the news block, Facebook faces inflated-metric allegations, the ASX All Tech index turns one, Butn raises pre-IPO funding, and VBreathe banks a fresh round.
Melbourne consumer lender Symple Loans has closed a $15 million Series D round, lifting total capital raised beyond $130 million, following an $11 million Series C in 2020 and a broker partnership with AFG.
OneVentures' site announces that HR software company Employment Hero has completed its funding round, linking out to the full Financial Review coverage.
Also OneVentures portfolio·TechCrunch Venture·SmartCompany·Cut Through Venture·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·TechCrunch Venture
Business BNPL provider Butn has banked $12.5 million ahead of a planned ASX float and struck a deal letting Easi's delivery riders and merchants tap same-day early payments.
Also SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Cut Through Venture·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Australian FinTech
Profile of Antler's Nairobi operation, which runs twice-yearly programs turning seasoned professionals into founding teams and backs selected startups pre-seed for a 20% stake; six portfolio companies are described.
Global Energy Ventures has completed a $6.3 million share placement to institutional investors, funding development of its compressed hydrogen ship design intended to carry Australian hydrogen to North Asian markets.
Roundup: Facebook blocks Australian news publishers including Startup Daily; Deliveroo loses a Dutch rider classification appeal; telco Swoop agrees a $61.3 million reverse takeover with Stemify to reach the ASX; NBN paid executives bonuses.
Also ARN (ARNnet)·ARN (ARNnet)
Swoop Telecommunications and NodeOne are to list on the ASX via a $61.3 million reverse takeover with Stemify, backed by Tattarang and founders James Spenceley and Tony Grist, plus a planned $20 million raise.
Also ARN (ARNnet)
Brisbane lending and payments startup WLTH has opened a $5 million seed round to grow its platforms and launch new products, and has recently added a chief producer officer and a chief technology officer.
Also Startup Daily
Boab AI has launched its scale-up accelerator, putting $1.5 million into five AI startups in its first cohort, drawing on Artesian's $100 million Boab Global AI Fund and Victorian government backing via LaunchVic.
Law firm Allens has launched Auctus, an eight-week virtual legal tech accelerator, choosing seven startups from more than 120 applications to work with mentors on legal, growth and innovation strategies.
Danish support-software firm Dixa has bought Melbourne knowledge-management startup Elevio for a reported sum near $15 million in cash and shares, with Elevio's venture backers exiting and its team joining Dixa.
Fintech Thrive set an equity crowdfunding speed record, hitting $1 million on Birchal in under three hours; the campaign has since passed $1.4 million toward its $3 million cap.
Tech roundup: Facebook's smartwatch plans, Jaguar's EV pivot, Kraken launching a VC arm, Tribe raising pre-IPO ahead of a planned ASX float, and LaunchVic backing Boab AI's scaleup program and first five companies.
Also Startup Daily·LaunchVic
LaunchVic-backed Boab AI launches Australia's first AI scaleup accelerator in Richmond with government and private backing, naming its first five startups, alongside a new $100 million Artesian-powered AI investment fund.
Australian micro-influencer marketplace Tribe has secured $5.5 million in pre-IPO funding from Saville Capital, Cyan Capital and SG Hiscock, with chief executive Anthony Svirskis weighing an IPO amid strong public-market appetite for tech stocks.
Boab AI has launched a Victorian scaleup program for mature AI companies, backed by LaunchVic and Artesian, naming Pi.Exchange, Plaetos, Strongroom AI, Daitum and Remi AI in its first intake.
Perth hybrid cloud provider Nexion Group begins ASX trading under ticker NNG on 18 February, after a prospectus offer of 40 million shares at 20 cents raised $8 million.
Also ARN (ARNnet)
Hydrogen tech maker Lavo and JV partner Nedstack will build a factory near Brisbane, reportedly costing $20 million and supported by an Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre grant, with production planned for late 2021.
Five Australia–UK teams share $1.6 million in grants for defence advanced-materials research from the Next Generation Technologies Fund; one consortium of five organisations receives $348,204 for nanotechnology work.
OneVentures flags AFR coverage of Coassemble, a Newcastle software startup, raising $1.5 million, with no investors or further deal details given on this page.
ARENA announces a $5.7 million grant to Yadlamalka Energy for a utility-scale vanadium flow battery with solar in South Australia, using batteries supplied by Invinity Energy Systems.
Also RenewEconomy
Company update on ProofTec, whose AI image software attributes damage in rental, insurance and freight transactions, describing customer pilots including a car rental licensee, its team's credentials, and a seed raise in progress.
Australia's Accelerating Commercialisation grants include A$1 million for seaweed startup Sea Forest, with Agscent, Phyllome and Monsoon Aquatics also funded; the article recalls CSIRO and partners pooling A$13 million to launch FutureFeed.
Also RenewEconomy·Beef Central / Grain Central·Beef Central / Grain Central
Profile of eQALY, a care platform helping older people stay in their homes, covering Antler's recent investment, its pilot with an aged care provider, and co-founders Andy Laws and Kelly Tagalan.
Mortgage broking platform Effi has raised a $1.2 million seed round led by Investible with US-based Hustle Fund, to expand nationally and overseas and speed up product development.
Australian venture firm Our Innovation Fund has secured $80 million for its new fund, exceeding its $75 million target, and hired ex-Amazon Web Services executive Paul Migliorini as a venture partner.
Bumble's IPO valued the US dating app at US$13 billion, making co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd a billionaire; the piece also recounts Bumble's history and its 2019 majority-stake sale to Blackstone.
Also SmartCompany
Curtin spin-out Renergi has secured $5.9 million in government grants — $3.9 million from Western Australia's government and $2 million from ARENA — towards a $9.4 million facility converting waste into bio-oil and bio-char at Collie.
Also Startup News (WA)
Company profile of Rewire Holding, a fintech with patent-pending payment technology live in the UK and Spain, seeking institutional equity through Wholesale Investor after a 2020 crowd raise.
Daily roundup reporting Kong's US$100 million Series D and Trade Ledger's £13.5 million raise, alongside Twitter's quarterly results and European Union plans to regulate big tech platforms.
Commodity tokenisation firm InfiniGold, now renamed Trovio, has raised A$6.25 million in Series B funding co-led by Blockchain Valley Ventures and Amherst Holdings to grow its CommoditiesPass platform.
Also Cut Through Venture
Bumble's multibillion-dollar IPO makes co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd a billionaire. The piece recaps the company's origins, its 2019 Blackstone majority-stake deal, and Match Group's announced acquisition of Hyperconnect.
A look back at Airtasker's path from its 2012 founding to an imminent ASX float, covering its raises, acquisitions, partnerships and controversies along the way.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·LaunchVic
News briefs covering four manufacturers: Magnis banks $34m for a US battery factory, Bionomics locks in $16m, Noxopharm touts a prostate cancer drug pairing, and SciDev notches its maiden profit.
Also @AuManufacturing
Australian edtech FourthRev has closed a seed round led by Reach Capital, with Emerge Education, Dunce Capital and two angels, following a pre-seed a year earlier, and plans US expansion.
Also Startup Daily
Wellness platform Blys took investment from Phoenix Development Fund in November 2020; the investor gained a board seat via Aizaz Syed, while founder Ilter Dumduz leads the at-home services marketplace.
HR software maker Enboarder lands $45 million from US growth backer NewSpring, with a NewSpring partner joining the board; the piece also recaps its earlier Series A top-up and other recent local rounds.
Also SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·ARN (ARNnet)·ARN (ARNnet)·Forbes Australia·AgFunderNews·TechCrunch Venture
OneVentures' note on InDebted covers a newly closed debt facility with internal equity funding its US acquisition and expansion, plus American executive hires ahead of a planned Series B.
Bricklet, a fractional property investment platform, has raised a $3 million Series A from News Corp, REA Group and earlier backers at a $28 million valuation, to fund marketing.
Also Australian FinTech·Cut Through Venture·Startup Daily·Australian FinTech
Imaging startup 1Millikelvin received a $149,800 Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre grant to commercialise MiTE, a portable infrared stress-measuring device developed with Defence scientists alongside partners Outerspace and RMIT University.
Also @AuManufacturing
Daily roundup: Google's News Showcase launches in Australia, Amazon's local sales pass a billion dollars, debt collector InDebted raises $10 million to buy a US rival, and Halogen Ventures closes a second fund.
Hydralyte has appointed BW Equities for a $5.15 million convertible note raise ahead of a planned ASX float, with board members Radek Sali and Adam Gregory having backed it through Light Warrior in 2017.
ARENA announced a $1.98 million grant to Rheem Australia for a trial controlling roughly 2,400 residential hot water systems in South Australia, with the state government to match funding toward the $9.9 million project.