Australian venture funding, tracked

Exto Partners

Portfolio company Tuned Global has launched a Service Manipulation Detection tool that spots fraudulent streaming such as bot-driven plays, keeping manipulated numbers out of royalty payouts and charts.

Australian battery storage manufacturer secures $2.3 million grant from ARENA to scale up capacity

PowerPlus Energy, a Victorian battery maker, has received a government grant to help automate and expand its local production capacity.

Also RenewEconomy·Dealroom

No customers: Plans for Townsville hydrogen project scrapped after failing to find buyers for the product

Edify Energy has shelved its Townsville green hydrogen plant for want of buyers, pivoting to solar and storage builds; governments are separately seeking repayment of hydrogen subsidies, including from Fortescue's closed Gladstone plant.

Also RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy·Mirage News

Battery recycling startup Renewable Metals charges up on $12 million Series A

Battery recycler Renewable Metals has banked a $12 million Series A, led by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, to build a Kewdale demonstration plant; its seed round totalled $16.1 million across two tranches.

Also SmartCompany·Startup Daily

Latrobe Magnesium's $16M Raise: A Crucial Step Toward Proving Its 1,000-Tonne Magnesium Metal Play

Latrobe Magnesium has secured $10 million in equity commitments to advance its magnesium demonstration plant, while a planned $6 million entitlement offer and larger commercial-scale funding remain unresolved.

Also sharecafe.com.au

Renewable Metals raises $12 million Series A to scale next-generation lithium-ion battery recycling technology

Australia's clean energy finance agency led an oversubscribed $12 million Series A in a Western Australian battery recycling startup, joining existing and new investors to fund prototype operations and first commercial plant design.

Also @AuManufacturing·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy·renewable-metals.com·esgwise.org·esgtoday.com·nationaltribune.com.au·Dealroom·evmagz.com·battery-tech.net·fundedstartupsdaily.com

🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #157, 19th April 2026

Fortnightly digest of local startup news: funding totalling $89.9m, acquisitions by SafetyCulture, Canva and CleanPeak Energy, CEO changes at Droneshield and Swyftx, and Zeller's move into the UK.

Expedia’s lastminute.com.au is leaving Australia

Expedia Group's Australian travel deals site lastminute.com.au closes in June 2026 after 25 years, with bookings sent to its parent's platform; the piece recounts its ownership through travel.com.au, Wotif and Expedia.

Small solar and battery specialist adds another 27 projects as it buys up competitor

Sydney-based CleanPeak Energy has agreed to buy Sustainable Energy Infrastructure's 27-project portfolio of solar and battery assets; the piece also recalls KKR's $550 million backing and CleanPeak's earlier purchase of Photon Energy's Australian assets.

Also This Week in Australian Startups

Eucalyptus sells to New York-listed healthcare giant in $1.6b deal

A OneVentures post announcing the sale of digital health group Eucalyptus to an unnamed New York stock exchange-listed healthcare company for 1.6 billion dollars, set against pharmaceutical appetite for local biotech facing patent expiries.

Once close enough for an acquisition, Stripe and Airwallex are now going after each other

Airwallex co-founder Jack Zhang recounts turning down Stripe's billion-dollar buyout, describes building a licensed global payments network, and argues the Melbourne fintech can now challenge Stripe directly.

How do you create a business when every business idea seems taken in 2026?

A promotional essay by Hyper Startup Studio arguing that crowded markets still offer openings through differentiation, execution and validation, and pitching its Accelerate Process for shaping ideas into fundable companies.

Loop Raises $95 Million To Strengthen AI Supply Chain Platform

Supply chain AI startup Loop has raised a $95 million Series C led by Valor Equity Partners and its Atreides AI fund, with other investors participating, to deepen product capabilities and grow engineering teams.

Also unite.ai

Mind Robotics: Rivian Founder's $500M AI Robotics Venture

Rivian founder RJ Scaringe's new industrial AI robotics venture, Mind Robotics, reports $500 million in funding, with its robots set to debut inside Rivian's own factories.

Infrastructure Fundraising Report 2025: $70 Billion Raised

With Intelligence's annual report says global infrastructure fundraising jumped in 2025 to $224 billion across 71 funds, led by GIP, EQT and Brookfield, with capital concentrating among the largest, longest-established managers.

Sequoia's new leaders raise about $7 billion for firm's biggest bets

Bloomberg-sourced report says Sequoia's incoming co-leaders have gathered roughly seven billion dollars for a new vehicle backing large, often AI, companies; the piece also covers leadership changes and Wiz's sale to Alphabet.

Sequoia Capital Raises $7 Billion Fund for AI and Late-Stage Investments

Sequoia Capital has closed about $7 billion for a fund backing late-stage AI companies in the US and Europe, the first big fundraise since Alfred Lin and Pat Grady took over as co-stewards.

Also economictimes.indiatimes.com

The same mission. A different mountain

Blackbird partner Rick Baker recalls backing Canva's founders in 2013 and argues its 2026 AI launch extends that founding purpose to a new frontier.

Also Blackbird Ventures portfolio·Startup Daily·Startup Daily

Y Combinator-backed AI call receptionist raises $22 million Series A

Phonely, a University of Melbourne spin-out now in San Francisco, has raised a US$16 million Series A with Base10 Partners leading and Y Combinator plus three customers joining.

Also SmartCompany·Cut Through Venture

Goodbye, SaaS. Welcome, SaiS.

Blackbird partner Tom Humphrey argues AI panic overstates the threat to software firms, sketching four stages from bolting on models to training them, and pointing to Canva's acquisitions and Springboards' new model as proof.

Getting to know the team — meet Florencia

Folklore Ventures introduces Florencia Quinteros as its new Head of Operations, covering her background at Australian Ethical Super and healthtech scaleup TMRW, her operational approach, and her views on the Australian startup ecosystem.

DryFlow Magnetics: Investment Notes

Virescent Ventures announces it co-led DryFlow Magnetics' $10m seed round with Orion Industrial Ventures and Taronga Group, funding a demonstrator for the startup's dry ore-beneficiation technology.

Also Startup Daily·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy

Australian company says its magnetic technology could be key to green steel ambitions

Adelaide magnetic-technology venture DryFlow Magnetics, freshly backed by a $10 million seed round, will trial its waterless ore-extraction system at Peak Iron's Hawks Nest site, targeting premium iron for green steel.

Kiwi fund administration fintech Caruso banks $9.3 million Series A

Caruso, which handles registry and fund admin for private markets, has raised a Series A co-led by Icehouse Ventures and GD1 with Balmain taking part, at an $80 million valuation.

Also SmartCompany

Detox social enterprise Clean Slate Clinic scores $2.8 million ahead of Series A

Clean Slate Clinic, which helps people detox from alcohol at home, has secured a $2.8 million convertible note and $1.5 million debt facility from Giant Leap, Scale Investors and Australian Medical Angels.

Also SmartCompany

Airwallex is about to take on Stripe and the rest of the payments industry — in the physical world

TechCrunch profiles Airwallex's new point-of-sale offering letting businesses take payments in person across countries, pitting the Australian firm against Stripe, Square and Adyen, and recalls its rejection of Stripe's 2019 buyout bid.

Marketing got faster, strategy didn't: Brainwaves is fixing that.

Startmate profiles Brainwaves, which builds strategy software for marketing teams, ahead of its Demo Day pitch, covering the founding team, early revenue and enterprise traction.

Factories run at full speed but quality control hasn’t caught up: Zabidou is changing that.

Profile of Zabidou, which builds laser-based AI vision systems for factory inspection without stopping production, led by a Baraja co-founder; invites readers to its upcoming Demo Day pitch night.

FlowGo turns WhatsApp orders into structured data for SME suppliers

Founders Anthony See and Jason Hor built FlowGo, an AI agent embedding into WhatsApp and email to automate B2B order processing for suppliers, partnering with platforms like Food Market Hub and Pracbiz.

Money shouldn’t take days to move: iBnk is fixing that

Profile of iBnk, a payments startup using stablecoin and banking rails to move money across borders in minutes, telling its founders' origin stories and inviting readers to its upcoming Demo Day pitch.

Silent Pain and Smart Monitors: The High-Stakes Race to De-Risk the Operating Theatre

Interview with Cortical Dynamics CEO Ashley Zimpel on the BARM 2.0 anesthesia monitor, its Philips licensing deal, hospital trial plans, regulatory clearances, and path to global commercialisation after nearly 15 years.

Our investment in Deteqt: When physics becomes perception

Main Sequence reflects on its early backing of Deteqt through its Atmosphere platform, describing the startup's diamond-based quantum magnetic sensing chip and its case that machines need better ways to perceive their surroundings.

Zen says sale talks progressing well, all parties “deeply and strategically aligned” on renewables

Zen Energy says its sale process is advancing with a preferred bidder amid reports naming Gunvor; the piece also recaps HDRE's stake purchase and Zen's financial losses.

Also RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy

Openmarkets Group acquires trading education company FXE Trading Academy

Openmarkets Group has bought trading-education provider FXE Trading Academy, paying an undisclosed price, the latest move in a 2025 strategy that also included a DeFi push and a merger agreement with a Nasdaq-listed company.

Deteqt Featured Across Defence and Technology Media Following A$5 Million Seed Raise

Also Forbes Australia·Startup Daily·Defence Connect·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Dealroom

WhiteHawk swoops on Quixxi acquisition for AI governance support

WhiteHawk is acquiring Sydney cyber firm Quixxi in a share-based deal to add AI governance capabilities, with most Quixxi staff not moving across.

💫 Ramplify: April Architect

Rampersand's April newsletter: an essay on AI services startups, model releases from Anthropic and Meta, Firmus Technologies' $505 million raise, Dexibit's sale to accesso, plus portfolio jobs, events and market commentary.

Also Dealroom·Cut Through Venture·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia·Business News Australia·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia·Mirage News

Building an AI Company with Antler: Prefactor and the Infrastructure Behind AI Agents

Profile of Prefactor, whose co-founders Matt Doughty and Simon Russell twice pivoted from authentication into AI agent governance, recalling Antler's late-2024 backing and a September 2025 pre-seed raise.

Bolt Group Agrees to Acquire Beem App from Australian Payments Plus

Australian payments firm AP+ is selling its Beem app to Bolt Group to refocus on core infrastructure, while Bolt plans to add features and the two will move customers over by June 2026.

Backer of huge Australian green hydrogen projects lands funds to create “digital twin”

Intercontinental Energy received a $1.56 million federal grant to build a digital twin of its modular hydrogen node design; it earlier received $21 million from ARENA for the Pilbara hub after BP quit.

Also RenewEconomy

Five Aussie startups that raised $30.1 million this week

A roundup of five Australian startups that together raised $30.1 million this week, spanning compliance AI, chemical-industry software, insurance automation, women's health diagnostics and an AI receptionist for trades.

Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·theaustraliatoday.com.au

WA Government Distributes $2.5 Million Across 14 Organisations Under Innovation Pathways Program

Western Australia's government has awarded nearly $2.56 million in grants to 14 groups running accelerators and education programs via its Innovation Pathways Program, with the next round due November 2026.

Record Investment Fuels Victoria’s Startup Surge

LaunchVic and dealroom.co report Victorian startups raised a record $2.4 billion in 2025, driven by late-stage deals despite early-stage declines.

Canva's AI acquisition spree continues, with two more startups from the Stayz founders

Canva has bought AI agent platform Simtheory and marketing software Ortto from the Sharkey brothers, who also founded Stayz — its fourth and fifth purchases this year, prices undisclosed.

Canva paints itself as an AI work platform with Simtheory, Ortto acquisitions

Canva has bought Sydney AI startup Simtheory and marketing automation firm Ortto, its fifth and sixth acquisitions in ten months, as it repositions from design tool to AI workplace platform; no prices disclosed.

Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·This Week in Australian Startups

Aravax Strengthens Board with Appointments of Carsten Hellmann and Andrew Oxtoby

Melbourne biotech Aravax, developer of the peanut allergy immunotherapy PVX108, adds former ALK-Abello chief Carsten Hellmann and ex-Aimmune commercial head Andrew Oxtoby to its board ahead of Phase 3.

Aravax Strengthens Board with Appointments of Carsten Hellmann and Andrew Oxtoby

Uniseed's site announces that Aravax has appointed Carsten Hellmann and Andrew Oxtoby to its board.

Sydney uni dropout behind $432M startup teams up with Beckham to outsmart aging

Superpower, the health-testing startup of Sydney law dropout Max Marchione, valued at $432 million after a Series A of $43 million, has bought two diagnostics firms and is negotiating a supplements deal with IM8.

Beaten Zone Venture Partners reaches $17 Million in committed capital as defence-tech investment continues to serge

Beaten Zone Venture Partners says its defence-tech fund now has $17m committed, $2.6m of it added during March, with founder Steve Baxter commenting on sovereign investment trends in Forbes Australia.

Aussie startup Spoony shutting down after rejecting “antithetical” AI tools

Australian social app Spoony, built for neurodivergent and disabled users, will close in May after a planned raise collapsed; the piece recalls its $1 million raise and notes a pending asset sale.