V2 AI hires cloud modernisation expert Bojan Zivic as director
Sydney consultancy V2 AI has brought on Bojan Zivic as a director to lead enterprise cloud and AI work; the piece also recalls its $30 million early-2024 raise from Columbia Capital.
Every round, fund close and exit we can source, with the article it was reported in and what it actually said.
Sydney consultancy V2 AI has brought on Bojan Zivic as a director to lead enterprise cloud and AI work; the piece also recalls its $30 million early-2024 raise from Columbia Capital.
Australia's aviation regulator has granted Alauda Aeronautics an experimental certificate to fly its Airspeeder Mk4 racing eVTOL with a pilot aboard; Intel, Dell, AWS and Telstra back the series' computing and race-control systems.
Profile of Advance VC, Max Kausman's Melbourne fund of funds buying secondaries in existing venture funds, which received a $300,000 LaunchVic grant through the VC Support Program to establish itself in Victoria.
Steve Baxter's Brisbane defence-tech fund announces it now holds unconditional early-stage venture capital registration, giving investors tax breaks; it has put A$4.45m into four companies so far.
Beaten Zone's defence-tech fund has won full ESVCLP status, unlocking tax breaks for its backers; the Brisbane vehicle has backed four companies with $4.45m and screens a deep pipeline of defence deals.
Quantum Brilliance's diamond-based quantum processors are running in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's commercial quantum cluster in the US. The piece also recalls the National Reconstruction Fund's $13m Series A investment made in December 2024.
Brief blog post linking out to coverage of an unnamed defence-focused venture fund obtaining tax-advantaged status; the page itself gives no details, names, or figures.
Folklore Ventures welcomes Divine Aaron to its investment team as an investor, in a Q&A covering her move from neuroscience research and consulting into venture capital and her views on AI-era software.
Profiles seven early-stage agtech ventures at Beanstalk's Drought Venture Studio, a program backed by the Future Drought Fund, each developing tools to help farmers withstand drought.
Blackbird's head of impact Kate Glazebrook reports the venture firm's FY25 gender diversity data, noting improved backing of female-founded startups while pipeline volume of women founders remains the main challenge.
Crunchbase News profiles 14 venture-backed companies its predictive models flag as likely IPO candidates, from Stripe to Sierra Space, recapping their funding histories, valuations and financial milestones.
Bunbury manufacturer RCR Advanced Technologies has received a state government grant to pilot making wind turbine transition flanges locally, becoming the second company supported through the $8 million Wind Energy Manufacturing Co-Investment Program.
Also RenewEconomy
Podcast episode in which InDebted's founder discusses scaling the debt-collection business, its earliest backers, and Airtree joining the company's most recent Series C round.
Australian payments fintech Hello Clever hires Kaido Chiwata to lead its new Japan office and regional growth, drawing on his past roles at Stripe, Moneytree, Spenmo and his startup BillPay.
Nutromics has landed A$7.5 million from an unnamed local life sciences backer, taking its total funding to $60 million, with a manufacturing site decision pending between Australia and overseas locations.
Swedish BNPL firm Klarna is preparing a renewed New York float, seeking as much as USD1.27 billion at a valuation a source puts at USD12.5-14 billion, after earlier delays.
Birchal lifts its charges and shrinks its team under a new chief executive; the piece also recalls past raises on the platform and the collapses of Zero Co and Equitise.
Also SmartCompany
DEWC Services has joined the Australian Computer Society, giving its engineers access to professional development, training and networking to support its defence technology work.
Startupbootcamp recaps the Demo Day for its Cluster Connect scale-up program, profiling eight food and agriculture ventures that pitched, with founder testimonials and a call for mentors.
Breakthrough Victoria publicises an EY study projecting its portfolio could add billions to Victoria's economy by 2035, citing its deal count, committed capital, co-investment leverage and returns to date.
Blackbird shares results from its third year tracking how many women-led teams reach its investment committee, reporting FY25 gains in backing female founders, a market comparison with Cut Through Venture, and new sourcing partnerships.
NASA confirmed the Australian-built Roo-ver will reach the Moon by 2030 under its Artemis program. The ELO2 consortium, technically led by Lunar Outpost Oceania of Melbourne, has $42 million in Australian Government backing.
Weekly roundup detailing five Australian raises: Vaxxas' Series D plus debt facility amid executive changes, Skutopia's growth round, Send Payments' backing and CEO change, Apate.ai's seed, and Coursebox's seed.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Australian FinTech·Dealroom·Startup Daily
Q-CTRL has won $38 million of DARPA defence contracts to build GPS-independent quantum navigation technology, working alongside Lockheed Martin on jam-proof sensors.
Also Defence Connect
NT startup Peco Pet Food received a roughly $30,000 government innovation grant to develop freeze-dried buffalo dog treats, part of a $115,000 round shared with three other recipients.
Profile interview with former Rabbitohs and Roosters hooker Sean Garlick covering his policing, acting and judiciary careers and his family pie business, Garlo's Pies, which he chose to keep rather than sell.
Profile of WAIWIN, an Australian startup linking travellers to Southeast Asian QR payment systems after a co-founder's Thai payments lockout; it is seeking Series A funds to expand across the region.
The NSW government has granted money to two Riverina food processors for facility upgrades, while the article recalls Grove Juice's purchase of the Leeton Juice Factory from Bega Group a year earlier.
Also @AuManufacturing
H&B Defence will run nuclear propulsion training courses for Western Australian defence industry from next year, backed by a WA government reskilling grant and input from partners HII and Babcock.
Aura Private Equity has backed Australia Vaccine Services in finishing its purchase of Medimobile, a corporate workplace flu-vaccination provider, uniting two immunisation operators nationwide. No deal price was disclosed.
Vector Capital will acquire Showpad and merge it with Bigtincan, which it took private in April for about $183 million; the combined business keeps the Showpad brand.
Perth AI course-creation platform Coursebox has raised a $750,000 seed round from Purpose Ventures, the ninth deal from the WA-backed fund; both founders previously went through the Plus Eight accelerator.
Nexsen, a biotech developing rapid pregnancy diagnostics for GBS, has kicked off an IPO aiming for ASX listing by end of September; Regal is named as an earlier backer.
News roundup: hydrogen storage firm Provaris Energy lines up a $1 million placement, water monitor Eco Detection takes on Daniel Lambert as advisor, plus emissions figures, offshore wind licences and industry research.
Australian biotech Vaxxas secured a Series D plus a debt facility while overhauling leadership: a new chair, founding CEO shifting to an advisory role, and CFO made redundant amid job cuts.
Also Business News Australia·SmartCompany·Cut Through Venture·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
Dave Lu's podcast episode features a conversation with the entrepreneur behind the nutrition tracking app MyFitnessPal, covering its bootstrapped beginnings, user growth, and eventual sale to Under Armour.
Defence's innovation accelerator has awarded three more contracts under its emerging and disruptive technologies program, funding quantum and information-warfare work at CSIRO, four universities and Silicon Quantum Computing, adding $9 million to the program.
Visionary Machines has won a 4.4 million dollar government grant, matched by its investors toward an 8.75 million dollar project, to speed commercialisation and Sydney manufacturing of its Pandion counter-drone sensing system.
Apate.ai, which floods scammers with AI bots that soak up their time, has raised a $2.5 million seed round — OIF Ventures leading, Investible taking part — to build product and expand overseas.
Two medical startups have received a $3 million federal CRC-P grant to build RhinoMAP, an AI tool giving clinicians earlier reads on whether respiratory treatments are working, with university and clinical partners.
Queensland drug developer Lucia Bio added $2 million to its seed round from UniQuest Extension Fund and Uniseed-managed funds, bringing its overall raise to $3 million ahead of a planned Series A.
Skutopia, an ecommerce fulfilment startup, has secured $38 million in a round Pemba Capital led, with MA Financial and Blackpeak Growth Partners also backing, to expand warehouses and target the US.
Also SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
Archangel Ventures reviews 2021: the Australian early-stage firm closed its first annual fund, made 24 investments, and recalls portfolio raises by Atelier, Bardee, Heaps Normal and Relevance AI.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Women's Agenda
Roundup of the week's five most-read pieces: a hydrogen startup's pilot launch after its seed raise, federal grants to three manufacturers, an opinion piece, Codan's annual results, and a battery maker's failure.
Vaxxas announced a roughly A$90m financing — Series D equity led by SPRIM Global Investments plus debt — to advance its needle-free vaccine patch, alongside leadership changes including a new chair.
Cross-border payments firm Send has landed a five-million-dollar round backed by iPartners and existing backers, and named payments veteran Matt Barr chief executive while co-founder Paul Billing steps back.
Also Startup Daily·Australian FinTech·Business News Australia
Five V Capital announced leading Dataweavers' $5.5 million Series A with QIC and returning backer OIF, funding the cloud-operations platform's continued team, technology and international growth.
Aether, a New Zealand AI presentation startup co-founded by a former TikTok NZ manager, raised NZ$3.8 million in seed backing from Icehouse Ventures and Brand Fund 2 after spinning out of studio New+Improved.
Also Startup Daily