Investor · 5 deals
Sydney
Every published round Amazon took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zena Sport | Pre-seed | 13 Aug 2023 | $90k | Participant | Breakthrough Victoria, Startup News (WA) | |
| Kivera | Seed | 10 Aug 2023 | $5.1m | Participant | ARN (ARNnet) (Mon 14 Oct 2024), SmartCompany, Startup Daily, ARN (ARNnet) (Thu 10 Aug 2023) | |
| Zena Sport | Accelerator | 14 Jun 2023 | $148k | Lead | SmartCompany (Fri 18 Aug 2023), SmartCompany (Wed 16 Aug 2023), Startup News (WA) | |
| Antibeauty | Accelerator | 14 Jun 2023 | - | Lead | SmartCompany, Startup News (WA) | |
| Milkdrop | Grant | 16 Jun 2021 | $200k | Participant | SmartCompany (Tue 21 Dec 2021), SmartCompany (Wed 16 Jun 2021) |
Everyone Amazon has named to a program in published coverage. A place in a program is not a raise: the cheque is the figure recorded with the place, which is the program's standard terms where we hold them, and a blank is one we don't.
Companies Amazon has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antibeauty | 14 Jun 2023, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| Kivera | 10 Aug 2023, Seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Milkdrop | 16 Jun 2021, Grant | 1 | 0 | |
| Zena Sport | 14 Jun 2023, Accelerator | 2 | 1 |
Fund closes reported for Amazon, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies Amazon has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Amazon did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio company of Amazon is recorded as having been acquired. | ||||
Companies Amazon acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Company | Kind | Announced | Price | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoox | Acquisition | 29 Jun 2020 | $1.3b | Ten13, Startup Daily (Sun 20 Dec 2020), Startup Daily (Tue 24 Nov 2020), SmartCompany (Tue 4 Aug 2020), SmartCompany (Mon 29 Jun 2020) |
Stories naming Amazon. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
OpenAI now expects roughly $50bn in annual revenue, well short of what it told investors earlier; the report also recalls its huge March fundraiser, Anthropic's raise, and SoftBank's bond sale and AI spending.
Also cnbc.com·tech-insider.org
Analysis tracing Oliver Curtis from an insider trading prison term to his central role in Firmus's planned $7.2 billion Australian sharemarket listing, with Blackstone and Nvidia among its existing backers.
Analysis of OpenAI's completed $122 billion raise at an $852 billion post-money valuation, covering NVIDIA, Amazon and SoftBank participation, a bank credit facility, retail demand, and a delayed IPO plan.
Also forkast.news
Analysis of OpenAI's completed $122 billion raise at an $852 billion post-money valuation, examining its mix of vendor compute, contingent commitments, retail participation and debt, and arguing the company now operates as an infrastructure utility.
Also finance.yahoo.com
Quarterly report from the Defender Global Fund flagging an 84.7% portfolio return, profits taken on SharonAI following its February Nasdaq uplisting, SharonAI's GPU collaboration with NVIDIA, and fresh investor subscriptions.
Defender's quarterly newsletter reports an exceptional quarter for its global fund, headlined by portfolio holding SharonAI, which surged after a February Nasdaq uplisting and an NVIDIA GPU deployment partnership.
Also Defender AM portfolio·Startup Daily·AFR Technology·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia·Dealroom
Weekly roundup: Blackbird confirms a record fund close and Galileo reaches a first close, Genesis merges with Proudi, IREN secures massive debt, and several startups report raises, grants and program wins.
Weekly roundup: Constantinople raises $62.5m; Blackbird wraps fund six above $1b; Guardhouse buys Mobohubb; SCX.ai debuts on the ASX; plus seed rounds, exits and executive changes across the ecosystem.
An AFR managed-funds topic page: a star small-caps deputy goes solo with a new Sydney firm, Gigacomm buys rival DGtek, Google plans a multibillion-dollar domestic bond, plus fund manager and market stories.
Australian adtech firm Veridooh adds ex-Interpublic chief executive David Bell to its advisory council; the write-up also covers his career and Veridooh's 2022 Series A raise.
Spirits giant Diageo bought British premixed cocktail maker Tipplesworth for £112 million in March 2024; the article examines the deal's rationale, the brand's retail growth, and planned expansion into Canada, Australia and the US.
Roundup of eight Australian and New Zealand startups whose late-July funding totals $102 million across space capsules, medical devices, livestock breath analysis, sports analytics and AI crop forecasting.
Investible's note explains its pre-seed backing of satellite startup Outlier Space alongside GD1 and others, arguing uncrewed return-capable platforms will make off-world manufacturing viable as the ISS retires.
The Dubbo-founded, Newcastle-based skincare brand for tradies completed a 535-backer equity crowdfunding raise on OnMarket and is expanding into the US via Amazon, with capital earmarked for marketing, inventory and team growth.
The head of neo-cloud firm Sharon AI argues no copyright change is needed to attract data centre investment; the piece recalls its Nasdaq listing raise and a large new financing.
Vista Credit Partners is backing Cover Genius's USD 100 million raise, which puts the insurance platform's value at USD 1.9 billion; Morgan Stanley acted as placement agent.
Also SmartCompany·inspirepreneurmagazine.com·Cut Through Venture·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Forbes Australia
Analysis of OpenAI's record Series F close, its investor lineup, revenue climb, valuation scepticism, earlier rounds, employee share sales, and its path toward a possible public listing.
Stone & Chalk named Stela Solar its new CEO, replacing Chris Kirk. Solar, formerly of Accenture and the National AI Centre, aims to enhance AI support for Australian startups.
Mobility newsletter roundup: Uber's robotaxi deal with Rivian, Nvidia's automaker partnerships, Advanced Navigation's Series C, other startup raises, and acquisitions including Amazon's purchase of robotics startup Rivr.
Rivian chief RJ Scaringe has secured US$500m for Mind Robotics, his AI robotics venture, with Accel and Andreessen Horowitz co-leading and Eclipse Capital adding funds, valuing the months-old company at US$2bn.
OpenAI has raised a record private financing of $110 billion, with Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank investing, lifting its pre-money valuation sharply, alongside an expanded cloud partnership with Amazon Web Services.
Also cnbc.com·tech-insider.org·forkast.news·finance.yahoo.com·finance.yahoo.com·benzinga.com·The Guardian Australia - Technology
Australian AI infrastructure company SharonAI Holdings has debuted on Nasdaq at a valuation above $1 billion, with a December pre-IPO round, backing from Digital Alpha and USD.AI, and an April ASX float planned.
Product-mapping startup Adora, co-founded by an ex-Canva product chief, has landed seed funding with Blackbird leading and four other backers, earmarked for product work and Sydney hiring.
Startup Daily profiles Juxtabyte, a data governance startup founded by former CBA data governance lead Hugh Le, ahead of the Techstars Sydney 2025 cohort's Demo the Future event.
Weekly roundup of eight trans-Tasman startup raises worth a combined $113 million-plus, alongside Joe Zhou's buyout of StrongRoom AI from administrators.
An exclusive interview with founder Sonia Kaurah discloses the culturally focused mental health platform's previously unreported $500,000 pre-seed round, backed by crowdfunding and angels, as the company relocates from London to Melbourne.
Weekly roundup of eight Australian and New Zealand funding rounds totalling about $53.5 million, led by SwarmFarm Robotics' $30 million Series B for its farm robots.
Funding roundup: eight trans-Tasman startups together secured $53.56 million, topped by SwarmFarm Robotics' Series B, with Amber, Javln, Enhance Labs, Indi, Wych, Lift Women and Ambra Spirits also raising capital.
Blackbird's investment note announces a pre-seed backing of Enhance Labs, an early-stage AI startup, and outlines its product approach and founding team.
Cashrewards, a shopping rebates platform once bought by ANZ's venture arm, is shutting down and returning member balances. It had earlier acquired Little Birdie, previously backed with $30 million by Commonwealth Bank.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily
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
Fleet-logistics software firm Adiona Tech won the Sydney pitch competition and heads to the San Francisco finale vying for a US$1 million investment prize; Telstra and Third Sphere previously backed the company.
Preview of the sixteen startups in Startmate's Summer '25 Accelerator cohort pitching at Demo Day at Carriageworks, closing out Blackbird's Sunrise gathering in Sydney.
Aura Group's promotional piece showcases portfolio company Shippit's capital-efficient logistics growth and announces that Aura Venture Fund III is opening to investors; no amounts, closings or new company raises are stated.
Sydney gaming-marketing firm Livewire names RealVC founder Matt Berriman as New York-based chief; cofounder Brad Manuel heads to Los Angeles. RealVC and other existing shareholders recently put in more money, amount undisclosed.
Retrospective timeline of Catch's journey from its 2006 launch through Tiger Global's investment, the Menulog and Luxury Escapes deals and Wesfarmers' $230 million acquisition, to Wesfarmers' announced wind-down.
Education startup HEX has bought Sydney-based learning platform EntryLevel for an undisclosed amount, while securing another year of Atlassian Foundation backing and partnering with Toyota's trust on a STEM program for regional students.
Wesfarmers is closing Catch, the online retailer it bought for $230 million in 2019, citing local ecommerce competition; the story also recalls Catch's venture backers and Little Birdie's $30m stake, pause and rescue.
Also Startup Daily
Crimson Education has completed a NZ$67 million Series D with Movac leading and a valuation above NZ$1 billion; fulfilment-robotics maker Nexobot has raised $400,000 pre-seed from Skalata and Antler.