Startup · $25.4m raised
Canberra, ACT
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round ANU raised.
| Investor | Rounds | Invested |
|---|---|---|
| ARENA | Grant | - |
| Australian Department of Defence | Grant | - |
| Australian Government | Grant | - |
| Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) | Grant · Grant · Grant · Grant · Grant · Grant · Grant · Grant | $24,400,000 |
Every published round ANU 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.
Companies ANU has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nomad Atomics | 19 Nov 2024, Grant | 1 | 0 | |
| Samsara Eco | 28 Nov 2022, Series A | 1 | 0 |
Fund closes reported for ANU, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies ANU has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal ANU did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio company of ANU is recorded as having been acquired. | ||||
Companies ANU acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
Stories naming ANU. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Main Sequence sets out its investment thesis for physical AI, describing portfolio companies across robotics, vision, connectivity, compute and simulation, and recalling over $100 million invested since inception.
Canberra is funding carbon management demonstrations: round two of a national program directs $32.6 million across seven projects, naming six recipients including Carbonaught, Australian Carbon Vault, Karbonix, MCi Carbon and Electralith.
ARENA will spend up to $105.6 million on 20 solar research projects, including grants for Sunspence, Proa Energy and a University of Sydney tandem-cell team working with panel maker Unison Solar.
Also Mirage News
ARENA has announced $105.6 million in grants for twenty solar research projects, mostly at Australian universities, plus two companies, targeting cheaper cells, modules and solar farm operations.
Also Fintech News Australia·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy·Dealroom
Commentary contends the federal government's near-$53m backing of a Tasmanian cement kiln switch to burning wood waste and tyres is misguided, arguing biomass burning raises emissions, damages forests and wastes public money.
Also RenewEconomy
A directory of fifteen Canberra investors backing deep tech, noting ACTivate Capital's fund first close, several government-backed company raises, an incubator's alumni, and one portfolio acquisition.
Retrospective on Liquid Instruments, the Canberra-born software-defined test instrument maker, which has closed a fifty-million-US-dollar Series C co-led by the reconstruction fund and Keysight, with Significant Ventures among existing investors.
Also Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Cut Through Venture·Startup Daily
Weekly roundup of three Series A raises: chipmaker Syenta (US$26m), insights platform Ideally and battery recycler Renewable Metals, detailing leads, amounts and each company's earlier funding.
Also Startup Daily
Chip startup Syenta raised a Series A led by Playground Global with the National Reconstruction Fund to commercialise its packaging technology and expand into the US; ex-Intel chief Pat Gelsinger joins its board.
Syenta, an ANU spinout in Sydney, has secured $36 million in Series A funding to commercialise its chip packaging technology; Playground Global and the National Reconstruction Fund led, and Pat Gelsinger joins the board.
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
The ACT Government has launched the ACTivate Capital venture fund, with an initial $23 million close and capacity for $50 million, to back Canberra startups and commercialise local research, led by fund manager Ken Kroeger.
Propeller Aero's chief executive Rory San Miguel has won the Pearcey Foundation's 2025 NSW entrepreneur award; the profile traces his path from UNSW clubs and Flirtey to the drone surveying company.
Roundup of five Australian raises totalling $85 million: National Renewable Network's Series A, plus Syenta, Cuttable, SprintSuite and Bitwise Agronomy, with lead investors and expansion plans for each.
ANU spin-out Syenta has secured $8.8 million to commercialise its chip-packaging technology, with Investible leading; the piece recalls its 2022 seed round and selection for Applied Materials' ASTRA accelerator.
Also Forbes Australia·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
BetaShares has acquired investing podcast Equity Mates for a reported $8.5 million; founders Bryce Leske and Alec Renehan will keep running it, with past backing from Matt Leibowitz, Larry Diamond and Magellan.
Samsara Eco has struck a decade-long supply deal with Lululemon for enzyme-recycled fabrics; the piece recalls its Temasek-led raise and flags a new NSW plant.
Samsara Eco and lululemon signed a ten-year offtake agreement for enzymatically recycled nylon and polyester, building on their 2023 partnership; Samsara plans a NSW plant and an international facility by 2028.
Also TechCrunch Venture·SmartCompany·@AuManufacturing·Techboard·SmartCompany·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing·Forbes Australia
CSIRO's ON Accelerate program presents its ninth intake of eleven research startups, drawn from universities nationwide and the agency itself, spanning biotech, healthcare and sustainability, at a Melbourne showcase.
Breakthrough Victoria showcases nine climate-focused portfolio companies across clean energy and agrifood, describing each technology and its contribution to the energy transition and circular economy.
ETF Shares, a Macquarie University incubator fintech with ETFS Capital backing, launches three US-focused ETFs for Australian investors via Cboe Australia, led by David Tuckwell (CIO) and Cliff Man (CEO).
Diamond quantum hardware maker Quantum Brilliance raised $20 million in Series A funding from Main Sequence, In-Q-Tel and Australian government investors, and won a German agency contract for a mobile quantum computer.
Blackbird's note describes its new lead investment in Springboards, a Noosa, Queensland AI platform for advertising creatives, covering its product, early adopters, and founding team.
Also SmartCompany·SmartCompany
Roundup: Space Machines' joint India mission clears a design milestone with an $8.5m government grant behind it, RMIT and Skykraft scale up photonics-based navigation tech, and SunCable names a new group CEO.
Quantum Brilliance, a Canberra-based maker of diamond-based quantum chips, has drawn fresh equity from the National Reconstruction Fund and more from Breakthrough Victoria to build a diamond foundry, with prior grants and backers recapped.
Hostplus has tipped an additional A$125 million into the deep-tech fund IP Group runs, taking its overall backing to A$435 million across companies spun out of Australian universities.
Jelix's note explains its fund's participation in Nominal Systems' oversubscribed seed round, profiling the spacetech founders, their industry collaborations, early profitability and plans for recurring digital-twin revenue.
SmartCompany profiles Gentoo.earth, a carbon-removal intelligence platform founded by Juliet Kirby, now scaling from San Francisco; the piece recalls an angel round and undisclosed pre-seed backing including Admiralty Capital Group.
Adelaide resin maker Change Climate is partnering with three universities in the iLAuNCH Trailblazer program to test whether its bio-based epoxy can survive space conditions for aerospace composites.
Manufacturing sector roundup: Whyalla steelworks resumes production, Maggie Beer Holdings' chief executive to depart, ReNu Energy secures hydrogen funding, Defence names grant recipients, Orthocell gains Canadian approval, and AEA appoints its advisory board.
Australian plastics recycler Samsara Eco secured a Temasek-led Series A+ of $100 million to scale enzyme-based infinite recycling, with Southeast Asian facilities planned, adding to its 2022 Series A.
Also TechCrunch Venture·SmartCompany·@AuManufacturing·Techboard·SmartCompany·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing
Australian enzymatic plastics recycler Samsara Eco raised a large all-equity round led jointly by Temasek and Main Sequence, with Lululemon among other backers, funding new recycling facilities and team growth.
Also SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Forbes Australia·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·@AuManufacturing·Forbes Australia·@AuManufacturing·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia
Roundup of nine local startups that together banked a combined $38m-plus this week, spanning precision instruments, proptech, adtech, robotics, food, energy storage and AI, with several earlier raises recalled.
Also Australian FinTech·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·AgFunderNews
Profile of Dragonfly Thinking after its win in Australia's first AI Sprint, covering its $300,000 support prize, accelerator experience and product plans, plus brief AI news including raises by TrueState and Andromeda Robotics.
Manufacturing roundup: Australian Vanadium and entX land government grants, Hexagon Energy Materials completes a $1 million round, Australian Dairy Nutritionals appoints a CEO, Aurora Labs adds a director, plus vessel, export and research briefs.
Blackbird announces its investment in Atticus's $10.8 million raise and profiles the startup's founding team, product craft, and enterprise customers.
ARENA grants nearly $1 million to Birdwood Energy's flexible demand report card project with ANU and the Energy Efficiency Council, plus $3.54 million to United Energy for grid flexibility trials.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has awarded Birdwood Energy a $942,944 grant to build a platform helping commercial and industrial businesses spot flexible demand opportunities, working with ANU and the Energy Efficiency Council.
Opinion piece by Advanced Navigation's CEO in an @AuManufacturing series arguing for space R&D investment, citing the company's $5.2 million Australian Space Agency grant and Space Machines' satellite launch.
Atlassian's co-founder Scott Farquhar will vacate the co-CEO seat on August 31, staying on in governance and advisory roles, with Mike Cannon-Brookes set to lead alone from September.