Company
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round Australian Army raised.
Companies Australian Army acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Mark Wotherspoon | Dentist (former) | Wholesale Investor |
| Fergus (Gus) McLachlan | Major General (former) | Defence Connect |
| Mick Ryan, AM | Major General (former) | Beaten Zone Venture Partners |
| Rick Burr | Chief of Army | @AuManufacturing |
Stories naming Australian Army. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Weekly digest: Firmus withdraws its planned listing, Square Peg reaches a billion-dollar close on two vehicles, MUFG clears regulators to buy Grow Inc, and Lubdub, RocketDNA, Energy Bay and Metal all raise.
Drone maker SYPAQ Systems has won regulator approval to self-authorise beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights across Australia; the piece also recalls its Corvo X system entering service under the Australian Army's DEF129 program.
Steve Baxter's Brisbane defence-tech venture firm Beaten Zone has wrapped its first fund at $26 million, with Baxter the largest backer at $6 million of his own money.
Arkeus' post points readers to Tectonic Defense's write-up of its A$25 million Series A, describing the hyperspectral sensing technology, its defence customers and platform partners, and coming production expansion in Queensland and America.
Retired Major General Andrew Bottrell has joined defence company Aurora Labs as a non-executive director, bringing senior military and acquisition experience; he also founded Rockpool Partners and holds an academic chair at Deakin University.
Kord Defence's RACU device, developed with the Australian Army, is used by Ukrainian forces. The company received past Defence Innovation Hub grants and signed an $11 million deal with US forces.
Arkeus has raised an oversubscribed AU$5 million round joined by Beaten Zone Ventures, Main Sequence and Salus Ventures to scale its autonomous optics and AI surveillance technology for defence.
Also Beaten Zone Venture Partners portfolio·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia
Weekly roundup: CEA Technologies lands a $272m radar contract, five startups receive federal grants, Victorian factory insolvencies climb, and GFG Alliance's Whyalla Steelworks hunts new financing.
DroneShield has appointed four seasoned national-security figures — van Haren, Osley, McLachlan and Lam-Evans — to strategy, advisory and government-relations roles as the counter-drone company scales.
Defence grants totalling over $60 million went to 21 Australian organisations, with quantum software firm Q-CTRL among the recipients of contracts under a federal emerging technologies program.
Podcast conversation marking ten years of cold-spray printer maker SPEE3D, its technology chief discussing the TitanSPEE3D printer for US defence needs, roughly 100 units shipped, and ambitions for off-world manufacturing.
AuManufacturing analysis weighing whether Defence's drone purchase shows procurement reform is working, tracing Sypaq's Corvo from 2018 concept work to selection alongside a German rival.
Australia's federal government announced plans to buy two military drone systems — Germany's Quantum-Systems Vector and Melbourne maker SYPAQ's CorvoX — for the Army and Air Force, with deliveries expected in 2025.
Defence-focused VC firm Beaten Zone Venture Partners adds two people: ex-Army general Mick Ryan as advisor, and Peta Ellis rejoining Steve Baxter's team alongside existing staff.
Sydney computer vision firm Visionary Machines won a Phase 2 Defence technology demonstration contract for its Pandion counter-drone sensor after pitching at Army Innovation Day 2023 via the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator.
A roundup of Australian defence industry items: submarine build plans reaffirmed, missile supply contracts for Kongsberg and Lockheed Martin, DroneShield purchase orders, an F-35 warehouse deal, and questions over a shipbuilding college closure.
Roundup of Australian manufacturing items: Manildra draws on CEFC money to quit coal, Ankere Therapeutics launches with seed backing, Micro-X gear reaches Ukraine, plus a vessel naming, precinct tenders, an FFI appointment and a cable rebrand.
Construction software firm Mastt has banked $9.5 million from OIF Ventures and other backers, including the Aconex founders' fund, to fuel its push into the United States and Middle East.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Cut Through Venture·Startup Daily
Wholesale Investor profiles Dr Mark's HyGenie, an oral hygiene company that has raised $1.5 million in a Series A and received a $1 million Australian government commercialisation grant, and is now offering $5 million.
Federal defence contracts worth more than $100 million include $1.8 million for University of South Australia laser research, $7.4 million for Silentium Defence radar, and $183,022 for Varley Rafael Australia's missile kit production.
Sydney quantum startup Q-CTRL will demo its control software at the Australian Army's Quantum Technologies Challenge, solving a resupply problem with unmanned ground vehicles.
Year-end review of Australian additive manufacturing covering listings by AML3D and Amaero, capital raises at several firms, GoProto's acquisitions, defence sector engagements, and the author's own 2020 activities.
Printer maker SPEE3D teams with NERA, Charles Darwin University and Santos to develop an industrial 3D printer for remote oil and gas sites, backed by NERA project funding.
Profile of Sync Technologies, a construction-tech startup whose app digitises site quality checks, after receiving early-stage backing from Antler; covers its founders, pilot clients, a prospective AU$2m contract and expansion plans.
Case study of battery maker 3ME Technology: CEO Justin Bain raised more than $3 million from mining customers and federal grants, and the firm won a defence contract via cooperative C4 EDGE.
SPEE3D found copper coatings from its printers kill coronavirus, developed ACTIVAT3D copper installed at universities, recalls founders' earlier motor firm sold to Regal Beloit, and a recent $1.5 million Australian Army pilot investment.
Fifteen companies received defence innovation grants totalling $28 million through the Defence Innovation Hub, including Carbon Revolution for Chinook helicopter wheels; the Geelong firm also completed a convertible note raising in June.
Also @AuManufacturing