Funding announcement
Seven ANZ startups that raised $111.5 million this week
Roundup of seven raises across the Tasman spanning fintech, marine tech, agtech, defence and AI, plus a first close for an ACT venture fund.
COO/CRO · Founder, Bower
James Boysons
Roles
| Role | Organisation | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Chief Revenue Officer (former) · Founder | EQL | Startup Daily (Thu 20 Aug 2026), bowerlabs.ai, Ten13, Forbes Australia, SmartCompany, Startup Daily (Tue 12 Apr 2022) |
| COO/CRO (former) · Founder | Bower | Startup Daily, bowerlabs.ai, Ten13 |
| Executive (former) | Ten13, Forbes Australia, SmartCompany |
Coverage
Stories naming James Boysons. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Funding announcement
Bower raises $2M to bring ambient intelligence to the research lab
Bower, an Australian startup, has closed a $2 million pre-seed round led by TEN13 with Admiralty Capital Group, Edale Capital and angel backers, funding ambient AI that captures laboratory work as structured research records.
Pre-seed
$2m
Our Investment in Bower | The AI Research Partner for Scientists
Ten13 led Bower's A$2m pre-seed round for a voice-first AI assistant that helps scientists capture lab observations hands-free, founded by a four-person team with backgrounds at Microsoft, Google and Atlassian.
Also Startup Daily
Funding announcement
‘Biggest launch of the year’: The tech masterminds behind sell-out Nike x Tiffany collab
Profile of EQL, an Australian hype-commerce platform founded by ex-Google staff, which powered the Nike x Tiffany sneaker launch and previously received early backing from AirTree.
Unnamed stage
$25m
Insight Partners backs ‘hype commerce’ startup EQL in $25 million raise
Melbourne startup EQL raised A$25 million led by Insight Partners and AirTree Ventures, with angels and family offices participating, to grow sales teams and improve its product-launch platform.