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🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #173, 9th August 2026

Weekly roundup: Firmus completes its $2.85b round; Procore acquires DroneDeploy; Atlassian rebounds while Canva cuts guidance; plus fresh raises for Zabidou, BioScout, Vexev, Enrola, Spacetalk and others.

Also Dealroom·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy

Team Techstars Sydney: How Juxtabyte is turning data into gold

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.

Touchable VR, better sexual health, ADHD focus, leaky pipes & startup hiring: Startmate reveals the clever 13 in its latest cohort

Startup Daily profiles the thirteen startups joining Startmate's Winter '25 cohort, covering healthcare AI, agent tooling, recruitment tech, retail promotions, sexual health, water leak detection, VR haptics and ADHD robotics.

7 moments that shaped Figma, as told by Dylan Field

Figma's blog recaps seven moments from CEO Dylan Field's How I Built This interview, covering his childhood acting, Thiel Fellowship, early struggles, mentorship from John Lilly, and the origins of FigJam.

Blinq lands $25M to further its mission to make business cards passé

Melbourne-based digital business card maker Blinq has raised a $25 million Series A round, with Touring Capital leading and Blackbird, Square Peg and HubSpot Ventures joining, to grow its enterprise reach.

Also TechCrunch Venture·Forbes Australia

Building a business to sell: How Naked Rivals' exit strategy shaped its rapid growth

Frozen citrus maker Naked Rivals has been bought by Entyce Food Ingredients; the piece covers the founders' planned exit, fast supermarket rollout, an earlier $3m raise, and a coming insurance venture.

Bessemer closes $350 million India-only fund to boost play

Bessemer Venture Partners has wrapped up a $350 million fund for Indian startups, planning $5-40 million cheques; the piece also notes recent closes by Accel India and Stellaris.

A CEO has a relationship with a subordinate and wants to 'get back to work'

Commentary on Dovetail's CEO being sued by the company's in-house lawyer, with notes on the startup's near-billion-dollar valuation and its Blackbird and Grok Ventures backing.

Blast OIF | 24 things from 2024

OIF Ventures' 2024 review: two portfolio companies acquired, a talent-leadership hire, its fourth fund deploying, new investments in eight named startups and nine follow-on rounds.

Also Forbes Australia·techtaffy.com

C-rap: the most talked about part of Canva Create isn’t the product (but it totally is) because of a song

Opinion piece on the buzz around a musical number promoting Canva's enterprise offering at its Los Angeles event, noting cofounder Cliff Obrecht's approval, huge viewership and the company's US listing ambitions.

Canva gets a ‘glow up’, expands into enterprise to take on Salesforce and LinkedIn

Forbes Australia profiles Canva's enterprise relaunch after a demo with COO Cliff Obrecht, covering new sales, marketing and HR tools; Airtree's co-founder recalls the firm's early backing of the company.

Jonny Dawson

Dom Pym discusses his journey from engineering to founding Up Bank and now investing via Euphemia, focusing on social good and underrepresented founders.

Investment Notes: Hatch

Jelix Ventures explains why it joined Hatch's December 2023 funding round, citing the founders' track record, an AI job-matching product, strong customer feedback and a large addressable market.

Why We Invested in Hatch

Aura Ventures explains its seed investment in Hatch, an Australian jobs marketplace for young professionals co-founded by Adam Jacobs and Chaz Heitner, alongside Rampersand, Investible, Jelix Ventures and Alberts.

Also Alberts Impact Ventures portfolio·Aura Group portfolio·Startup Daily·Early VC·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia

Employment Hero raises $263 million in record Australian private software funding round

Australian HR software firm Employment Hero has banked a large Series F led by US investor TCV, lifting its valuation towards $2 billion, with several existing backers also taking part.

Revealed: Top 20 startups in Australia

LinkedIn's seventh annual ranking of Australia's top startups puts Immutable first and Harrison.ai second; the piece also notes me&u's recent merger with Mr Yum and the Tran brothers' three-year fundraising tally.

Also Startup Daily

Employment Hero creates ‘super app’ with AI recruitment tools and auto-generated job descriptions for SMEs

HR and payroll platform Employment Hero has launched Swag, an app adding an AI-powered jobs board, auto-generated job descriptions and employee benefits to its existing small-business tools.

Restaurant ordering platform Mr Yum cuts another 40 jobs

The hospitality-tech firm Mr Yum has axed 40 more staff as it pushes toward profit; the article recalls the $89 million Series A that Tiger Global led in November 2021.

The Future of the Workforce and How Companies Can Adapt

A Credible-authored opinion piece argues the contract workforce is booming, criticises outdated hiring tools, promotes its contractor hiring platform, and invites readers to its deal room while it seeks growth capital.

How this founder built a 40-person startup while 6,000km away from her team: A chat with Clare from bluesheets

Investible interviews bluesheets co-founder Clare Leighton about building the financial-automation company remotely from her co-founder, her earlier roles at Uber and DishDash, and its growth and partnerships.

New Xero CEO's passion for accounting began around the family dinner table, aged seven

Xero has named Sukhinder Singh Cassidy as its next chief executive from February 2023, succeeding the retiring Steve Vamos; her background spans Google, StubHub, Boardlist and Joyus.

How this young entrepreneur is changing the hospitality industry

A profile of Clipboard co-founder Brendan Leeds, whose hospitality careers platform has drawn backers such as Gerry Ryan and Neil Wilson, with attention to worker mental health.

Spotlight On: Keaton Okkonen

Blackbird profiles Black.ai chief executive Keaton Okkonen, covering his Startmate 2017 origins, the company's broadening industries, and its recent fundraise and team growth.

Investment Notes: SwingVision

AfterWork Ventures explains why it joined SwingVision's $2 million seed round led by Tennis Australia's Wildcard Ventures, alongside Roddick, Blake and the MyFitnessPal co-founders; the app brings pro-grade tennis analytics to amateurs.

Also Startup Daily

UberEats in reverse: Dining-out platform me&u bags $8 million from laundry list of high-profile investors

Dining-tech firm me&u has closed an $8 million series B to fund a countrywide rollout, with Merivale's Justin Hemmes and Tyro's Robbie Cooke among new backers; founder Stevan Premutico earlier sold Dimmi to TripAdvisor.

Also SmartCompany·SmartCompany

BlueChilli winds up early-stage investment to focus on scale-ups and Asia

BlueChilli is pivoting away from early-stage programs toward scale-ups and Asia in 2020 after spending its $10 million venture fund, casting doubt over SheStarts and its proptech accelerator, with job losses expected among its roughly 50 staff.

Microsoft reveals US$1B investment in OpenAI

Microsoft commits a billion US dollars to OpenAI alongside a multi-year partnership to build AI super-computing on Azure, with OpenAI shifting services to the cloud platform.

Also tech-insider.org

UK investment giant Investec leads a $4 million raise for retail data merging firm Fusion Factory

Investec's Australian arm led a first-ever capital raise for Sydney retail-data startup Fusion Factory, whose Comestri platform unifies commerce data, with funds earmarked for expansion across Europe, the UK, US and Asia.

Meet the inspiring women in BlueChilli's new SheStarts accelerator

BlueChilli has named the ten female-led startups joining the third intake of its SheStarts program, chosen from hundreds of applicants, with corporate backers supporting the venture-building effort.

How Melbourne fintech Assembly hired 67 people in one year: A guide for rapidly scaling startups

Assembly's people chief explains how the fast-growing fintech recruited roughly seventy staff within a year, covering strategy planning, referral incentives, sourcing channels and a multi-stage vetting process for candidates.

Investec raises $45 million to reach first close of Emerging Companies Fund 1

Investec's emerging companies arm has reached a $45 million first close on its debut fund, with the bank the largest investor; the fund will back companies valued between $10 million and $200 million.

‘Take the risky route’: Meet Kendra Banks, SEEK’s new MD

Interview with Kendra Banks on her path to managing director of jobs company SEEK, covering her career, leadership approach, competition and programs supporting women in technology.

Open Source VC

Airtree's resource hub listing founder guides; its index announces Fund V, a $650 million vehicle with a $250 million seed fund and a $400 million growth fund.

Media & Marketing

AFR's Media & Marketing section roundup: Joe Aston's Rampart has raised $2.3m from five backers and TEG has locked in roughly $100m of fresh bank debt, alongside media policy, court and personality stories.

Also Startup Daily·AFR Technology·Dealroom·SmartCompany·Mumbrella·This Week in Australian Startups·The Age Business·SMH Business·Mumbrella