Startup · $7.9m raised · Education
Melbourne, VIC
Every published round University of Melbourne 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 University of Melbourne has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EpiMinder | Oct 2021, Series A | 2 | 0 | |
| Kali Healthcare | Jul 2023, Pre-seed | 2 | 2 | |
| Denteric | 26 Sep 2019, Series A | 1 | 0 | |
| Flowing Bee | 5 Mar 2025, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 | |
| The Leaf Protein Co. | 13 Jun 2024, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 |
Fund closes reported for University of Melbourne, as distinct from the investments it has made.
| Fund | Announced | Committed | Target | Close | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tin Alley Ventures Fund and the Genesis Pre-Seed Fund | 23 Jun 2022 | $115m | - | - | Techboard, Startup Daily |
| University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund | 16 Jun 2022 | $15m | - | - | Startup Daily (Mon 27 Jun 2022), Startup Daily (Thu 16 Jun 2022), Breakthrough Victoria |
Investors that coverage says has money in a fund University of Melbourne runs. This is a stake in the fund, not in any company the fund has backed.
| Investor | Fund | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Breakthrough Victoria | Genesis Pre-Seed Fund | Startup Daily (Tue 31 Jan 2023), Startup Daily (Thu 16 Jun 2022) |
| Breakthrough Victoria | University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund | Startup Daily (Thu 16 May 2024), Startup Daily (Mon 27 Jun 2022) |
This is a stake in the fund itself, money that the fund's manager invests, not a stake in the fund manager.
| Fund | Manager | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| - | GBS Ventures | GBS Ventures (Mon 3 Aug 2020), GBS Ventures (Tue 30 Jun 2015) |
| Uniseed | Uniseed | GBS Ventures, clinicalleader.com |
| University Innovation Platform (UIP) | Breakthrough Victoria | Breakthrough Victoria (Fri 28 Mar 2025), Breakthrough Victoria (Thu 27 Mar 2025) |
Companies University of Melbourne has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal University of Melbourne did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio company of University of Melbourne is recorded as having been acquired. | ||||
Companies University of Melbourne acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round University of Melbourne raised.
| Investor | Rounds | Invested |
|---|---|---|
| Airwallex | Grant | $5,000,000 |
| Australian Department of Defence | Grant | - |
| Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) | Grant · Grant | $7,900,000 |
| Brandon BioCatalyst | Accelerator | - |
| Breakthrough Victoria | Accelerator | - |
Stories naming University of Melbourne. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
A University of Melbourne spinout has raised pre-seed capital from Uniseed and the university's Genesis fund to build a pilot plant turning waste concrete into low-carbon aggregates and cement replacement.
Also Startup Daily·Dealroom·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·This Week in Australian Startups
Weekly roundup reporting Australian startup funding rounds and government grants, a venture fund close, agreed acquisitions, an IPO pricing, a collapse, plus executive hires and AI policy developments.
Roundup of three Australian raises: Skopos Bio's $12m seed for targeted cancer radiopharmaceuticals, Trendspek's $6m for infrastructure condition AI, and R2Crete's $750,000 pre-seed for concrete recycling.
Also Startup Daily·This Week in Australian Startups·Cut Through Venture
Skalata Ventures, the seed fund and founder-training program led by Paul Little and Rohan Workman, is raising a second vehicle plus growth capital, reporting 30 investments and a 44 per cent IRR.
Profile of Skalata Ventures' Rohan Workman and Maxine Lee recounting the firm's founding, pandemic-era restructuring, $7 million raise, second fund deployment, and backing of Flux, Explorate and Preezie.
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
Melbourne GRC startup CyberHeed has released Live Integrations, which continuously pulls configuration signals from tools like GitHub and Microsoft products to assess compliance controls in context, extending its SmartPrep capability.
Brandon Capital's blog interviews Denteric's operating chief about its gingipain-targeting therapy for periodontitis, trial progress, and its origins in University of Melbourne oral health research.
Wholesale Investor's news listing spanning Australian private capital: deep-tech and biotech company profiles, property and crypto commentary, Q1 2026 venture funding totals, and guides to wholesale investor qualification.
Weekly roundup covering seven raises across the Tasman: Phonely's Series A, Pay.com.au's private placement, and rounds for Atomic Tessellator, Caruso, Deteqt, Clean Slate Clinic and Earthletica, worth roughly $72 million combined.
Also crane.vc
Airwallex co-founder Jack Zhang recounts turning down Stripe's billion-dollar buyout, describes building a licensed global payments network, and argues the Melbourne fintech can now challenge Stripe directly.
Phonely, a University of Melbourne spin-out now in San Francisco, has raised a US$16 million Series A with Base10 Partners leading and Y Combinator plus three customers joining.
Victorian pre-seed program BVUIP, backed by Breakthrough Victoria and seven universities, has funded startups EntroMat, Excelligent and Remagine Labs, plus fellowship grants for three PhD-led ventures.
Breakthrough Victoria interviews fellow Noor E Karishma Shaik, founder of DeepDerm, on building DermAI, an AI skin-cancer detection tool, her clinical trial breakthrough with nurses, and lessons from her first year as a founder.
A roundup of three raises: Advanced Navigation's $158 million Series C, legal AI platform MiAI Law's $2 million launch funding, and Deftbiotech's $1 million pre-seed for a fungal nail treatment.
Melbourne biotech Deftbiotech secures $1 million combined investment from Breakthrough Victoria and La Trobe University's Eagle Fund to develop a topical nail fungus treatment.
Breakthrough Victoria staff attended agrifood, climate finance, women's health and deep tech events, and joined the launch of agritech firm YieldX.
Eight university- and company-led Australian quantum projects share $12.7 million in stage-two Critical Technologies Challenge Program grants, funding prototypes for data-centre cooling, medical imaging and rare-earth detection.
Breakthrough Victoria's release marks Infleqtion's New York Stock Exchange listing, the investor's first portfolio listing, and notes further quantum backing of Quantum Brilliance plus Infleqtion's Victorian operations and partnerships.
Also Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·Startup Daily·SmartCompany
Breakthrough Victoria's chief executive marks his first year, tallying 70 investments, university and fellowship programs, a Jumar Bioincubator grant with partners, and looks ahead to a consolidated Victorian innovation entity.
Profile of Dr Kyle Turner launching the LaunchVic-funded Ochre pre-accelerator for First Nations founders, recalling his dental AI startup Pearlii and his role at a new First Nations venture fund.
Medical device firm Epiminder has joined the ASX, its shares dipping below issue price on debut, with the $125 million IPO proceeds earmarked for an American launch of its implantable epilepsy monitoring system next year.
Also Startup Daily
Profile tracing Sara Prickett's path from UK labs to co-founding Aravax, the peanut-allergy biotech Brandon Capital backed, as its Phase II trial nears readout in mid-2026.
Roundup of eight funding deals: Synchron's Series D, plus raises by Lumonus AI, Hullbot, Nbryo, Cytophenix, Giftbee, Understanding Zoe and Zeligate, spanning medtech, robotics, agtech and AI.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily
Uniseed chief executive Peter Devine departs after two decades; Monash's Alistair Hick takes over in 2026. The piece recounts Uniseed's fund history and recent stakes in ENA Respiratory and Morse Micro rounds.
Melbourne battery maker Relectrify has launched its inverter-free AC1 commercial battery, supported by a $25 million ARENA grant and a fresh $2.9 million federal grant to extend the technology into electric vehicles.
Also @AuManufacturing
ASX-listed Livium has raised $4.5 million to expand its Envirostream battery recycling hub in Victoria, while its subsidiary VSPC continues talks to match a $30 million ARENA grant for a Brisbane cathode powder plant.
A University of Melbourne spin-out using AI to tailor chemotherapy doses has banked pre-seed capital from the university's Genesis fund, plus public grant money and angels, to commercialise its oncology platform.
Breakthrough Victoria has chosen three academic founders for its new fellowship, providing each with $150,000 to help commercialise research in mental health, IVF and skin cancer detection.
Breakthrough Victoria announces the first three fellows of its $7.5 million fellowship, giving each researcher $150,000 and support to turn research into startups in mental health games, IVF imaging and skin cancer detection.
Breakthrough Victoria's fellowship has put $150,000 into DeepDerm, a startup building AI to spot skin cancer without biopsies, founded by University of Melbourne researcher Noor E Karishma Shaik.
Profile of Melbourne-based biotech Neurala Biosciences, founded by two researchers turning DMT and harmala compounds into medicines, covering its origins, grant and investor backing totalling $4.5m, and planned first-in-human studies.
Breakthrough Victoria reflects on its 2022 investment in quantum company Infleqtion, part of a larger raise, detailing Victorian operations, university partnerships, workforce programs and a planned US listing via SPAC.
NASA confirmed the Australian-built Roo-ver will reach the Moon by 2030 under its Artemis program. The ELO2 consortium, technically led by Lunar Outpost Oceania of Melbourne, has $42 million in Australian Government backing.
Defence's innovation accelerator has awarded three more contracts under its emerging and disruptive technologies program, funding quantum and information-warfare work at CSIRO, four universities and Silicon Quantum Computing, adding $9 million to the program.
Mirugen, a Melbourne biotech spun out of an eye research institute, has closed a A$4.5m seed round with three backers and hired Charlotte Casebourne Stock as chair and acting chief executive.
Also cera.org.au·Brandon BioCatalyst portfolio·insightnews.com.au
Weekly roundup: Breakthrough Victoria and Monash University co-invest $2.25 million across three university healthtech spinouts, while Blackbird backs Hall, which helps businesses win visibility on AI platforms, with $2 million pre-seed.
Also Startup Daily
Breakthrough Victoria and Monash University put joint pre-seed backing into three life-sciences spinouts and launched the $15m Monash Ventures pre-seed fund, part of a $100m platform commercialising Victorian university research.