Startup · $5.9m raised
Sydney, NSW
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round University of Technology Sydney raised.
| Investor | Rounds | Invested |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator | Grant · Grant | - |
Every published round University of Technology Sydney 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.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algenie | Unnamed stage | Sep 2024 | $1.1m | Participant | SmartCompany, AgFunderNews |
Companies University of Technology Sydney has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algenie | Sep 2024 | 1 | 0 |
Fund closes reported for University of Technology Sydney, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies University of Technology Sydney has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal University of Technology Sydney did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio company of University of Technology Sydney is recorded as having been acquired. | ||||
Companies University of Technology Sydney 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dayong Jin | Professor | @AuManufacturing |
| Dr Anna Wright | Senior Lecturer (former) | SmartCompany (Wed 13 Sep 2023), SmartCompany (Thu 21 May 2020) |
| Dr Federico Davila | Research Principal for Food Systems | SmartCompany |
| Fang Chen | Executive Director of UTS Data Science Institute | @AuManufacturing |
| Jie Lu | Professor | Startup Daily |
| Michael Blumenstein | Pro Vice Chancellor | @AuManufacturing |
| Murray Hurps | Director of Entrepreneurship | Australian FinTech |
| Professor Andrew Parfitt | Vice-Chancellor | @AuManufacturing, Defence Connect, Startup Daily |
| Professor Roy Green | Innovation Advisor | Cotton Research and Development Corporation |
| Professor Roy Green | Emeritus Professor | @AuManufacturing |
Stories naming University of Technology Sydney. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
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.
Sydney robotics startup Puralink has raised $2.3m in seed capital, with Peak XV leading and several local funds and angels joining, to commercialise its leak-detecting robot for pipes.
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.
Airtree Ventures and Stone & Chalk have opened Venture Suites, a Sydney workspace giving Airtree portfolio startups offices plus mentorship and investor access, with Reejig, CipherStash and Human Health as early tenants.
Advanced Navigation trialled technology that tracks commuters' phones inside underground stations at Castle Hill in Sydney, aiming to help people with vision impairment navigate transport interchanges where GPS performs poorly.
Citing AFR reporting, the publisher relays that the federal reconstruction investor is set to announce a stake in a glaucoma treatment developer, alongside venture co-funding, and plugs its June funding panel.
UniSuper adds a further $25 million to its backing of Uniseed, reaching $100 million in total support for the university research commercialisation fund; past cheques to quantum and biotech startups are recapped.
Manufacturing roundup: Nourish Ingredients' precision fermentation milestone, MyNu Energy's investment from Melt Ventures, a refused Veolia licence, AusBiotech committee applications, UOW community batteries, a Gold Coast rail contract, and Premcar's South African launch.
Built-world software firm Sitemate has closed a $27.5m Series A led by Blackbird at a valuation above $150m; Blackbird also backed its 2022 seed, and Sitemate bought Nomad Fleet this year.
Also Startup Daily
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.
Canberra is funding 21 quantum and counter-disinformation defence projects, awarding $60 million in grants through ASCA's Emerging and Disruptive Technologies programme to universities and companies nationwide.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·@AuManufacturing
SmartCompany's rolling coverage of SXSW Sydney day two, recording Polymath's pre-seed raise and Build Club's recent funding, the Equity Clear launch, Startmate's Demo Day, and women-founded startup pitches at Google's event.
Manufacturing roundup: Noizend's grants and UTS work, PPK's planned Li-S share distribution, a Bathurst recycling trial, Aurecon's CETRI role, an ELA regulatory hire, BioPak's OzHarvest support, and ANSTO's reactor restart.
Australian algae startup Algenie raises A$1.1 million from University of Technology Sydney and Better Bite Ventures while unveiling a thin-layer photobioreactor designed to make algae production dramatically cheaper for fuels, plastics and feed.
Also SmartCompany
Data centre company AirTrunk's multi-billion-dollar sale to Blackstone and a Canadian pension board is celebrated by founders of South Asian heritage, who see Robin Khuda's journey as inspiration for Australia's startup ecosystem.
Also Forbes Australia·ARN (ARNnet)·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia
Sitemate, an Australian construction-industry software firm, has bought asset-tracking startup Nomad Fleet for $2 million. The profile also recalls the $5.2 million seed round Blackbird led in 2022.
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.
Manufacturing roundup: IDT Australia and Genetic Signatures announce capital raisings; Memphasys and Genetic Signatures appoint new chief executives; NIOA opens a US office; DefendTex holds acquisition talks with Brazil's Avibras; a cobotics PhD ends.
Stoic Venture Capital has promoted Harikesh Pushpapathan into its partnership, with co-founder Guy Hedley crediting two years of work helping university researchers commercialise their science.
A student-run venture fund launches alongside research showing university founders have attracted backing topping $1.2 billion, though women-led teams receive a small share; Blackbird is the most active backer.
Space Machines Company says its Optimus orbital servicing vehicle, described as Australia's largest private satellite, lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, with Australian firms and research partners among those involved in the mission.
Federal grants roundup: 21 Cooperative Research Centres Projects awards worth $51 million in Round 15, with EQ Plastics, Optiscan Imaging and NEXSEN BioTech each receiving $3 million for product development.
Also RenewEconomy
UTS has won a Space Research Network seed grant to collaborate with Sydney spacesuit startup Metakosmos on digitally optimising spacesuit fit for varied body types.
University-backed investor Uniseed has brought in Monash and four NSW universities as partners and is recruiting technology and biotechnology investment managers in Melbourne and Sydney.
Construction software startup Sitemate has secured $7.5 million in pre-Series A funding, led by Marbruck Investments with Blackbird and Artesian participating, and intends to double headcount during 2024.
Uniseed adds Monash and a four-university NSW collaboration, lifting its third fund by $6.75 million to $56.75 million; the article recalls past portfolio sales to Novartis, Shire and Schneider Electric.
Sydney startup Refilled has raised a A$1.3 million seed round, with Melt Ventures leading and Envato's Ta'eed brothers among backers, to scale refill stations that cut single-use plastic; Google is already a customer.
Profile of Refilled, a Sydney climate tech startup whose refill vending machines dispense drinks into customers' own bottles; backers include angels and Melt Ventures, with machines installed at two universities.
Also Startup Daily
Advanced Navigation opened a machine learning-enabled robotics manufacturing facility at UTS Tech Lab in Sydney, aiming to scale production of GPS-denied navigation systems and deepen its research partnership with UTS.
Profile of BindiMaps, a Sydney accessibility wayfinding app founded in 2017, covering its SheStarts grant origins, early funding, customers across Australia and overseas, and expansion plans.
ARENA grants Solar Analytics $929,000 to build Solar Maximiser, a free tool assessing household consumer energy resources, alongside hot water demand research by UTS.
Aura Ventures announces Annie Liao has joined as Investment Associate, covering deal origination and platform strategy, with an interview tracing her prior roles at Westpac, BCG and Archangel Ventures.
Manufacturing roundup: Memphasys IVF birth and Japanese orders, FIAL chair change, DroneShield's DroneGun Mk4, Austeng's hydrogen burner grant, UNSW recycling hub launch, Symbio laboratory, apprentice award, and MathWorks joining Universal Robots' ecosystem.
Roundup of Australian manufacturing news: Austin Engineering and Thales win government grants, IMCRC hands futuremap to the Australian Industry Group, AMSL Aero completes its eVTOL's first flight, and Gale Pacific reports half-year earnings.
Profile of Sydney genomics startup 23Strands, covering its university and research collaborations, a $1 million grant, an NHMRC-backed project, and its 2020 UNSW Health10X accelerator background.
Canberra and Berlin award HyGATE initiative grants to green hydrogen projects led by Edify Energy with Siemens and by ATCO, plus electrolyser developer Hysata, backing early stages of gigawatt-scale Australian plans.
Also RenewEconomy
Profile of Cairns startup Rainstick, which uses artificial lightning to boost mushroom growth. It won $20,000 from Dream Ventures, has taken in $200,000, and joined CSIRO's ON Accelerate with nine other teams.
CSIRO has revived its ON Accelerate program and named ten deep-tech startup teams, drawn from universities and its own research, joining the seventh cohort starting in early 2023.
Australian crypto card startup CryptoSpend has launched its first national advertising campaign and recently closed another funding round, with its founders reporting strong trading and everyday crypto spending despite market dips.
NSW government backing for Morse Micro's HaLow Wi-Fi expansion in Tech Central is still subject to a formal agreement, UTS plans a defence-compliant vault, and five scaleups are named as first recipients of accommodation rebates.