Ledger.

Company

Zoom

Coverage

Stories naming Zoom. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.

undisclosed

Canva hits $42B valuation in secondary sale, joining Figma in pre-IPO spotlight

Canva launched an employee share sale valuing the design software firm at $42 billion, led by Fidelity with JPMorgan's asset arm joining, ahead of a planned IPO; US rival Figma listed last month.

Also Crunchbase News·stratechery.com·Crunchbase News

Funding announcement

From SaaS to SaiS: A River of Inquiry into how AI is unlocking vertical SaaS

A Blackbird partner argues AI has revived vertical software by turning hard-to-sell customers into product-led buyers, noting the firm recently backed three such startups and recalling Aconex's sale to Oracle.

Also buildxact.com

Exit / M&A

Superloop knocks back Aussie Broadband’s $466 million takeover bid as ‘opportunistic’

Superloop's board has rejected Aussie Broadband's merger proposal as too low, with Aussie already holding a 19.9% stake; the piece also recalls Superloop's VostroNet purchase and Aussie's Symbio buyout.

8 deals

Blast OIF | 23 things from 2023

OIF Ventures' year in review: full Eftsure exit, Opportunity Fund close, Visory, DataMasque and Nullify backed, follow-ons at Inspace and Dataweavers, new team members and portfolio milestones.

Exit / M&A

Atlassian bets $1.5 billion on the future of hybrid work with Loom acquisition

Atlassian is buying US video-messaging firm Loom for $1.5 billion in a mostly-cash deal, folding its async video tool into Jira, Confluence and Trello while it stays standalone; regulatory sign-off still pending.

Also Startup Daily·ARN (ARNnet)·Forbes Australia·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily

3 deals

Workplace coaching platform Fingerprint for Success raises $6.5 million

Fingerprint for Success, an AI coaching platform, has closed a $6.5 million second seed round led by Investible, with Canva's founders investing again; its lifetime funding now totals $9.2 million.

Seed $5m

Virtual personal and professional coach creator takes funding to $9 million

Fingerprint for Success, maker of AI coach Marlee, raised $5 million in an Investible-led seed round, lifting total funding to $9 million, with participation from Five V Capital, Salesforce Ventures and several high-profile angels.

Also SmartCompany

12 deals

Ignition Lane's Weekly Wrap: The unicorn boom, valuations heading south, Meta faces legal squeeze

Ignition Lane's weekly roundup covers Linktree's unicorn raise, several Australian funding rounds, Tiger and Insight's new mega-funds, falling SaaS valuations, the ACCC's action against Meta, and new accelerator and product launches.

News

Blackbird is hiring a Product Operations Specialist

Blackbird's Founder Success team is recruiting a Product Operations Specialist, based in Sydney or Melbourne, to scale its community programs such as Giants, the Founder Academy and the Talent Network. Applications have closed.

14 deals

Ignition Lane's Weekly Wrap: Unicorns galore, online marketplaces put on notice, VC pyramid schemes

Weekly roundup reporting Invoice2go's sale to Bill.com, raises by Go1, Employment Hero, InDebted and others, Rokt's secondary sale, Wildcard Ventures' launch, plus global deals including Zoom-Five9 and Salesforce-Slack.

Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany

16 deals

Ignition Lane Weekly Wrap: M&A mania, Tesla trademarks, African fintech, another SoftBank implosion & NFTs explained

Weekly roundup covering ANZ trade sales including A Cloud Guru's multibillion-dollar sale, several Australian raises, Tenacious Ventures' agritech fund close, Xero and Cochlear appointments, and global deals such as Etsy buying Depop.

Also SmartCompany

22 deals

Ignition Lane's Weekly Wrap: Tiger is the new Softbank, Accel's 40x, more marketplaces, Zooming into VC

Ignition Lane's weekly column rounds up Australian raises including Octopus Deploy, Neara, Mr Yum and Archistar, ThinkTilt's sale to Atlassian, Latitude's ASX listing, and US moves by Tiger Global, UiPath and Squarespace.

Also Startup Daily

Seed $640k

Software management startup Hudled raises $640,000 seed round

SaaS tracking startup Hudled has raised a $640,000 seed round from Black Nova Group, Antler, Sydney Angels and three angels, after an earlier $155,000 Antler pre-seed, ahead of its product launch and possible US expansion.

Also SmartCompany·Cut Through Venture·Startup Daily·SmartCompany

12 deals

Ignition Lane's Weekly Wrap: Atlassian's win in the Salesforce-Slack deal, Shopify sets new records, Afterpay's US sales are tops

Weekly roundup reporting Salesforce's Slack acquisition, several ASX listings, multiple Australian startup raises, OneVentures' fund tranche close, and international deals including Facebook buying Kustomer.

Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily

6 deals

Atlassian launches $70 million venture fund to foster “a robust ecosystem” for cloud-based startups

Atlassian has launched a corporate venture vehicle to back startups building on its cloud products, with two companies already funded; the piece also notes recent fund raises by several Australian venture firms.

7 deals

Ignition Lane’s Weekly Wrap: Zoom boom, Redbubble hits unicorn, Rocket Lab takes off

Weekly roundup column covering Zoom's record quarter, Redbubble reaching unicorn valuation, founder share sell-downs, a new secondary fund launch, and funding rounds for mental health and e-commerce startups.

Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Women's Agenda

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