News publication
Everything we hold that AFR Technology published.
The most recent 60 of 130 articles we hold from AFR Technology.
Street Talk reports Tidal Ventures led a seed round in fintech RedOwl with CP Ventures also investing, valuing the Melbourne company near $40 million; an earlier pre-seed raise is recalled.
Street Talk reports Thoma Bravo is preparing Nearmap for an ASX re-listing, targeting a valuation above $US4 billion, having hired Goldman Sachs and Barrenjoey. No float has occurred yet.
Street Talk reports Pacific Equity Partners, Orix and Sumitomo are preparing binding final bids for FleetPartners in a UBS-run auction; no transaction has been agreed.
Coatue Management reportedly slashed its planned commitment to Firmus's share offer, helping sink what had been billed as the largest market debut in roughly thirty years.
A Sydney condom medtech is preparing a capital raise via an advisory firm; its earlier backers include a foundation and a startup co-founder, per the article.
Female-startup investor Scale Investors, led by three named executives, is seeking $50 million in new funds and reports reviewing hundreds of women-led deals, but no money is confirmed as raised.
Street Talk reports Singapore-based Princeton Digital, backed by Warburg Pincus, is reportedly nearing a $300 million deal for a Melbourne data centre, with a leasing arrangement involving ESR planned.
Firmus Technologies has abandoned its planned multibillion-dollar sharemarket float after weak investor interest, and will instead rely on Nvidia and other existing backers to fund its data centre expansion plans.
Firmus Technologies' co-founders face pressure to complete a struggling IPO, as dilution clauses could transfer a larger stake to Nvidia and other strategic backers if the float fails; a lower offer price is debated.
Firmus Technologies' planned $44 billion ASX listing is faltering, with bankers weighing a cut to its valuation or cancelling the float entirely amid weak interest from major investors and super funds.
Rear Window reports bankers and brokers are readying data centre firm Firmus for a stockmarket float, with co-founders Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield and other insiders' shareholdings locked in escrow.
Data centre operator Firmus is completing a $44 billion public listing, with existing shareholders Nvidia, Blackstone and Coatue already lined up for half the planned $US5.5 billion raise before Thursday's book-build close.
Under This Week in Australian Startups ·leads this story in the feed
Gossip column on broker Morgans papering Melbourne office towers to drum up demand for Firmus's huge float, where most shareholders are free to sell from opening day.
Under This Week in Australian Startups ·leads this story in the feed
Street Talk reports hydrogen vehicle maker H2X Global, now cut to five staff, has hired Frank Advisory to seek fresh capital for its turnaround plan.
AFR's Chanticleer column reports Firmus's stockmarket float is locked in, with its biggest current backers cornerstoning about half of the offering, underscoring the company's reliance on Nvidia.
Under This Week in Australian Startups ·leads this story in the feed
Firmus, which builds AI infrastructure, is preparing a record-scale Australian sharemarket float, with shares expected to trade from October 23 after raising at least $7 billion at a targeted $43.7 billion valuation.
Under This Week in Australian Startups ·leads this story in the feed
Metal, co-founded by Loong Wang and Catherine Porter, completed a roughly $50 million seed round with Airwallex and its venture arm Capital 49 as joint leads, per new filings.
Also Fintech News Australia·This Week in Australian Startups
Street Talk reports Big Picture Medical is seeking $10 million from strategic investors in the United States, valuing the healthcare AI startup at about $100 million.
AI medical scribe firm Heidi Health, backed by Blackbird Ventures, is adding autonomous assistants that handle administrative work for doctors, demoing them at a customer event as it challenges entrenched healthcare software vendors.
Queensland battery firm RedEarth Energy Storage has entered voluntary administration, leaving backers including Perennial Partners and Thorney Technologies facing losses after once being valued at $100 million.
Morgan Stanley research values AI chip rental firm Firmus at up to $128 billion ahead of its planned IPO next month; four banks will manage the float.
Significant Ventures is raising a fourth fund targeting $50 million, with $18 million committed so far from the Snow and Hindmarsh families and CDC founder Greg Boorer.
Data centre developer Firmus holds a five-year chip agreement with Nvidia and intends an ASX listing in late October; the float and its expansion remain intentions rather than done deals.
Column previewing Firmus's planned late-October ASX debut, arguing the neocloud faces two risks: the technology failing, or succeeding too dramatically.
Lunch interview with Eucalyptus's growth manager Jae Lubberink, recalling the telehealth firm's $1.6 billion sale to Hims and Hers and founder Tim Doyle's jump up the Young Rich List.
Under OneVentures portfolio ·leads this story in the feed
Swipejobs, an AI jobs platform preparing to list, will meet investors via UBS, Bank of America and Barrenjoey after buying Bridget Loudon's Expert360 for $16 million; Firmus Technologies is likewise courting fund managers.
Under AFR Technology ·leads this story in the feed
Unlisted for two-and-a-half years, gold producer Wiluna Mining is preparing a targeted IPO to return to the sharemarket, with brokers seeking bids and a roadshow planned from late September.
Partners Group, Guardian Childcare's Swiss owner, has spurned approaches from buyout firms Allegro Funds and BGH Capital and is negotiating with Quadrant Private Equity, which runs Affinity Education, about combining the childcare businesses.
Street Talk reports Melbourne-based medical company Akeeko Medical is out raising capital for a kidney stone treatment, with stockbroker Hugh Robertson leading the effort and putting in personal money.
Neocloud Firmus Technologies is pitching its planned $7 billion IPO to local fund managers, with co-chief executive Tim Rosenfield presenting in Melbourne alongside Daniel Kearney and former Xero finance head Kirsty Godfrey-Billy.
Street Talk: Calvary Health Care's consortium has agreed to acquire 25 Healthscope hospitals; lenders reportedly recoup about $400 million, with the assets valued near $600 million.
Also Dealroom
Street Talk reports Firmus Technologies, which rents Nvidia chips, is courting Asian fund managers ahead of a possible sharemarket float of up to $7 billion, with terms to follow for domestic investors.
Future Secure AI's pre-listing round, led by Robin Khuda, Square Peg, Yarra Capital, Firetrail and Macquarie Asset Management, is nearing completion, with notes converting at a US$1.3 billion ceiling before an ASX float.
Element Fleet Management, the sole bidder yet to lodge a revised offer, has quit the race to buy Australian car-leasing firm FleetPartners.
Shareholder acceptances are building for Crimson Education's hostile tilt at ASX-listed tutoring firm Kip McGrath, a bid that wobbled when ally Regal Partners sold out; the suitor may lift its offer to 74 cents.
Street Talk reports BCAL Diagnostics' takeover plan for Genetic Signatures collapsed once the target's talks with Sonic-backed Microba surfaced, with a three-company combination now under discussion.
Ellerston has agreed to sell Queensland electrical equipment maker NOJA Power to Goldman Sachs Alternatives, signing a deal that values the company at more than $1 billion for a controlling stake.
Recruitment firm Expert360 sold to Swipejobs for $16 million, three years after a planned $165 million acquisition by Heidrick & Struggles collapsed, with some investors blaming Airtree Ventures for the deal's failure.
Under AFR Technology ·leads this story in the feed
Firmus will supply computing capacity to OpenAI from two planned Malaysian data centres, but sceptical investors say the deal is too small ahead of a potential float valuing the start-up at $15.5 billion.
Street Talk column reports AI cloud firm Firmus Technologies will soon market a planned ASX float to investors, with a debut tipped imminently, after a Malaysian win involving OpenAI.
OPTrust has tasked Lazard Australia with auctioning Flow Power, the Melbourne-founded green energy retailer it has majority-owned for eight years, with first bids due within a month.
Street Talk reports EQT Partners has bid for Parratech, the Sydney brothers Jason and Stephen Fooks' data centre enclosure business, in a deal valuing it above $1 billion; other suitors remain.
Continental's board meets to choose a buyer for its Australian tyre and auto chain mycar, with Allegro Funds favoured; the German giant paid $350 million for the business eight years ago.
Bain Capital, advised by Lazard banker Campbell Ray, is readying a bid for clinical trials provider Nucleus Network, which current owner Blackstone has listed for sale at a hoped $1 billion.
Ritchie Bros has been knocked out of the Pickles sale, leaving buyout houses such as EQT, Warburg Pincus and Pacific Equity Partners to work through the data room ahead of first bids.
Private equity firm CVC is taking a majority holding in Ambrose Construct Group, an insurance repair business founded in Queensland, through its sixth Asia Fund; the deal values the company near $700 million.
Street Talk reports ASX-listed truck parts distributor MaxiPARTS has received a takeover approach from private equity firm Ares, which has appointed Macquarie Capital to advise on the potential deal.
Bridget Loudon-Harris's recruitment platform Expert360 has been acquired by Swipejobs in a $16 million deal that wipes out its investors; the buyer is eyeing an ASX float.
Also SmartCompany·Startup Daily·AFR Technology·AFR Technology
AFR Street Talk reports Eucalyptus co-founder Charlie Gearside and Chris Cuffe's Partners Horizon Fund have joined Sydney investment app Pearler's $16 million Series A.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Cut Through Venture·Australian FinTech·fundedstartupsdaily.com
Energy AI startup Gridsight, co-founded by NSW childhood friends, has raised a $36 million round led by New York's Insight Partners as it expands into the US; Endeavour Energy is among its customers.
Also Capital Brief·Startup Daily·Dealroom·SmartCompany·Cut Through Venture·Startup Daily
Airtree's investors approved prolonging its debut fund to July 2028, safeguarding foundation stakes such as Canva and defusing a limited-partner revolt over the firm's withheld distributions.
AFR's Street Talk column reports ASX-listed additive manufacturing company Titomic is out seeking fresh equity, noting the manufacturer's $273 million market capitalisation.
Canyon Resources shareholders question whether majority owner and bidder A2MP is connected to second-largest holder World Metal Alloys, which likely blocked a March capital raising.
Under AFR Technology ·leads this story in the feed
Airtree is in a dispute with longtime backers over poor proceeds from its Canva stake and could not rally enough support to prolong its debut fund.
Under TechCrunch Venture ·leads this story in the feed
MUFG's pensions arm has struck a binding agreement to acquire Grow Inc, a Sydney-founded superannuation administration startup whose shareholders — among them HESTA, Five V Capital and AirTree Ventures — must still approve the deal.
Blackbird is weighing an early sale of its Canva stake through continuation funds, while Airtree's longtime backers are pushing it to return profits; no deal has been done.
Street Talk reports Barrenjoey has launched a block trade letting two Koala backers sell their stakes, five months after the furniture company's market debut.
Under Startup Daily ·leads this story in the feed
Deals recorded from AFR Technology's coverage. A round is listed once, however many of their articles mention it.
Companies named in AFR Technology's articles, most-covered first.
Investors named in AFR Technology's articles, most-covered first.
| Investor | What it does | Articles |
|---|---|---|
| AirTree Ventures | 6 | |
| Airwallex | 1 | |
| Best Practice | 1 | |
| Capital 49 | 1 | |
| CP Ventures | Venture capital across the life of a private company | 1 |
| Firetrail Investments | 1 | |
| Insight Partners | 1 | |
| Macquarie Asset Management | 1 | |
| Partners Horizon Fund | 1 | |
| Significant Capital Ventures | Venture firm backing early-stage critical tech startups | 1 |
| Square Peg Capital | 1 | |
| Tidal Ventures | 1 | |
| Yarra Capital Management | 1 |