Funding | Investment

Atlassian co-founder and co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes has thrown his support behind Brighte, leading the home energy fintech’s $4 million Series A round through his venture capital business Grok Ventures. Based in Sydney, Brighte is a digital credit platform that provides on-the-spot finance for home energy improvements, allowing homeowners to access solar panels, insulation and batteries […]

The federal government has offered 11 businesses a share of $6.6 million in funding to help launch innovative products, processes and services locally and abroad. The commercialisation grants are available to successful recipients through the Accelerating Commercialisation element of the Entrepreneurs’ programme, which is delivered by the AusIndustry division of the Department of Industry, Innovation […]

LaunchVic, the Victorian Government’s startup investment agency, has made available a new round of funding to attract world-class accelerator programs to Melbourne. LaunchVic is seeking to invest up to $3 million per application in the very best Australian or international accelerators and teams with proven track records for running accelerators. LaunchVic CEO, Dr Kate Cornick […]

Sydney-based startup Hometime, which manages short-term property rentals, including Airbnb listings, has closed a $1.5 million seed funding round led by tech accelerator Asia Principal Capital (APCL). Founders Dave Thompson and Will Crock added APCL director Martin Dalgleish (the former chief executive of PBL Media) to their board as part of the deal struck with […]

Sydney-based fintech startup zipMoney (Zip) has secured a $40m equity investment from Westpac as part of a strategic alliance with the ‘Big 4’ bank. The investment follows the announcement, in May, that Zip – a provider of point-of-sale credit and digital payment services – had secured a $260m debt facility with $200 million in funding from […]

Corporate accelerator Slingshot and the University of Newcastle (UON) have been jointly awarded $475,000 by the Federal Government to establish a two-year program that will support up to 16 start-ups in the Hunter region of NSW. In addition to supporting local entrepreneurs to scale their businesses, Slingshot expects the Integrated Innovation Network (I2N) Regional Accelerator […]

In the process of completing a $100 million Series D round, US cybersecurity start-up CrowdStrike, which expanded into Asia Pacific last year, has onboarded Telstra Ventures as a new investor. Led by existing CrowdStrike investor Accel, the Series D Round brings CrowdStrike’s total funding to $256 million, with a valuation of over $1 billion dollars, […]

Pre-Series-A technology start-up Sinorbis, which assists Australian companies and marketing agencies to engage Chinese digital customers, has closed an oversubscribed $2.3 million bridging round, bringing its total capital raise to $3.9 m to date. In a press release announcing the raise, co-founder and CEO Nicholas Chu explained that Australian companies have ‘traditionally struggled’ to market […]

Sydney-based logistics start-up Shippit has declined the opportunity to close a $5m Series A funding round, instead settling for a more modest $2.2 million from a line-up of new investors.      Co-founders Rob Hango-Zada and William On originally sought to raise $3 million for the shipping management platform they launched to market in February 2015. […]

This year’s Federal Budget is notable for its lack of focus on start-ups, innovation and entrepreneurship, according to Alex McCauley, CEO of Australia’s peak advocacy group, StartupAus. “That will certainly cause some frustration, because the Government has done a lot to build expectations that it is committed to making Australia one of the best countries […]

Having led myDNA’s $10m Series A funding round, the CEO of vitamin brand Swisse Wellness Radek Sali has joined the board of the Melbourne-based consumer health venture. myDNA CEO Dr Lior Rauchberger told Dynamic Business that the company’s latest capital raise, which follows a $4.5m seed round in 2015, demonstrates the “market is ready for genetic science […]

This week, Melbourne’s Airwallex – a fintech start-up specialising in cross-border payments – closed one of the largest Series A funding rounds ever held by an Australian technology venture.  CEO and co-founder, Jack Zhang, spoke to Dynamic Business about what was involved in securing US$13 million for the company’s foreign exchange platform from three global heavy hitters: […]

Sydney FinTech start-up CurrencyVue has received financial support from the state government’s job creation agency to develop and test an affordable, easy-to-use foreign exchange (FX) platform for SMEs. The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) grant from Jobs for NSW helped CurrencyVue – a graduate of the BlueChilli accelerator program – cover 15% of its development costs, according […]

Bolstered by a $1 million seed injection, Melbourne start-up Weploy has launched an on-demand recruitment platform that connects pre-screened, talented employees to employers who need short term staff to manage peak periods or cover employee absences. Co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Nick La and Vince Luong, Weploy was conceived in response to the frustration they had […]

Online healthcare marketplace HealthEngine has now raised close to $50m after closing a $26.7m Series C funding round.  Sequoia India, which has worked closely with Apple’s Steve Jobs, Google’s Larry Page and LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner and other high-profile founders, led the round. The VC firm, which counts HealthEngine as its first direct investment in an […]

In the process of closing a US$15m Series C Funding Round, home-grown Adobe rival Nitro has partnered with investors who would offer ‘great value’ if the document productivity company decides to pursue an IPO, according to founder and CEO, Sam Chandler. Founded in Melbourne in 2005 and now headquartered in San Francisco, Nitro reports a 40% increase […]

Melbourne start-up MyDeal.com.au has closed a $5 million funding round with strategic investment firm Gandel Invest. Launched in 2012, the fast-growing online marketplace has, until now, been entirely bootstrapped by founder, CEO and serial entrepreneur Sean Senvirtne. He spoke to Dynamic Business about why the time was right to inject capital into MyDeal, which has grown […]

EduTech start-up 1Scope has obtained a $1 million investment from Aqualand Capital ahead of its launch in August. Founder and CEO Christina Chun spoke to Dynamic Business about her online platform, which enables companies, universities and not-for-profits to promote, manage and review the professional development opportunities they offer students. Dynamic Business: What motivated you to […]

Financial services platform PractiFI prevailed over two other cloud-driven start-ups to win the inaugural Salesforce PitchComp, yesterday. The event was held at Sydney’s International Conference Centre as part of the Salesforce World Tour. It saw the co-founders of PractiFI – Glenn Elliott (CEO) and Adrian Johnstone (CCO) – pitch their start-up to Steve Baxter (investor, […]

Mobile recruitment platform Found has closed its most recent funding round, bringing its total funding to $2.5 million. Red Bull Holden Supercars owner Roland Dane, Dimmi founder Stevan Premutico and MYOB CEO Tim Reed have come on board as investors, with the latter two joining Found’s advisory board. Established by Andrew Joyce and Peter Marchiori […]