Startup
From working in a fish and chip shop to owning a global award-winning skincare company, these two high school mates are on the fast track to commanding the beauty industry. Entrepreneurs Manny Barbas and James Hachem founded the skincare company Alya Skin in 2018. Since then they have turned over $20 million, selling to 500,000 […]
Qwilr, online proposal and quote software startup, has announced the appointment of Ben Mackie as Head of Engineering. Ben joins from Atlassian where he spent six years leading engineering, platform and technology partnerships for Confluence, Atlassian’s workplace collaboration platform, and scaling product growth and experimentation across the company. Ben is looking forward to moving from […]
Australian startup ACE EV has unveiled their plans for Australian-manufactured electric cars, made from imported flat-pack vehicle kits. From 2019-2020 there was a 40 per cent increase in global sales of electric vehicles. As the electric vehicle market continues to grow Greg McGarvie and his international team from ACE EV have created a flat-pack model […]
Leaving the corporate world to start your own business can be daunting enough. But choosing to embark on a new career in the high-growth, fast-paced and innovation-driven technology startup scene is a whole other ball game. For many, it’s exciting and every day is a learning curve with new opportunities to grow or pivot your […]
Startup investment in Australia hit new highs over the first six months of 2020, reaching US$944.7 million, up from US$627.3 million in H1 2019, according to KPMG’s Venture Pulse report. Despite the effects of the global pandemic, a record amount of venture capital was invested into Australian startups, with 92 deals recorded so far […]
UNSW Founders, a startup program, has seen an increase in participation in recent months despite the pandemic. The program focuses on helping UNSW students, staff and alumni to build entrepreneurship skills, and found and grow real companies. And this year, the number of participants is much higher than last year. The program has managed to […]
Melbourne’s startup ecosystem exceeds growth predictions, now valued at US$4.8 Billion (USD) / $7 billion (AUD) and ranking in the Top 15 APAC ecosystems for Talent and Performance. Regional sub-sector strengths are Life Sciences and Fintech Results from the Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER), released last week, have revealed that Melbourne’s startup ecosystem value has […]
With the ongoing uncertainty caused by COVID-19, 2020 is shaping up to be one of the worst years on record economically, and Australian startups are particularly feeling the pinch as many investors withdraw funding. However, a silver lining, perhaps, is that the pandemic poses an opportunity for startups to challenge bigger businesses and to grow, adapt […]
Due to the current climate, university startups, research projects and jobs, have experienced funding withdrawal. They are being given the vital boost needed with prominent early-stage venture capital fund Stoic Venture Capital, as they increase their investment in startups that specifically commercialise university research and innovation. Stoic is seen to be bucking the trend of […]
Fintech Unicorn Airwallex seems to continue to go from strength to strength; the startup managed to complete its largest funding round (US$160M) mid-pandemic and has recently introduced WeChat Pay as part of its payment options, opening up the Asian marketplace to Australian business. The Melbourne-founded global leader was also recently recognised – in November last […]
Vu Tran, co-founder at Go1, talks us through why he thinks startups and digital transformation will be key in the economic recovery from COVID-19 in Australia. It would be an understatement for me to say that COVID-19 has changed the world and indeed the way many of us live. In Australia, though tragic in terms […]
The increase in remote workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic means that more users than ever are on the GO1 platform for remote learning. GO1.com, a content hub designed to help companies upscale their workforce with on-demand training, has announced it has raised over US$40 million in a Series C funding and has said it has […]
Financial technology startup and home loan disruptor, Verteva, has secured a AUD$33m Series A capital raise which has been funded entirely by New Zealand’s Bolton Equities. Founded just last year, Verveta has been in ‘stealth mode’ up until now, developing its product offering without any publicity. This is according to the founding CEO Andrew Walker, who along with […]
TECMASK has seen unforeseen and unplanned exponential business and sales growth of their face masks since the outbreak of coronavirus. Originally ridiculed for their business idea, sales have boomed since the demand increased with the spread of COVID19. In 2015, daughter and father duo Maddy and David Scarf founded TECMASK – a Sydney-based business that produces […]
Starting a business can be both challenging and rewarding. I caught the startup bug quite early in my career. From launching an import/export clothing company from my college room at uni, to founding an Australian education course aggregator in 2005, and then in 2013, co-founding Longtail UX alongside my business partner, Andreas Dzumla. Overall though, […]
The Seabin Project, an Australian ocean-cleaning startup, has raised more than $1,000,000 through crowdfunding since the launch of their new ‘Public, for Purpose’ campaign. The campaign is being hosted on the equity crowdfunding platform Birchal and has amassed over 660 public shareholders in just four days, with more than 1000 investors onboard at the time […]
Since its Australian launch in November 2019, American app Swimply has disrupted the sharing economy by giving Aussie beach lovers a reason to dive into their neighbour’s pool instead. With the popularity of sharing economy apps such as Uber, Airbnb and Airtasker, it is no surprise that an increasing number of these apps continue to hit […]
A decade and a half ago when I built my first company, the word “startup” was practically unheard of in Australia. When we talked about entrepreneurship, it was people starting small businesses or service based companies; and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s been the backbone of the economy for decades, particularly for migrant families […]
Last week, Sydney-based proptech company NurtureCloud announced its partnership with leading Australian real estate agency Ray White, bagging no less than $3 million. Broadly defined as the digital transformation of the real estate industry, proptech is the latest trend that offers technologically innovative products and model for businesses. The startup NurtureCloud has received $3 million investment […]
Coffee waste recycling startup, Reground, launched their sustainability initiative with no other than well-known coffee manufacturer Lavazza, at The Australian Open 2020. From Lavazza’s cafes at the tournament, Reground was looking at the collection of used coffee grounds from more than 200,000 coffees sold across the two-week event. Especially troubled by the volume of wasted […]
