Startup Radar is our weekly round-up of new companies and launches worth a founder's attention, from Australia, the US and the rest of the world.
Australia
Metacognition: Metacognition is building software to make AI agents and robots reliable enough to carry out tasks with real consequences. The Adelaide startup says its stack includes an operating system called Zeos, navigation models, and reasoning and memory tools that help machines remember instructions, respond safely to emergencies and work over days and weeks. It was founded earlier this year by professors Anton van den Hengel and Stephen Gould, alongside Dr Paul Dalby. Metacognition has raised $10 million in a pre-Seed round and this week received a further $5 million from Airtree, extending the round to $15 million. The money will support development of its software for robots and AI agents, including work that began with simulations for industrial systems such as open-cut mines and electricity grids. The company also released NavGPT-3 with collaborators, which it says sets a world benchmark for robots navigating by following verbal directions.
Dalet Labs: Dalet Labs is an AI-commerce startup launching Scene, a shopping app that uses AI-generated images to help people discover products rather than search for them. The company says the app shows lifelike scenes featuring real products across brands and categories, with each user interaction shaping what appears next and purchases completed through a unified checkout inside the app. Founded in 2025 by Omer Bar-Tal, who previously worked at AI video startup Runway, it is based in New York City. Dalet Labs has raised a $7 million pre-seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from SV Angel and angel investors. The company says the capital will be used to expand its engineering and research teams as it builds out its first product, and that it has already onboarded hundreds of brands and retailers.
Brumby: Brumby is a farm drone start-up that uses autonomous drones and artificial intelligence to help farmers with cattle mustering and other on-farm work. The Queensland innovation body says its GrazeMate system lets farmers guide livestock, monitor pastures, estimate herd weights and inspect fences and water points, reducing reliance on helicopters, motorbikes and manual labour. It was founded by North Queensland grazier and robotics engineer Sam Rogers, who grew up on a cattle station near Bowen, and is based in Sydney. Brumby has raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding backed by Y Combinator, NextGen Ventures and Antler. The money is supporting its expansion across Queensland, New South Wales and the United States.
Ansight: Ansight connects coding agents to live apps so they can inspect, debug and verify their own work in real time. The Brisbane startup says developers no longer need to reproduce bugs by hand or dig through screenshots and logs because its product gives agents visibility into what is happening inside the software they are changing. It was founded by Martin Mora and Matthew Robbins, who lived the problem while building Red-Point, a complex 3D mobile app, and Robbins is described as a long-time Microsoft MVP with more than 15 years building mobile developer tools. Ansight says agents can inspect the app, take action and verify fixes before anything ships, turning guesswork into evidence.
HiveKeepers: HiveKeepers makes the Micro Honey Harvester, a small-scale device that allows hobbyist and small-scale beekeepers to harvest small amounts of honey without the heavy lifting and cleanup of traditional methods. The Victorian business says the system uses small plastic cassettes that are removed from the hive and then spun in the harvester to extract honey without first removing the wax cap. It began as firefighter Simon Mildren’s beekeeping hobby, and he developed the idea into working prototypes, including an early model built on a modified salad spinner. HiveKeepers sells through specialist retailers in Australia, New Zealand, the US and the UK, and it says a Kickstarter campaign in 2025 raised $110,000 from some 170 backers. The company is based in Melbourne and was founded in 2016.
Duets: Duets is developing an online platform for startups in sports, entertainment and the creator economy to find investor connections, expert guidance and business resources. Founded by Cristina Pimentel and Caitlin Glazebrook, it says founders can browse and book sessions for strategic support from the early stages through launch and initial traction, while experts and talent can sign up for future opportunities. Pimentel is described as a leader in the media startup industry, and Glazebrook as a VC and startup ecosystem-building veteran. The platform also offers a limited free trial for founders, a free Ideator tier for universities and nonprofits, and paid subscriptions for investors seeking introductions to vetted early-stage companies. Duets says it reviews startups before matching them with resources and prepares them for investor introductions.
BBNET: BBNET is a payments network for intermediated insurance that sits beneath existing policy, claims and accounting systems. The Australia-based company says it helps MGAs, brokers and carriers reconcile remittances, automate bordereaux and see their whole book on one platform, with premium, payment and bordereaux data moving together in real time. It says money and data should move on the same record, with a shared event log, secure communication and audit trail built into the network. BBNET also says its ledger is designed to support governed AI workflows, delegated authority oversight and real-time visibility across the premium lifecycle.
US
Ollie: Ollie is a privacy-focused AI assistant and subscription app for families that is shutting down a week after its co-founder and CEO Bill Lennon announced the closure. The US startup, founded by Lennon, connected to users’ email and calendar and offered help with appointment bookings, meal planning and bill payments, while the company says its service worked through text with no app or login. Ollie said it had raised $7.5 million in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures, and that it achieved SOC 2 Type 1 compliance and did not sell or use customer data to train AI models. Lennon said the app will close on November 6, and customers will receive instructions to export data and get refunds in the coming days.
Origin: Origin is a San Francisco-based full-stack physical AI startup building general-purpose robots for interior construction. The company says its flagship robot, OG-1, is designed to automate interior trades such as wall finishing and painting, using modular hardware, real-time job-site intelligence and simulation-trained autonomy. It has emerged from stealth with $20 million in total funding, co-led by Accel and Zacua Ventures, with backing from Unilazer Ventures, Schema Ventures, Z21, ISAI and Imad Ventures, plus angel investors from Anduril, Skild AI, 1X and Tesla. The money will go towards deploying OG-1, building out its fleet, supporting pilots with customers in the U.S. and Europe, and extending the platform to new interior trades.
Warp Sciences: Warp Sciences is a U.S.-based chemistry contract research organisation that uses chemists, robotics and AI to make and test molecules for drug discovery teams. The startup emerged from stealth with $215 million in funding to build infrastructure that helps biotech and pharmaceutical companies discover new medicines faster, and says its customers keep control of which molecules to pursue. Its first service focuses on lead optimisation analog synthesis, shortening the path from molecular design to tested compound while giving customers more control over where sensitive research takes place. TechCrunch reported the round was led by Lightspeed, with participation from IVP, Mayfield, Lux Capital, Premji Invest and Menlo Ventures, while other coverage said additional investors included Conviction, 01 Advisors, Standard, Lowercarbon Capital, Gigascale Capital, Angular Ventures, Scribble Ventures, Uncork Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Matter VP, Zero Shot Fund, SignalFire and Moxxie Ventures.
Northstar Security: Northstar Security is a San Francisco-based cybersecurity startup developing an artificial intelligence platform to identify and remediate risks across enterprise IT environments. Founded by CEO Amer Deeba and CTO Ed Rowe, the company says its security data context platform addresses fragmented information across assets, identities, vulnerabilities and business systems by integrating data from multiple tools and using AI agents to support operational workflows. It has emerged from stealth with $7 million in seed funding led by Wing Venture Capital, with participation from MVP, Outliers and cybersecurity veterans Gerhard Eschelbeck, Renaud Deraison and Justin Somaini. The company says the funding will accelerate product development, team expansion and go-to-market efforts.
AvalonX: AvalonX is an AI-driven offensive security startup headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, offering a continuous penetration testing platform for small and midsize businesses. The company says its Artemis platform combines autonomous testing agents with human validation, using proprietary Aether security AI trained on nine years of real-world attack and defence data to test for potential attack paths before criminals can exploit them. It has emerged from 18 months of stealth with up to $10 million from Ridown Capital, and says the system is designed to give smaller organisations access to offensive security testing previously reserved for larger enterprises. AvalonX said the platform can deliver initial results on the same day and maps findings to standards including SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS 4.0 and HIPAA.
Ultra Security: Ultra Security is a Detroit-based agentic security platform that sits between AI agents and the MCP servers and connectors they call. The company says its software gives organisations real-time visibility and guardrails so they can see and control what autonomous agents are doing as it happens, rather than after the fact. Ultra has emerged from stealth with $10 million in seed funding from Ludlow Ventures, Hidden Capital, Entrée Capital, Detroit Venture Partners, firedrop, FDVC and angel investors, and the company says it was founded in 2025 by Chase Lee, former founder and CEO of Trustpage, which was acquired by Vanta. It says the platform is already being used with customers and design partners to secure AI agents and govern AI use.
Atomic: Atomic is a New York-based supply chain planning software company founded in 2023. The company says its AI models every unit a business makes, buys and moves, tests every what-if and explains every decision, with a composable platform built for planners rather than rigid systems or spreadsheets. It raised a $3 million seed round led by Madrona and DVx Ventures in April 2025, and later closed a $12.5 million Series A led by Madrona and Klass Capital. Atomic says DashMart, DoorDash’s convenience and essentials store, runs daily purchasing on its platform, while Good Chop uses it to plan supply and place purchase orders.
Helicon: Helicon is an LA-based composites startup that has emerged from stealth and raised $16.5 million. The round was led by AlleyCorp, with participation from Buckley Ventures and Mike Chalfen, plus angel investors including Eileen Tanghal, Gokul Rajaram, Lucas Vaz, Frederik Hjelm, Pablo Palafox and Charlie Songhurst. Co-founder and CEO Alex Niehaus said the funding will be used to scale up its automated production line for composite structures for UAVs, specifically Group 1–3 drones. He said the company’s view is that the main bottleneck in composites is highly skilled composite engineers, not the material itself.
Zest: Zest is a restaurant discovery app that launched in November 2024 and now offers an AI-powered restaurant concierge over text. The app uses users’ credit card data, imported via Plaid and limited to food and drink transactions, to personalise recommendations based on where they actually eat, then lets them check availability and book through connected services including OpenTable, Resy and SevenRooms. Founder and CEO Mario Gomez-Hall said the company raised $1.8 million in pre-seed backing from Alexis Ohanian at 776 and Steve Jang at Kindred Ventures, and that it began testing the concierge last month before launching bookings. The startup says it is using the text-based product to scale beyond its initial thousands of users and generate revenue.
ernd: ernd is the credit card for companies that pay for AI, based in San Francisco. The company says card spend at AI vendors earns 4% back, while everything else earns 1.5%, and it negotiates partnerships with AI providers to secure better pricing, higher usage limits and priority support for cardholders. It says it is backed by Y Combinator and that its founders combine experience in quant finance at Bridgewater and IMC, payments at Ripple, financial AI at Farsight and founding an investment fund focused on distressed industrial acquisitions. In its first 48 hours, ernd says it onboarded 10 startups and landed five vendor partnerships.
Other
MuRay: MuRay is a deeptech startup that develops muon imaging for industrial inspection, using the technology to let manufacturers see inside dense components and spot potentially dangerous defects. The Hamburg-based company says its system can inspect items such as 3D-printed rocket engines and turbines, and its work also targets quality control inside metal components and other dense materials. MuRay has operations connected to Tallinn, Hamburg and Cambridge, and the company says it was founded by Andi Hektor, a co-founder, and Kristjan Põder, a co-founder and scientist. It has raised €7.1m in its first major investment round, led by First Momentum Ventures and Caelora, with the money to help turn its research into an industrial product. The company says its initial focus is on critical metallic and ceramic components used in aerospace, energy, automotive and other high-value manufacturing.
Bleu Robotics: Bleu Robotics builds AI software for humanoid robots that the company says can be taught new tasks in under an hour with a few demonstrations, so factories can reassign them when products or processes change. The Paris-based startup is targeting industrial humanoids for manual work on high-mix, low-volume production lines, where it says fixed robots are hard to redeploy and more than 75% of industrial tasks are still done manually. Its founders are Benoît Berkoukchi, Jean-Baptiste Mouret and Serena Ivaldi, who are described as researchers from INRIA and industrial expertise in the company’s spin-out material. The company says its software uses learning by demonstration and that it is building a sovereign European solution for factory automation.
Tendos: Tendos is a German construction-tech startup that, according to its company profile, is building a KI-platform for manufacturers in the construction industry. The company says its AI agents find relevant tenders, process requests, create offers and automate the ordering process for object sales teams. It is based in München and was founded in 2024. Tendos has raised €12 million in a seed round led by Insight Partners, with Discovery Ventures, FlixFounders and angel investors Felix Jahn, Sebastian Schuon and Hanno Renner also joining. The company says the platform is designed to integrate with CRM and ERP workflows for manufacturers serving the construction market.
Amplicity: Amplicity is a Singapore-headquartered energy technology startup that turns idle data centre backup batteries into productive energy assets. The company says its proprietary technology can repurpose existing backup systems and new installations so data centres, industrial facilities and critical infrastructure operators can cut electricity costs, generate recurring revenue and decarbonise while preserving backup requirements. It says there is about 160 MWh of battery capacity sitting on standby in Singapore’s data centres, and it is in talks with more than 20 prospective customer sites across Asia Pacific. Amplicity has closed a US$1.01 million seed round backed by Loyal VC. The company plans to enter Japan in 2027.
Machenta: Machenta is a robotics startup that says its AI model can teach a robot to perform tasks from a single demonstration. The London-based spinout from Imperial College London came out of stealth this week and is building a robot foundation model it calls “Instant Robot Learning”, designed to make teaching robots faster and simpler than the hours or days usually needed for data collection and training. Machenta was founded by Edward Johns, Professor of Robot Learning at Imperial College London, and his PhD student Vitalis Vosylius, and Johns says the work began six years ago at the university. The company has raised $40 million in a seed round co-led by Creandum and Union Square Ventures, and says it will use the funding to scale its technology and grow its team. It says the model was trained entirely in simulation and can guide robots through tasks such as packaging, assembling and tidying.
Enact Intelligence: Enact Intelligence is a Zurich-based physical AI startup that is building robots able to sense force and touch through their motors rather than separate sensors. The company says most robots rely mainly on cameras, which makes it harder to manipulate objects, work reliably and learn from experience, while haptic sensors can be too costly or fragile for factory work. Enact was founded in March by Manuel Yves Galliker, who previously led software for 1X’s NEO humanoid and later worked at robotics lab Physical Intelligence. It has raised a $30m pre-seed round, which the company says is one of the largest pre-seed raises in Europe to date, from redalpine, Notion Capital and firstminute capital, with angel investors including Arthur Mensch and Yann LeCun. Enact plans to grow its team fivefold by the end of 2027.
Stryv: Stryv sells personal care electronics and has expanded into massage chairs and air purifiers, with the company now adding categories, markets and potentially whole brands. The Singapore company built its name on hair dryers, stylers, shavers and oral care, and it says the next phase includes entering Taiwan, deepening its business in Malaysia and Hong Kong, and widening its product range through more research and development and acquisitions. Stryv has raised US$11.5 million in a Series B round led by ACV Capital, with Openspace Capital and OCTAVE Capital among the backers. The business says it acquired Singapore-based Sterra in March 2026, and at the time of that deal Stryv claimed more than 300,000 households across Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Sterra said it was present in 200,000 households.
Ravical: Ravical is an AI workspace for accountancy, tax and audit firms that, according to its website, helps surface client opportunities, automate prep work and deliver advisory at scale. The Ghent-based company says its platform connects with firms’ existing systems so teams can work with client-specific information, review files, identify risks and opportunities, and standardise processes across the firm. It says more than 100 accounting firms across Europe already use the platform, including firms in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. Ravical has raised $17m in a seed round led by MMC Ventures, with existing investors Lakestar and Pitchdrive and new investor Shapers also participating. The company says the funding will support expansion across the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as entry into the US market.
RouterPlus: RouterPlus is a marketplace for AI inference that finds the right model for a team’s product and serves it at the team’s scale and price point. The Bengaluru-based company says it tests models on a customer’s own traffic, recommends one, has providers compete for the workload and keeps a backup provider ready so teams can call the model through one API. Its website says the platform is aimed at teams building with multiple AI models or looking for a better fit for their workload, and says its largest customer runs 3 million agent conversations a day on RouterPlus.
Talky: Talky builds AI accounting software for large firms, and the company says its software learns how each company keeps its own books. The Madrid startup has raised €1.5M in a pre-seed round from HelloWorld, Silence VC and Motive Force, with no lead investor named. Business angels Sebastián Gunningham, CEO of Remitly; Paul Golbaum, CEO of Lightbase and former CTO of Seedtag; and Javier Morenés, the first investor in Onum, also joined the round. Talky says the money will go into AI for accounting at large companies.
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