Dynamic Business brings you the key startup fundraising and M&A rounds from this week:
Shippit raises $65m Series B2 led by Tiger Global and Tidal Ventures
Shippit, Australia’s leading logistics tech platform, has completed a $65 million Series B2 capital raise to fuel the company’s global expansion. Tiger Global and Tidal Ventures co-led the funding round, with SecondQuarter Ventures leading the secondary component.
Shippit will use the funds to support customer acquisition, product development, and expansion in ANZ and South-East Asia and power its ambition to deliver 200 million shipments without waste by 2025 and invest in other organic growth opportunities.
Hero Packaging meets $1.5 million crowdfunding goals
Hero Packaging, an Australian pioneer in eco-packaging, has received a strong response to its global crowdfunding Equitise campaign, with $1.5 million already raised.
The funds will be used to scale up their North American operations.
Reddit to offer US$1m in community grants, including Australian subreddits
Reddit has announced a new $1 million community fund scheme that will provide grants of up to $50,000 to subreddits across its platform, including Australian communities.
This is the first time a scheme like this has been announced since Reddit opened its doors in Australia in July of last year. In June, Reddit will accept nominations for projects requiring funding ranging from $1,000 to $50,000.
Mining tech and CSIRO-backed Chrysos Corp commences trading on the ASX
Chrysos Corporation began trading on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker symbol C79. Chrysos is valued at $535 million on an enterprise value basis and $637 million on a market capitalisation basis, according to its IPO price.
As of February 2022, Chrysos had 33 PhotonAssay units either deployed or contracted and has attained 5.4 per cent market penetration in a total addressable market of 610 PhotonAssay units. The funds raised will support the Company’s growth strategy, which includes deploying additional PhotonAssay units worldwide.
PhotonAssay, a CSIRO technology that X-rays gold, has been commercialised by Chrysos as the first major advancement in mineral assaying.
Shopify buys logistics startup Deliverr for $2.1b
Shopify announced that it would pay $2.1 billion in cash and stock to acquire Deliverr, a San Francisco, California-based e-commerce fulfilment startup.
Before the Shopify acquisition, Deliverr had raised $490.9 million in the capital. Deliverr forecasts product demand based on geography and other variables and then uses the analysis to “pre-position” items near high demand areas, stock items across its warehouses and sort centres, and determine the best delivery method to ship to customers.
The deal is the largest in Shopify’s history, and Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lütke say it will allow the company to create an “end-to-end logistics” platform for millions of merchants.
Advanced Navigation buys ANU startup Vai Photonics for $40 million
Vai Photonics, a Canberra startup spun out of Australian National University last year to help vehicles navigate without GPS, has been acquired by Advanced Navigation, a Sydney tech company, in a deal worth up to $40 million.
Vai Photonics has a team of seven engineers building sensors that allow vehicles to navigate with precision and confidence when GPS is either unavailable or unreliable.
Advanced Navigation, based in Sydney, has been working in the same field for over a decade, and its clients include Airbus, Boeing, Google, Apple, and General Motors.
One Key Access raises $1 million in pre-Seed round
One Key Access, a Melbourne startup, has raised $1 million in a pre-Seed round to address the issue of parcel theft for apartment deliveries. Chanel Costabir and Raymond Ngai, both former Australia Post employees, co-founded the startup last year as part of the Antler programme.
Biotech startup Ankere Therapeutics lands $10m Seed round
Ankere Therapeutics, a biotech startup, has raised $10 million in seed capital to develop new therapies for inflammatory diseases, particularly the lungs.
The funding round, co-led by IP Group and Brandon Capital through Brandon BioCatalyst, will help the company progress through pre-clinical development and clinical trials.
Canberra-based Aurabox banks $500K Angel round
Aurabox, a Canberra-based medical imaging startup, has raised $500,000 in Angel funding to transform how doctors and patients collaborate and share medical imaging.
Aurabox, founded in 2021, is a software-as-a-service platform that allows doctors and patients to share medical imaging in real-time.
The MedTech startup will use the funds to complete technical development and run a private beta before launching later in 2022.
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