Here are the six funding stories worth knowing about last week.
MAKO raises AU$28 million Series A
Australian aerospace technology company MAKO, formerly known as MicroTau, has closed a AU$28 million Series A led by Virescent Ventures, with participation from International Airlines Group through its venture arm IAGi Ventures, Zero Infinity Partners, Grok Ventures, Skip Capital, IP Group, and TreeArc. The funds will be used to scale production and global deployment of Flightfilm, a drag-reducing adhesive film inspired by shark skin that improves flight efficiency by reducing fuel consumption by up to 4% per aircraft.
The close marks Virescent Ventures’ seventh investment from Fund II, which has raised over $155 million in commitments from cornerstone investors including the CEFC, Westpac, QIC, Breakthrough Victoria, and others.
Pie raises $23.7 million
New York-based Pie, an AI-powered growth platform built for small businesses, has raised a $19.5 million Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, bringing its total funding to $23.7 million. The round included participation from Capital One Ventures, Max Levchin’s SciFi VC, F-Prime, Commerce Ventures, WEX Venture Capital, and existing investors.
Founded by former Square and Toast operators Syed Ali and Akhil Mantripragada, Pie is building what it describes as the growth infrastructure layer for Main Street businesses at a time when customer discovery is shifting across AI search, Google, and digital channels.
New Energy Transport raises $5 million
Sydney-based electric trucking startup New Energy Transport has raised $5 million from venture capital firm Jekara Group, accelerating the deployment of its heavy-duty electric truck fleet by more than six months. Twenty electric prime movers will now hit Australian roads before the end of 2026, rather than mid-2027 as originally planned. The funding will also cover six additional ultra-fast mobile charging units that can be placed along freight corridors and redeployed as needed without being fixed to the ground.
Co-CEO Daniel Bleakley said demand from major transport buyers had surged in recent months, driven in part by rising diesel prices following conflict in the Middle East. The company is building a high-powered charging hub in Wilton, south-west of Sydney, with plans to extend its reach to Adelaide, Melbourne, and Brisbane by 2031.
Emesent raises $15 million plus $10 million
Brisbane drone mapping scaleup Emesent has closed $15 million in a SAFE Note backed by existing investor Main Sequence, New York’s Orion Resource Partners, Queensland government investment vehicle QIC, and superannuation funds NGS and Hostplus. The CSIRO spinout also secured $10 million in venture debt from the federal government’s National Reconstruction Fund, marking the NRF’s first ever venture debt deal. The funds will go toward product development, batch manufacturing at Emesent’s production facility in Wacol west of Brisbane, and development of its Cortex AI software platform. Emesent’s flagship product, Hovermap, creates 3D maps of hazardous and GPS-denied environments including underground mine sites and has been deployed across more than 200 mine sites globally. Clients include Rio Tinto, BHP, and Glencore. The company employs 109 people and expects to create 21 new roles with the new capital.
Fluent raises $2 million
Melbourne University spinout Fluent has raised $2 million to develop a brain-computer interface designed to help people with neurological disorders that impair speech communicate using their thoughts. The round was backed by the University of Melbourne’s Genesis Pre-Seed Fund, Pacific Channel, Galileo Ventures, Multiple Sclerosis WA, New York’s Jumpspace Ventures, and London’s Founder’s Factory. Fluent’s device is inserted under the scalp but outside the skull, sitting above the motor cortex and using machine learning to convert brain activity into text or audio.
Preliminary human testing at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne confirmed signal quality is comparable whether electrodes are placed beneath or outside the scalp, with a 96% accuracy rate achieved in isolating the correct phrase from a pool of 128 options. Clinical studies of Fluent’s insertable electrodes are planned for later this year.
WA government commits $150,000 to Perth Landing Pad
The Western Australian government has committed a further $150,000 to the Perth Landing Pad, a 90-day program based at coworking hub Spacecubed that gives international startups a guided entry point into Western Australia’s technology ecosystem. The program has now been used by more than 100 international companies and operates seven international Memoranda of Understanding with partners in India, Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea, and Indonesia. Participants receive access to mentoring, local business connections, co-working and community spaces, and guidance on longer-term residency in WA.
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