This Month
The $1.3b fund targeting Aussie start-up founders
The VC firm formerly known as Sequoia India is looking to place more bets on Aussie founders looking past the collapse of grocery delivery start-up Voly.
- Tess Bennett
- Exclusive
- Funding
High-profile founders cash in as tech investor confidence returns
Big funding rounds are returning to the Australian tech centres and Local Measure and Darwinium are the latest to raise without hurting their valuations.
- Paul Smith and Tess Bennett
Good luck, rich parents and Canva: how Blackbird made millionaires
The names of some of those making a fortune from Blackbird’s first VC fund are surprising. One of them, Rayn Ong, says his good fortune was ‘life-changing’.
- Paul Smith
Collapsed Providoor re-emerges, bringing celeb chef meals to your home
The high-end restaurant marketplace has been scooped up by Sam Benjamin, who runs Sydney-based Seventh Street Ventures.
- Paul Smith
Call centre AI pivot (and AWS surge) helps Local Measure raise $7.9m
The Funded blog is the new home for news on the tech deals that are done in Australia, as soon as we hear about them.
- Updated
- Paul Smith
- Exclusive
- Funding
Employment Hero secures $263m in year’s biggest capital raising
The human resources technology firm has shrugged off depressed private tech market sentiment and is now valued at just shy of $2 billion.
- Paul Smith
Big ideas trump commercialisation for new CSIRO boss
Doug Hilton has laid out plans for it to help answer the big questions facing society, while also making some money along the way.
- Updated
- Tess Bennett
- Exclusive
- Funding
Canva won’t list before 2025, but investors will still get rich soon
The graphic design software company is such a success that guessing when its IPO will be held has become a parlour game for the Australian technology sector.
- Nick Bonyhady
- Analysis
- The Breakdown
When Atlassian buying your start-up for $1.5b is a mixed bag
The Aussie software giant paid a fortune for a video-messaging tech firm on Friday. But what was behind the deal, and was it a good idea?
- Nick Bonyhady
The Aussie tech start-up trying to crack the corridors of Westminster
GovConnex, a tech platform for lobbyists, is barely out of the blocks at home but already eyeing up Britain. Here’s their plan to get a foot in the door.
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Exclusive
- Funding
Big money is back as space tech start-up raises $120m
Skykraft, which is building satellites to communicate with aircraft in flight anywhere in the world, has closed one of the year’s biggest investments.
- Paul Smith
Big four-backed growth fund hunts for cutting-edge investment ideas
Australian Business Growth Fund chief Anthony Healy wants to inject more capital into sectors such as technology, cybersecurity, manufacturing and defence.
- John Kehoe
Lachlan Murdoch asked Google chief to lift ban on start-up he backed
Failed Aussie start-up Unlockd has made a last-ditch plea to a US judge to let it take Google to court for banning its app before investing millions in a rival.
- Paul Smith
- Exclusive
- Jobs
Big business used to offshore jobs. Canva is helping start-ups do it too
Growing start-ups are increasingly hiring in Manila, the low-cost outsourcing destination that has grown beyond stereotypical customer service roles.
- Nick Bonyhady
- Exclusive
- Funding
Milkrun investors to get back less than 20¢ in the dollar
The company went into liquidation with enough money to repay all its suppliers, staff and landlords, unlike some start-ups that end up depending on the taxpayer.
- Updated
- Nick Bonyhady
- Exclusive
- Venture capital
Forrest, Denholm families unite to create more female millionaires
Aliavia Ventures co-founder Marisa Warren says women in venture capital are still underrepresented at the general and managing partner level.
- Tess Bennett
‘Nice to charge in USD’: Aussie start-ups’ unexpected boon
Australian technology companies that have their workers in Australia and most customers in the United States are winners from the dollar’s weakness.
- Nick Bonyhady and Tess Bennett
Eucalyptus’ Pilot makes pitch to randy coke fiends
It’s a brief pivot from the annoyances of “coke dick” to spruiking Pilot’s erectile dysfunction treatments.
- Myriam Robin
Australian FTX creditors’ long wait | Metigy investors’ texts | A closer look at Airwallex
The Australian Financial Review’s new tech newsletter The Download takes an insightful look at the week’s biggest tech stories, deals and trends.
- Nick Bonyhady
The Glassdoor post that spelt out Airwallex grief
Former staff say they felt partly motivated to write more negative reviews because they believed newer employees were being encouraged to write positive ones.
- Lucas Baird and Jonathan Shapiro
