Startup Daily
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Startup Daily is a trusted media source covering the Australian and New Zealand startup and tech ecosystems. startup Daily has been inspiring, educating, and reporting on the Australian tech and startup community since 2012.
Startup Daily
14h ago
US climate tech investor Sophie Purdom has made her first international investment via her New York VC fund Planeteer Capital, leading a $5.3 million Seed round.
Purdom visited Sydney late last year as a keynote speaker at Climate Salad‘s Climate Tech Festival, which featured more than 50 Australian climate tech startups.
The one she’s picked as her first offshore bet is Tasmanian carbon accounting startup Sumday.
The round was also supported by existing backers Blackbird, Possible Ventures and Wedgetail Ventures, as well as Canva cofounder Cameron Adams.
Sumday previously raised $2 million i ..read more
Startup Daily
14h ago
Ahead of Startmate Demo Day on May 2 in Sydney at Blackbird’s Sunrise, Startup Daily is profiling the 10 startups involved.
Today it’s New Zealand startup Kiwifibre, which is hoping to build race cars from plants.
KiwiFibre creates natural fibre composite materials from Harakeke – a natively grown New Zealand wonder plant, and one of the world’s strongest natural fibres.
From snowboards to satellites, the fibre-fuelled startup, helmed by a couple of 20-year-olds, has created a fibreglass replacement that is healthier, more sustainable, and superior in almost every way to its fossil fuel ..read more
Startup Daily
14h ago
The New York-based cofounder of New Zealand subletting startup Kiki, Toby Thomas-Smith, is blunt in his own performance assessment.
“When we launched Kiki.nyc last year I fucked up,” he’s written on LinkedIn, after the business shuttered its New York launch after 3 months, only to revive it late last month amid controversy over plans to launch a “girls only club” called Girls Who NYC in the Big Apple.
“We raised a big round, had big goals and tried to hit those as fast as possible but ended up sacrificing quality along the way,” Thomas-Smith wrote.
While posting photos outside Airbnb, claiming ..read more
Startup Daily
14h ago
Demonstrably false claims and misinformation have been prominently featured on X, including by Verified users, following the Bondi Junction attack, as the social media platform again fails to grapple with a major breaking news story.
Twitter was once the go-to platform for real-time, breaking news stories, often led by journalists boasting verified blue ticks.
But following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform in late 2022 and a name change to X, a series of decisions including the slashing of moderation and safety staff and the opening up of verification to anyone in exchange for a payme ..read more
Startup Daily
14h ago
Anxiety is a huge issue that many in society go through. It is considered the most common mental health condition in Australia and America.
More than one in six Australians had an anxiety disorder such as social phobia or post-traumatic stress disorder in the previous 12 months, while in America, over 40 million adults accounting for 19.1% of the population suffer from anxiety disorders.
This has caused stress in relationships and cost Australian businesses up to $39 billion annually, and The American Institute of Stress reports that anxiety and stress cost American businesses up to $300 ..read more
Startup Daily
1d ago
A startup turning agricultural waste into activated carbon, which is used to filter environmental toxins, has raised $2.6 million in a Series A.
Government-backed investment fund Breakthrough Victoria chipped in $1 million, joined by VCs Alberts Impact Ventures, Investible, Artesian and Startmate.
The funds will support the testing and establishment of Bygen’s large-scale production plant, with future plans to build more commercial plants in Australia and overseas. Bygen hopes to create up to 65 new jobs in Victoria over the next five years.
The green tech startup was originally founded by res ..read more
Startup Daily
2d ago
Western Australian self-manage care platform PlanCare has topped up its Seed round to $2.5 million from existing backer Purpose Ventures.
The new Perth VC originally backed PlanCare in July 2023, and the additional funding is the first follow-on investment from Purpose.
PlanCare founder Dave Newman previously ran Morning Startup for more than a decade and launch his healthtech startup to help people access and manage home care packages . The company charges a flat fee of 13% for self-managed care and is planned to launch full managed care packages at a 23% flat fee.
The company also deals with ..read more
Startup Daily
2d ago
Australia is a trading nation. Its economy relies on a strong and open global trade environment.
Australian governments have historically rejected protectionist industrial policies that undermine fair competition, and Canberra has long been a staunch advocate of the World Trade Organisation, whose rules help “promote and protect the open global trading system”.
Yet Labor has just announced a major new industrial policy – the Future Made in Australia Act – that will break with Canberra’s historical aversion to large-scale economic intervention. It will also cost taxpayers billions to fund.
Prim ..read more
Startup Daily
2d ago
Victorian startup Diversity Atlas, a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) data analytics platform, has raised $6 million in a bridge round.
The capital came via Canadian impact investment platform Gener8 VC.
The Melbourne-based startup is looking to double the size of its current team of 35 as it expands into new markets in the EU and North America. It’s already being used in 40 countries across the globe.
Diversity Atlas emerged out of Cultural Infusion, with the kernel of the idea starting with R&D in 2016 before launching in 2019. Two years later, the startup began working with Am ..read more
Startup Daily
2d ago
Clean energy startup MGA Thermal, has raised an additional $5.7 million to develop its thermal energy storage (TES) system.
This round was backed by existing investors including Main Sequence and Melt Ventures with specialist clean tech investor JEKARA joining the cap table.
The new capital tops up an $8 million in September last year. MGA Thermal has now raised $28.8 million in total through funding and grants.
Other investors include Varley Holdings, New Zealand’s Climate Venture Capital Fund, Pollination Group and Understorey Ventures.
The Hunter Valley startup has developed what ..read more