It’s been another busy week for startup funding in Australia, with nine new startups seeing fresh funding.
To find out more about these innovative companies, keep reading.
Dash Technology Group: $22 million
This week’s funding round was led by fintech company Dash Technology Group, which completed a $22 million funding round led by ASX-listed capital fund Bailador Technology Investments.
Bailador announced a $20 million investment in the market on Monday. The deal will consist of an initial upfront investment of $15 million, followed by a follow-on investment of $5 million in January 2025.
The deal comes two months after Bailador invested $20 million in telemedicine startup UpDoc.
Dash Technology Group was formed in 2022 through the merger of Wealth02 and Roar Software and is chaired by Geoff Lloyd, a former chairman of the Financial Services Council.
The company operates a cloud-based financial advice and investment management software platform used by independent financial advisors (IFAs) and financial institutions.
Its goal is to make financial advice more affordable and democratize it, and according to a Bailador statement, the platform currently manages approximately $1 trillion on behalf of IFAs.
In a statement, Lloyd said Bailador and Dash shared the same vision of “delivering an innovative technology platform that enables IFAs to provide affordable financial advice to Australians”.
“With this new funding, Dash is extremely well positioned to expand investments in sales and marketing and accelerate its exciting product development roadmap,” he added.
As part of the investment, Bailador co-founder and managing partner David Kirk and partner James Johnstone will join Dash’s board of directors.
Sendr: $16 million
Sendle CEO James Chin Moody. Source: Provided
Courier delivery company Sendle has raised $16 million (US$11 million) to expand internationally and become profitable in all its markets.
Founder and CEO James Chin Moody said: Smart Company This week’s funding comes from Sendle’s existing investors, including Federation Asset Management, which backed the startup in a 2019 funding round.
according to Australian Financial Review (Commonwealth of Australia), the federation contributed $5 million to the funding round, valuing Sendle at $60 million. Commonwealth of Australia The capital increase is also reported to be a condition of investors being guaranteed four times their investment upon sale, which is considered unusual in the Australian market.
In a statement Smart CompanyChin Moody said the new funding “underscores investors’ confidence in the company’s strategic direction and commitment to growth expansion.”
“With this funding, we will focus on expanding our business internationally, increasing profitability in all markets, expanding our technology infrastructure and continuing to support our SME customers while becoming more competitive globally,” he said.
Chin-Moody said Sendle was already profitable in Australia and expected to grow in emerging markets.
“We’ve been operating in the U.S. for five years and in Canada for less than two years, but we’ve already seen incredible growth of over 100 percent year-over-year,” he said.
Redactive AI: $11.5 million
Redactive AI co-founders Lucas Sargent, Andrew Pankevicius, and Alexander Valente. Image: Redactive AI
Also raising funding this week was Redactive AI, a startup founded by Atlassian alumni that is building an enterprise-grade AI solutions platform.
Redactive AI has secured $11.5 million in a seed funding round led by Blackbird Ventures and US-based Felicis Ventures. Atlassian Ventures and automation software company Zapier also contributed to the round.
The startup was founded in September 2023 by former Atlassian product managers Andrew Pankevicius and Alexander Valente, and AI engineer Lucas Sargent.
Reports say Smart Company Launched earlier this week, the platform aims to address the shortage of AI engineering and security skills within enterprise software teams by empowering software engineers to develop secure generative AI applications that comply with strict data access, audit and AI governance requirements.
Andrew Pankevicius, co-founder of Redactive AI, said: Smart Company A startup’s competitive advantage comes from focusing on solving complex enterprise problems from the start.
“We’ve been tackling really tough problems from the get-go and I’m really proud that Redactive is an organisation that’s tackling big, tough challenges for enterprises and has been engaging with CIOs and CTOs from day one,” he said.
read more.
MilliBeam: $6 million
Australian semiconductor startup MilliBeam has raised $6 million in its latest funding round, which includes a $3 million investment from Breakthrough Victoria.
according to Capital BriefCSIRO’s deep tech fund, Main Sequence, also backed the startup at its launch in 2021, contributing $3 million in this latest round.
Millibeam is developing radio chipsets that use millimeter-wavelength (mmWave) technology for 5G and 6G communications networks to address congestion occurring in current 5G/6G bandwidths as more devices connect to these networks.
The Sydney-based startup is designing chipsets that use both existing low-frequency 5G spectrum and mmWave frequency 5G spectrum, making the design more energy efficient than other alternatives and using smart frequency switching capabilities.
Breakthrough Victoria said in a statement that the investment will see Millibeam expand its operations in Melbourne. The start-up already employs four full-time engineers in Melbourne and plans to hire a further four engineers and five technicians this year.
Millibeam also plans to establish semiconductor packaging capabilities in Victoria and enter into research partnerships with Victorian universities.
Co-founder and CEO Dr. Venkata Gutta said MilliBeam’s investor support will “help us bring breakthrough 5G/6G solutions to market faster.”
“With a clear vision, a team of innovators and the backing of forward-thinking investors like Breakthrough Victoria, Millibeam is leading the way in 5G disruption,” Mr Gatta added.
Market Boomer: $4.9 million
Sydney-based Market Boomer has raised $4.9 million in new funding in a round led by Salter Brothers Tech Fund, which will take a 20% stake in the raising platform alongside co-investors.
Marketboomer was founded in 1995 and provides a B2B procurement platform for hotels and suppliers in the hospitality industry called PurchasePlus.
The company has a presence in 23 countries and its network has over 10,000 active buyers and 20,000 active suppliers each month. The new funding will be used to expand its presence locally as well as in Southeast Asia and the UK.
The deal marks the Salter Brothers Tech Fund’s second since leading a bid to take small business lender Prospa private in February.
In a statement provided Smart CompanyGreg Taylor, head of equities at Salter Brothers, said the funding will provide Market Boomer with additional sales and client service resources to accelerate further growth and international expansion.
“The company recently achieved impressive historic organic revenue growth with a sub-1% churn rate.” He said.
Geromics: $2.2 million
Source: QIC/Gelomics
Brisbane biotech company Geromics has secured $2.2 million for a system to help eliminate animal testing in drug development.
The pre-seed funding round was led by Sydney venture capital fund Jelix Ventures, with participation from Queensland Investment Corporation’s (QIC) Enterprise Acceleration Fund and Angelloop.
Gelomics has developed technology that allows scientists to more accurately replicate human biology in a laboratory environment through 3D tissue culture systems that can replicate human organs and tissues at a microscopic level.
The goal is to contribute to improving the ethics, cost, reliability and efficiency of medical research and preclinical studies.
Geromics plans to use the funding to expand its operations in the United States, which it expects to create more than 70 jobs over the next five years.
The startup’s system could bring about major changes in medical research, said co-founder and CEO Dr. Christoph Meinert.
“More than 200 million animals are euthanized each year for research and drug development, even though more than 90 percent of potential drugs fail in human clinical trials despite successful animal testing,” he said in a QIC statement.
“This technology is not just a breakthrough in terms of innovation. It is a paradigm shift towards creating life-like human tissue models in the lab that are scalable to industrial requirements and fully compatible with current automated systems.”
Sable Rubber Technologies: $2 million
Sable Rubber Technologies has been in business for 20 years, but this week raised $2 million from high-net-worth investors through convertible bonds ahead of a planned listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2025.
According to reports, Commonwealth of AustraliaSable Rubber converts recycled rubber tires into products that can be used to make more tires or on sports fields and playgrounds.
The company was founded by a group of Queensland investors who commercialised technology developed by inventors, with customers including Australian Surface Supplies and affiliates of Bridgestone.
The venture is being led by Ruben Hanson, former Asia Pacific managing director at Big Ass Funds, and is expected to raise at least $10 million for a listing next year.
According to the company, this method consumes less energy than other tire disposal methods and recycles used tires at low temperatures, which also reduces CO2 emissions.
Resimy: $1.5 million
L-R: ReciMe founders Ivy Nguyen, Will Kent, and Christine Nguyen. Source: Provided
Melbourne-based cooking app ReciMe has raised $1.5 million from a group of high-profile investors, including former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
ReciMe was founded in 2021 by Christine Nguyen, Ivy Nguyen, and Will Kent, who moved to New York earlier this year to scale the startup. The company has previously raised pre-seed funding from Alice Anderson Fund, Even Capital, and Tractor Ventures co-founder Jody Imam.
The startup targets home cooks, offering them a way to aggregate recipes from various sources onto a single platform.
The latest seed funding round was led by existing investor Even Capital, a New Zealand-based venture capital fund, and included participation from Mayer, Ancestry.com CEO Deb Liu, Letterboxd founder Karl von Randow, and prominent Australian e-commerce founder and investor Paul Greenberg.
ReciMe now has 800,000 users, with over 100,000 unique recipes imported into the app.
read more.
Care Square: $300,000
Software startup Caresquare has raised $300,000 in seed funding for its platform that aims to increase efficiency for administrators using the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
The startup was founded in February by Joshua Santap, who studied law at the University of Sydney and later worked at software startup Hospopay.
according to Commonwealth of AustraliaThe funding will come from Ace Ventures, a venture capital fund run by Michael Frages, the tech investor who also runs the international equities-focused Frages Capital fund.
Ace Ventures acquired a 10% stake in Caresquare, valuing the company at $3 million.
Caresquare is reportedly already profitable and is projected to reach $2.6 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of fiscal 2025.
The platform helps NDIS plan managers automate workflows and improve claims processes and fraud detection.
Sign up to make sure you never miss a story Smart Company Free daily newsletter Find the best stories LinkedIn.
