Three Aussie startups that raised $9.7 million this week

The three Australian startups that raised new funding this week are building platforms to transform the advertising sector, bring a plan B to VC funding, and close the gender pay gap.

Keep reading to learn more.

Cuttable: $5.5 million

AI-powered adtech startup Cuttable has raised $5.5 million in a seed funding round led by prominent venture capital firm Square Peg.

Rampersand and strategic angel investors have also backed the startup, which was co-founded by Sam Kroonenburg, Jack White and Ed Ring.

Kroonenburg co-founded A Cloud Guru with his brother Ryan Kroonenburg and went on to sell it for more than $2 billion in 2021, while White is the co-founder of Sunday Gravy and Ring previously worked in marketing at Swisse.

Cuttable describes itself as a “first-of-its-kind automated content agency” that aims to marry creative advertising with AI to create high-quality digital ads at scale.

The startup’s goal is to help both marketers and agencies meet a growing demand for more personalised, and powerful, digital content.

Coinciding with the funding announcement, Cuttable also announced that Kroonenburg will be stepping into a co-CEO role with White and Square Peg co-founder and partner Paul Bassat will join Cuttable’s board.

Cuttable is already working with Woolworths-owned brand Catch.com.au, and OnePass, and counts the likes of Medibank, Nando’s, Penfolds, Powershop, and DiDi among its clients.

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Fundabl: $3.2 million

Sydney-based venture debt startup Fundabl has raised $3.2 million in an equity round to coincide with the launch of its venture debt fund, reports Capital Brief.

The investment round was led by several family offices and strategic investors, including existing investor and Stake founder Matt Leibowit.

Founded in 2021 by Ethan Singer and David Salkinder, Fundabl aims to provide loans ranging from $500,000 to $5 million — a segment overlooked by traditional lenders, according to the startup.

“Australia is brimming with innovative companies poised for breakout growth, but too many are facing challenges when it comes to raising capital on good terms,” Fundabl general manager Nathan Ryba said in a statement.

“When you look at the funding landscape in Australia, there aren’t many lenders focused on mid-range deals at the $500,000 to $5 million mark.”

According to the startup, the latest round of funding will be used to grow its product offerings, expansion in New Zealand and building the team and marketing capabilities.

SeenCulture: $1 million

Employee retention startup SeenCulture has secured $1 million in funding from a roll call of prominent investors, including LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund.

Other investors to participate in the round include InterValley Ventures, Techstars, M8 Ventures, and Cut Through Ventures, as well as angel investors Kirstin Hunter and Preethi Mohan.

Founded by CEO Nikki Tugano, SeenCulture aims to help companies make fairer decisions about employee promotions, performance and pay reviews and team design, while also speeding up these processes.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, SeenCulture has more than 1500 users on its platform and counts Atlassian and Culture Amp among its customers.

The path to raising capital was not an easy one, said Tugano in March, when she wrote for SmartCompany about the challenges of fundraising in “an ecosystem built for men, where less than 1% of startups get funded, only 3% of that funding goes to women, 0.7% goes to sole women founders, and 0.05% goes to women of colour”.

“Let’s just say, the odds haven’t been in my favour,” she said at the time.

“The very problem I’ve set out to solve is the very problem I’d been experiencing as a startup founder raising capital. How do I close the gender pay gap when the gender funding gap is so much worse?

“And the very people I’ve been pitching for investment exemplify the problem. When asked, ‘what problem are you solving?’ I couldn’t very well say: ‘You. You’re the problem I’m solving’.”

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