Over the past week, StartupSmart got wind of some exciting investment deals around the country.
Australian startups building innovative solutions to serve those in need in the aged care, workplace safety and edtech sectors cashed in a combined $36 million from investors.
Here’s a round up of the most exciting deals, the startups that scored, the investors that splurged, and how the money will be spent.
What they do: Better Caring is developing the first peer-to-peer marketplace for aged care and disability support services. It’s aiming to connect more than 1 million people in need of in-home care around Australia with care workers.
Founded by: Peter Scutt
How much: Closed a $3 million series B led by Ellerston Ventures, in which Australian billionaire James Packer is a major stakeholder.
What happens now: Scutt says the funding will be used to prepare for significant growth as regulatory reforms, including the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme, open up opportunities for people who are elderly or have a disability to choose their own independent living care providers.
“We can foster very strong relationships between people,” Scutt tells StartupSmart.
“It gives us a lot of execution flexibility, which you need as a startup when you’re responding to market opportunities as they unfold.”
What they do: Hyper Anna is developing a cloud-based data analytics solution that provides easier access to data insights so businesses don’t need to hire their own data scientist.
Founded by: Data scientists Natalie Nguyen, Sam Zheng and Kent Tian
How much: Raised $1.25 million in round led by AirTree Ventures and Westpac’s VC fund Reinventure.
What happens now: Hyper Anna is currently building a machine intelligence tool that will enable people to interact with any data set from any device.
Its release is scheduled for early 2017.
To support ambitious growth plans, Nguyen says the funds will be used to recruit new talent, particularly technical teams and customer support.
“Our vision is for people to be able to interact with big data by just asking questions in plain English about key drivers of the business like ‘how’s my sales doing’, and the machine intelligence agent just goes away, analyses sales pattern and brings back important insights for you,” says Nguyen.
What they do: Incubate runs a startup accelerator and events program that has nurtured 60 startups worth $32 million combined since it launched in 2012.
Co-founded by: James Alexander, while he was a student.
How much: $1 million from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
What happens now: The new funding will enable Incubate to increase the number of startups it supports from 16 to 30.
Each startup it supports gets office space as UTS, $5000 in early-stage funding and ongoing mentoring and training.
What they do: 40K Foundation is building a tech platform to enable children in remote communities to access world-class English language training.
Founded by: Clary Castrission OAM
How much: Secured a $250,000 Atlassian Foundation grant.
What happens now: Castrission says the funding will be used to develop the second version of the platform, improve user-experience on the front-end, develop the data management system in the backend, and support expansion from India into other markets.
“It’s lining our move into Cambodia [and] it allows us to enrol a further 1000 children in India on the platform,” Castrission tells StartupSmart.
What they do: SafetyCulture develops mobile-first tech solutions to improve workplace safety and quality assurance, including apps iAuditor and Spotlight.
Founded by: Luke Anear
How much: Closed a $30 million series B round led by global VC firm Index Ventures, making it one of the biggest startup funding rounds of the year.
What happens now: Funds will be used to accelerate global expansion and increase the size of SafetyCulture’s product and engineering teams.
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Dinushi Dias is a freelance journalist and a former StartupSmart reporter and multimedia content producer. She is the co-founder of Melbourne-based production house Dinushi & Power.
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