It’s been relatively quieter on the startup funding front this week, but it appears there’s still plenty of interest from investors in agtech startups and those in the AI space.
Here’s a look at five Australian startups that announced new funding rounds this week.
As reported earlier this week, Queensland agtech startup Stacked Farm has raised another $40 million for its end-to-end farming automation system.
The funding round, led by Tayside Investments Australia, follows a $56 million raise in 2022, with Stacked Farm now having raised a total of $98 million since 2021.
The startup’s previous investors include Magnetar Capital, Tribeca Investment Partners, Founder Led Investments and Stratos Capital.
Stacked Farm completely removes the human intervention element in farming, using robots for every step of the process, from planting to packing.
Fintech startup Sherlok also secured funding this week, locking in $3.4 million for its AI mortgage assessment program.
Sherlok offers mortgage brokers a SaaS subscription service that allows mortgage owners refinancing options with their current lender. The goal is to replace what has until now been a manual process, with a one-click solution with the use of AI.
Launched in Adelaide in 2019, Sherlok says it is across roughly $70 billion worth of home loans for Australian brokers, in part thanks to a partnership with mortgage aggregator Australian Finance Group, which was inked in 2022.
The funding round was led by Rampersand, with Investible, Paloma and Common Sense Ventures also participating.
Telecommunications company Readiitel has raised $2 million in funding for its new Web3-enabled internet service, Readii, which will allow customers to earn cryptocurrencies while using the service.
The funding round was led by 1 in 100 Ventures, which was founded by Rob Lederer, Jason Serda, Kenny Wong and Trevor Folsom.
Readii, which is being led by ReadiiTel’s Daniel Li and Mark Collins, says it is making Web3 “simple and real” by “removing barriers to entry such as lengthy cryptographic keys and high gas fees”.
“This is made possible through Readii’s proprietary Web3-powered router,” the startup explained in a statement sent to SmartCompany.
“In addition to providing fast and reliable internet, the device is capable of storing a customer’s private cryptographic key, thereby making any cryptocurrency transaction conducted on the network seamless, while using security features like multi-party computation (MPC) to ensure that this key is never misappropriated or lost.”
Cybersecurity startup Nullify has revealed it has raised $1.1 million in pre-seed funding to coincide with its public launch this week, reports Startup Daily.
Founded by Shantanu Kulkarni, Tim Thacker and Tony Mao, Nullify uses AI to continuously detect and fix security issues within a code as it is being written. The tech is pitched at helping developers and security teams, as it can correlate issues across an organisation’s code base, supply chain and cloud environments.
The pre-seed round was led by OIF Ventures, with participation also coming from former XM Cyber founding team Adi Ashkenazy and Zini Shahar, Blacknova Ventures and Cyrise.
Health and wellness startup Baresop has secured a $360,000 investment and strategic partnership with Australian pharmacy distributor Alita Sales.
Prisca Ongonga-Daehn launched Baresop in 2018, creating plant-based hand and body wash powders that users can then mix with water in reusable bottles.
The strategic alliance with Alita Sales means Baresop will extend its presence to 58 retail groups and gain access to over 4,000 pharmacy doors. The startup expects to grow annual revenue by $2.1 million in the first year of the partnership, as it continues its mission to eliminate single-use plastic waste and conserve water.
Ongonga-Daehn told SmartCompany that the investment in the startup, which has a $6 million pre-money valuation cap, will all go towards growth in the pharmacy channel.
Baresop also has the ability to unlock an extra $250,000 from Alita Sales, based on the performance of the partnership.
Deputy editor
A multi-award-winning journalist, Tegan has been reporting on technology, telecommunications and gaming for the past 10 years. She regularly appears on mainstream media channels as an expert tech commentator. Her previous roles include editor of Gizmodo Australia and global reviews editor at Finder. She has also served as a reporter and editor across Business Insider, Lifehacker and Kotaku Australia. Tegan is also the co-host of one of the top technology podcasts in Australia, Weird Tech. You can find her on Twitter @Tegan_Writes.
Editor
Eloise is an experienced business journalist and editor, who has held senior editorial roles at SmartCompany since 2014. Prior to joining SmartCompany, Eloise was news editor at Books+Publishing, the trade press for the Australian book industry. Eloise has degrees in media and communications, marketing and business management, and political science. You can follow her on LinkedIn, and Twitter at @ellykeating.
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