Nine Aussie startups that raised $40.5 million this week

From breakthroughs in solar manufacturing and quantum computing, to seasoned entrepreneurs launching brand new startups, this week’s funding roundup has something for everyone.

Take a look at the nine Aussie startups with fresh capital to spend.

SunDrive: $11 million

Australian solar panel innovator SunDrive has secured $11 million in funding from the federal government-backed Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and opened a pilot production and commercialisation facility in Kurnell, Sydney.

The latest funding comes a little over 12 months since SunDrive raised $21 million in Series B funding, including from prominent renewable energy investor Mike Cannon-Brookes, Canva co-founder Cameron Adams, and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

According to Startup Daily, Tesla chair Robyn Denholm and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation have also previously backed SunDrive, as has CSIRO’s Main Sequence and Blackbird.

SunDrive emerged from stealth mode in October 2020, securing $5 million in Series A funding, plus a $3 million grant, for its copper-based rooftop solar panels, which are significantly cheaper than silver-based options.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen officially opened the startup’s new Sydney facility on Wednesday, marking the first time in more than a decade that Australia has produced a mass-manufactured solar cell, according to the company.

“This facility symbolises everything that my government is about. If you look at the things that we have, it is innovation. It is also then commericalising that innovation,” the Prime Minister said in a statement.

“I was elected on a platform of Australia becoming a renewable energy superpower because we’ve seen here precisely the opportunity. Here the fact that technology is changing so that the comparative advantage that countries with lower labour costs had is disappearing. Because as a proportion of the cost of production, as productivity improves, as technology improves, it becomes far less important.”

Mutinex: $9.5 million

Marketing tech startup Mutinex says it is now valued at $75 million, after raising $9.5 million in an oversubscribed round led by EVP Partners.

Mutinex was founded by Henry Innis and Matt Farrugia in 2018. The SaaS platform aims to help growth marketers make better, data-driven decisions.

The startup previously raised $5 million in a seed extension round in February. That round was also led by EVP, which has now invested a total of $12 million in Mutinex. The investment represents EVP’s largest allocation to a single company to date.

EVP partner Justin Lipman said in a statement that backing Mutinex again was “an easy decision” after the startup tripled its annual recurring revenue over the past 12 months.

“Since our first investment into Mutinex some 18 months ago, the company has significantly outperformed all of our internal performance benchmarks,” he said.

Mutinex said in a statement it plans to use the funds to help accelerate its US expansion, with co-founder and CEO Henry Innis to relocate to New York, along with members of the startup’s sales, product, and data science teams.

The startup is “ready to hit the scale button now”, said Innis.

“Every single marketer should be able to make good, data-driven decisions about their growth mix. But in reality, many don’t have access to high-quality information, presented in a user-friendly format. We aim to change that and free up marketers from the drudgery of data analysis in marketing,” he added.

Firmable: $9 million

Aconex co-founder Leigh Jasper has raised $9 million in seed funding for his latest venture, Firmable, which he formed with fellow Aconex alumni Paul Perrett and Karthik Venkatasubramanian.

Jasper and Perrett are co-CEOs of Firmable, while Venkatasubramanian takes on the role of chief technology officer at the startup which is seeking to disrupt the business and market intelligence space.

Jasper previously sold Aconex, with co-founder Rob Phillpot, to Oracle for $1.6 billion in 2017.

The Australian Financial Review reports that Phillpot is one of the investors in Firmable, along with the startup’s founders. AirTree Ventures led the funding round, which also included participation from Redbubble co-founder and CEO Martin Hosking, Adam Lewis, Andrew Sypkes, and Sam Kroonenburg, founder of A Cloud Guru.

Firmable is pitched at sales and marketing professionals and the founders say it provides more extensive information about a wider range of companies, compared to other existing B2B platforms.

Good Earth Dairy: $4.4 million

Western Australian camel milk producer Good Earth Dairy has secured $4.4 million in grant funding from the Western Australian government to go towards building a $20 million facility that will become Australia’s first processing plant dedicated to powdered camel milk.

Good Earth Dairy was founded in 2016 by Stephen Geppert and Marcel Steingiesser, and is in the midst of an equity crowdfunding campaign via OnMarket to raise funds that will help it increase its volumes while the Perth facility is constructed.

The company currently has 160 camels on its 800-hectare property and distributes its products through leading retailers and independent stores in WA.

In a statement provided to SmartCompany, the company said it is also working towards a public listing in the second quarter of 2024.

AQC: $3 million

Australia’s first superconducting quantum hardware startup Analog Quantum Circuits (AQC) has secured $3 million in investment from Uniseed.

The funding coincides with the co-founding of the startup by the University of Queensland professor Tom Stace and associate professor Arkady Federov.

Building on a decade of theoretical and experimental research, AQC is working on the commercialisation of microwave circulators that are 1000 times smaller than what’s currently on the market.

ACQ is building miniature components that can scale with a quantum computer, says Professor Stace, which means the tech can be used by other companies that are also developing quantum tech.

“This is important because it is part of a strategic capability that Australia can contribute to one of the dominant hardware approaches being pursued internationally,” he told SmartCompany earlier this week.

Read more.

Happly: $1.75 million

A startup that’s hoping to take the pain out of moving houses has launched this week with a $1.75 million seed funding round, which includes several prominent investors.

Founded by Andrew Weinman, who is sharing the CEO role with TAXIBOX co-founder Jeremy Rosen, Happly wants to be “the starting page for everyone’s move”, according to a statement provided to SmartCompany on Thursday.

The free, end-to-end platform allows movers to find and book all the products and services they need for their move, thanks to partnerships with removalists, cleaners and packing providers. Users can create their own moving checklist on the platform, and incorporate other tasks associated with changing residences, such as updating driver’s licenses and postal addresses.

Users will also be able to use the platform to donate goods they no longer need or recycle electronics.

Founder Andrew Weinman said Happly allows users to “organise their complete move in minutes”.

“Research shows moving is one of life’s worst experiences, taking more than 100 hours to organise, at an already stressful time in life,” he said.

“When I was younger, my father was relocated for work, and a corporate relocation expert managed the whole move from end to end for us. Years later, when reflecting on this experience, I felt technology had evolved so significantly that there must be a way to offer a smooth moving journey to all Australians, not just white-collar executives.”

Among the investors backing Happly are property developer Danny Hanna, founder of Hannas Group, and Max Cunningham, former ASX-listings boss and CEO of FCX.

Happly has launched in Sydney and plans to enter the Melbourne and Brisbane markets in the next 12-18 months.

Litecard: $1.2 million

Melbourne startup Litecard also has locked in fresh funding, raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding from Func Ventures, Cut Through Angels, Coin Capital Ventures, and Blossom Capital Partners, according to the Australian Financial Review. 

Founded in 2022 by Brian Pham, Litecard aims to help brands increase their memberships and license renewals by issuing digital cards that can be used on smartphones.

Litecard distributes, manages, and verifies the IDs via global digital wallets and says it has already issued more than 1.4 million digital cards.

According to the startup’s website, it is operating in five countries and has a team of 33 employees.

Cyclion: $523,870 

Climate startup Cyclion has secured more than $500,000 in funding from close to 300 investors via a Birchal equity crowdfunding campaign that closed this week.

The funding will go towards commercialising the startup’s waste-to-energy technology, which the startup says can convert household organic waste and soft plastics into fuel or electricity.

Cyclion was founded in 2022 by Philip Major and Stephen Burns, and according to its Birchal profile, has a patent pending for its ‘green chemistry’ process that liquefies plastic and biomass waste into oil, at low temperature and pressure.

The startup, which says it is in advanced discussions to build a $150 million facility in the Philippines, describes its system as one that “costs less, doesn’t require pre-treatment, produces negligible emissions and is modular and scalable”.

Heartful: $131,440 

Accommodation booking platform Heartful also completed its Birchal equity crowdfunding campaign this week, raising more than $130,000 from 130 investors.

Heartful was founded this year by CEO Jen Clark as an ethical alternative to existing short-stay accommodation platforms, and grew out of the Hosting With Heart accommodation directory and podcast.

Heartful aims to help travellers find high-quality accommodation that is environmentally sustainable, suitable to individual accessibility needs, and offered by hosts who are socially responsible.

The startup hopes to obtain B Corporation certification by 2026, grow to 50,000 individual property listings by 2028, and create a learning and supplier marketplace as additional income streams.