Things have been heating up in the Aussie funding space this week! Nine startups have received VC funds equating to a collective $107.35 million — more than double what we had on the books last week.
And its nice to see this jump. As Cut Through Ventures detailed in its latest quarterly funding report, Q2 saw just $810 million raised across 90 startups.
It also reported that the first half of 2023 has been the slowest funding start to the year since 2019. $1.5 billion was banked, which was just a third of what we saw in the first half of 2022.
Let’s hope things continue to pick up.
Leading the pack this week is Pet Circle with a mammoth $75 million. It is in the final stages of closing this round, which has been led by prior investor Prysm Capital.
Once regulatory approvals have gone through, this will see the company — a prior winner in our Smart50 list — hold onto its unicorn status, which it achieved after its Series C round back in December 2021.
According to the company, it saw $308.8 million in sales in 2022 and now offers over 13,500 specialty pet products, as well as Pet Circle Insurance.
It will use the fresh cash injection to invest in long-term expansion projects as well as corner an even larger share of the $12 billion pet industry in Australia.
“With this investment, we will be looking to grow our Pet Circle Insurance offering that we recently launched and consider moving into new verticals that solve other problems for pet parents like pet pharmacy,” Mike Frizell, Pet Circle CEO, said in an email to SmartCompany.
Quantum sensor technology startup, Nomad Atomics, has received $10 million led by Blackbird Ventures and Right Click Capital. This follows a $2 million pre-seed round.
Launched in 2020, Nomad Atomics was founded by ANU physicists Kyle Hardman, Paul Wigley and Christian Freier. The team has developed small quantum sensor technology — such as accelerometers and gravimeters — that can be used out in the world.
The funding round will go towards further commercialising its tech, as well as scaling its operations. There are also plans to move the business from Canberra to Melbourne.
“Transitioning quantum technologies from the lab environment to reliable operation in the field is challenging, and has hampered their commercialisation and widespread use,” Kyle Hardman, Nomad Atomics CEO, said.
“We founded Nomad to address this challenge, by developing robust sensors with reduced size, weight and power requirements to enable real world applications — taking technology that would take up entire rooms in research labs and placing it all in a self-contained 20x20x30cm box to produce the world’s first survey-style absolute gravimeter.”
Proptech startup Inspace has secured $6 million in an oversubscribed funding round co-led by OIF Ventures and B Capital — Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s VC firm. The round was also joined by InSpace’s long-term investor Investible.
Formerly known as Inspace XR, the company was founded in 2017 after co-founder Justin Liang left AMP Ventures. Its debut product allowed architects to instantly convert design plans into virtual reality experiences.
However, in 2019, after receiving $750,000 in a round led by Investible, the business pivoted when founder Justin Liang witnessed the real estate industry slow down due to COVID-19. As Inspace, it launched a new platform enabling virtual inspections for property sales and leasing.
Within 12 months, Inspace was used by over 90% of Australia’s tier-one commercial landlords.
According to the company, its platform is now being used across $130 billion in real estate across multiple countries. It also said its subscription model has jumped 398% in the past eighteen months.
A Melbourne-based startup that is building a platform to bring together agricultural land management, carbon project operations, and environmental markets has secured $6 million in fresh funding.
Digital farming startup Sensand was founded in 2016 and this week celebrated the beta launch of its Blockbase and Mintly platforms.
The startup says Blockbase will give farmers and landowners the ability the measure and validate carbon sequestration and how their farming and forestry practices affect natural capital. Mintly then takes this verification data and uses it to “bring high-quality credits to global carbon markets”.
The funding comes from prominent businessperson Robert Costa, who chairs agricultural investment firm goFARM and Costa Asset Management, which is the investment arm of the well-known Costa family.
This is the second time Costa has invested in Sensand in 18 months.
“Last year Robert Costa provided funds for R&D and platform viability. For him to again back the company is reassurance that our platform will truly be a category disruptor,” said Sensand co-founder and CEO Peter Moulton in a statement.
Brisbane EV startup, EVOS, has secured $5 million to help solve “the biggest problem” with electric vehicles — range anxiety and the need for more public charging stations.
A venture created by three former Tritium executives, it is expected to bolster its engineering team with the investment, just weeks before the company launches its first electric car charger designed for consumers.
The investment comes as Australians buy more electric vehicles, with the technology representing 7.7% of all new car sales in May, up from 3.8% throughout 2022.
Co-founder Marcelo Salgado said the new funds would be used to build electric vehicle charging equipment for fleets and households, which the company had identified as a significant challenge in Australia.
“If we’re going to transition fleets to electric, whether for small businesses or large businesses, you’re going to have an energy problem when you start installing charging stations at your workplace, or getting employees to charge their vehicles at home,” Salgado said.
Sydney-based startup Zhik has raised $2 million via equity crowdfunding platform Equitise to fast-track its plans to take its high-tech sailing apparel to a global audience.
The raise values the startup at close to $30 million and included participation from a number of high-profile sportspeople and investors, including existing investor Nightingale Partners, which cornerstoned the raise. Vitamins heavyweight Marcus Blackmore also participated, as did Australian Sailing Team Hall of Fame master coach Victor Kovalenko.
Zhik was founded in 2003 by Lake Technology co-founder Brian Connolly, and is led by CEO Mat Belcher OAM, a multiple Olympic gold medalist sailor, who has been associated with the company for the past nine years.
The startup’s kits are worn by the who’s who of the international sailing industry and the company has fitted out the Olympic sailing teams of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark. It operates warehouses in Australia, the UK, the Netherlands, and the US, and says its revenue grew by 40% in the past financial year.
In a statement, Belcher said the funding means Zhik is “setting sail on a new horizon of success”.
“The completion of this crowdfund campaign is not just a milestone, it’s a testament to the passion and loyalty of our sailing enthusiasts worldwide. It will fuel our global expansion, allow us to navigate uncharted waters and solidify our position as the unrivalled leader in sailing apparel,” he added.
Marketing startup MagicBrief has secured $2 million in pre-seed funding, led by Blackbird Ventures and Archangel Ventures. The round included participation from Eucalyptus founder Tim Doyle and Vimeo founder, Zach Klein.
Founded in 2022, the platform targets marketing, offering a one-stop shop to build creative ads, storyboards, and social media workflows. It also helps brands and influencers find their particular aesthetic for their audiences.
Part of the funds will go towards building up the team, as well as adding to the product offering. This will include a beta AI tool called MagicAI.
“With more big brands moving away from an agency model and bringing their creative teams in-house, I noticed that they were still adopting outdated creative processes, the same workflows they had learnt from traditional advertising agencies”, says MagicBrief co-founder and CEO George Howes.
Sydney-based consumer goods startup The Best of Moi has secured $850,000 in pre-seed funding, which it claims is one of the largest pre-seed investments for an Australian direct-to-consumer brand.
The funding comes from unnamed serial entrepreneurs and venture investors and will be used to bolster the company’s product development and customer experience functions.
Founded in 2020 by CEO Lu Nan and Quinten Wang, the startup’s first sub-brand is called Fabulous Moi, a TGA-approved liquid dietary supplement that comes in daily ‘super shots’. According to the company, the supplement can help enhance immunity, support brain health, maintain gut health, support energy production and promote collagen formation.
Victoria’s Kali Healthcare has secured an additional $500,000 in pre-seed funding for its pregnancy monitoring wearable, which brings the total raised in this funding round to $1 million.
LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund joined the previously existing round that had been led by the University of Melbourne back in March. The sidecar fund focuses on investing in early-stage rounds for women-led startups.
Kali Healthcare’s wearable and sensor patch is focused on enabling baby monitoring during pregnancy for regional and at-risk patients who don’t have as easy or safe access to clinics.
The company has partnered with Victorian-based MedTech developer and manufacturer, Neo-Bionica, to help make the device a reality.
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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