#StartupAus news
April, May & June 2019
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- Australia: Infarm regional Queensland agtech 1 of only 6 to receive Microsoft AI For Earth program grants
- Australia: Agerris field robotics startup secures AUD$6.5M with AI-backed automation
- Australia: Presagen raises Au$4.5M to accelerate Life Whisperer, AI-backed medical tech that improves fertility outcomes
- Australia: Lookinglass unveils AI-driven web app capable of detecting early-stage Parkinson’s disease
- Australia: LJ Hooker real estate giant to launch artificial intelligence-driven platform
- Australian Labor Party plans $4M national centre of excellence for AI in Melbourne, with focus on technology for social good
- Australia: Automation and artificial intelligence could add up to $4 trillion to the economy
- Australia: A brief look at Senno, customer data monetization platform that recently completed Startup Bootcamp Energy Australia accelerator
- Australia: NSW Cyber Security Network to aid cybersecurity cyber security research with $500K funding for startups to work with selected NSW universities
- Australia Post focuses northern Sydney store services entirely on Chinese community – items purchased can only be sent to China
- Australia: An intro to Ally Assist, social impact startup building independence for people with a disability
- Australia: Remarkable, disability tech accelerator, unveils seven startups for latest 16-week bootcamp
- Australia: Registration of drone flyers and flyers licensing to be mandatory from July 2019
- Australia: Starts At 60, publisher and e-commerce startup, takes win at Australian regional championship of Startup World Cup
- Australia: An intro to Questa Game, education-focused mobile app in which players identify endangered species before they become extinct
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Telstra to build distributed ledger platform to enable secure high-value online transactions
- Australia: A brief look at the mobile-point-of-sale opportunity for fintech startups
- Australia: 86 400 challenger bank partners Vow Financial to enter home loans market
- Australia: Government commits $100M over 5 years to SME fund, likely to also appeal to startups
- Australia: IncoDocs SaaS startup raises $1.2M to aid small businesses better export and import goods in funding led by Maersk shipping
- Life360, US ‘family tracking’ app, launches $104M Australian IPO, with sights set on future insurance and home security diversification
- Australia: University of NSW Sydney partners Providence Asset Group and Tamworth City Council for AI, IoT and hydrogen power smart city trial
- Australia: Digivizer digital analytics platform partners Investible early-stage investment group to help startups with data-driven growth
- Australia: Google’s Wing drones are now delivering fresh food, coffee and groceries in Canberra
- Australia: Tiliter partners with GaP Solutions to take AI-driven fresh produce recognition software nationwide
- Australia: NaturesCoin creates blockchain-based economy to support all initiatives across the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals
- Australia: Crypto SA Lab incubator program to launch in September following Au$170K Federal Gov’t grant and focusing on blockchain startups
- Australian Signals Directorate to launch cyber recruitment drive, aiming to hire ‘many hundreds’
- Australia: An intro School Bytes and Saasyan, education-tech startups on Amazon Web Services’ AWS EdStart program
- Hub Australia launches Flexi Impact program to support purpose-driven businesses
- Australia: The Refinery Creative Incubator 10-week program launches on the Sunshine Coast, backed by QUTCEA
- Australia: Applications for the Nexus Jiangsu-Victoria Startup Summit 2019 are now open (pdf)
- Australia: BlueChilli opens applications for round 3 of SheStarts female-led tech accelerator
- Australia: Applications open for SheStarts female-led startup accelerator
- Australia: Startup Weekend Melbourne Q&A event set for April 30
- Australia: An intro to the University of Queensland’s Ventures program
- Australia: Sydney’s Barangaroo startup incubator aims to take Australian tech global, growing on Queensland’s River City Labs’ successes
- Australia: Applications for Monash University’s Generator 2019 Accelerator program open to May 5th
- Australia: Department of Defence selects 11 quantum mechanics projects via nextgen tech fund, aiming at improved national security
- Australia: A look at Agersens agtech startup’s eShepherd smart collars for livestock management
- Australia SportsTech Startup Day 2019 set for Melbourne in August as part of Sports Analytics Conference
- Australia: Elenium Automation secures $15M for self-service and automation tech for the airport and aviation sectors
- Australia’s Lonely Planet to acquire TRILL Travel, tech startup that turns Instagram photos into bookable travel experiences
- Australia: A look at how SheStarts helps non-technical entrepreneurs innovate using technology
- Australian Computer Society appoints former StartCon chief executive as NSW state manager
- An intro to the 7 food and agri-tech startups selected for SparkLabs Cultiv8 2019 cohort
- National Australia Bank partners Israel’s Bank Leumi and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce for online portal to foster fintech and bank collaboration
- Singapore’s Zebpay cryptocurrency exchange launches trading services in Australia
- Australia: China’s JD e-commerce giant closes Melbourne office after just 15 months
- Australia: Brauz e-commerce startup launches new ‘Reserve in Store’ feature to drive in-store sales
- Australia: Taxation Office to require local cryptocurrency service providers to hand over records for data-matching with individuals’ tax returns
- Australian Government cabinet reshuffle to see Senator take on financial technologies responsibility
- The finalists of the Fintech Australia 2019 Finnies Awards
- Australia: ASIC regulator releases guidelines for cryptocurrency, ICOs and more
- Australia: Lumi fintech startup and alternative lender secures Au$8M with focus on SME lending
- Australia: Labor Party proposes ‘entrepreneurs council’ to guide policy affecting startups
- Australia’s BlueChilli startup accelerator launches Singapore-based healthtech accelerator for SE Asia – applications open May 28
- Australia: Kasada cybersecurity startup secures $6.5M
- Australia: An intro to CyRise, accelerator with a specific focus on cybersecurity startups
- Hacking democracies: Cataloguing cyber-enabled attacks on elections, from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
- Australia: LawTech Hub launched by Lander & Rogers lawyers in partnership with YBF Ventures, with applications now open for September startup cohort
- Australia: Allume Energy startup partnered by Mirvac real estate giant for solar power sharing in apartments and offices
- PropTech Australia Summit set for September in Sydney
- Australia: CoVentured, business connecting startups and scale-ups to corporates, opens offices in Europe and Asia
- Entries now open for 2019 Australia and New Zealand Sports Technology Awards
- Australia: HoneLab takes Hunter Innovation Festival pitch win with device coupled to a phone app for conducting instant soil, crop and grain testing
- Australia: B2B Rocks Sydney 2019, B2B and SaaS startups and scaleups conference, set for 6-7 June in Sydney
- Australia: Cluey Learning online tutoring startup raises Au$20M with AI-backed personalised education focus
- Australia: Mars Seeds of Change Accelerator launches, seeking food-focused startups
- Australia: An intro to WeekDay Space, aiming to solve the pain of long commutes for workers
- Australia: Labor Party pledges $25M to restart the Australian Interactive Games Fund
- Insurtech Australia appoints new CEO, entering from Stone & Chalk, Asia-Pacific’s largest fintech hub
- Australia: Morse Micro raises $24M with HaLow chips focusing on Wi-Fi for the internet of things
- Australia: IoT Impact Conference and Exhibition 2019 set for September in Sydney
- Australia: Josef tech startup raises $1M to help legal centres, law firms and enterprises create legal help bots
- Australia: A look at the 8 startups to be based in Singapore under the Austrade Landing Pads initiative
- Australia: Sydney to replace Singapore as Hootsuite Asia-Pacific HQ
- South Australian gov’t seeking ‘urgent advice’ on its $50M VC fund run by Blue Sky Alternative Investments after fund manager falls into receivership
- Australia: Applications open now for September intake to Plus Eight Sprint, 6-week part-time pre-Accelerator in Perth, WA
- An overview of opportunities for Australia and India to connect in the innovation space
- Australia: Brisbane’s RiverPitch Live set for Sydney in June, and is seeking startups to take part
- Australia: Victorian gov’t startup agency LaunchVic gains Au$10M funding top-up in state budget to continue operating for at least 12 months
- Australia: 2019 Eureka International Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition set for Melbourne in June
- Australia: Power Ledger energy trading platform gains multi-government partnership for blockchain-ready homes in Western Australia
- Australia: Labor Party pledges $25M for creation of regional digital skills hubs
- Australia: An intro to the 7 startups selected for the SparkLabs Cultiv8 agritech accelerator
- Australia: An intro to the 9 creative-tech startups selected for QUT’s 2019 Collider Program
- The 4 finalists from the recent Australian Legal Technology Association’s pitch competition
- Australia: Parkhound app launches nationally, giving short-term or long-term parking options plus income from leasing idle parking spaces
- Australian Technologies Competition applications close May 20th, aiming to aid startups ready to scale
- Australia: XR:WA virtual reality festival launched by State Gov’t of WA, set for 6-14 July in Perth and Fremantle
- Australia: Vogue Codes event series discussing the future of digital and empowering future female innovation set for Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney
- Australia: GoMicro agtech is currently crowdfunding around AI-powered mobile phone microscope that identifies agricultural pests and diseases
- Australia’s Power Ledger blockchain-based energy firm partners E-NEXT to launch P2P network in Austria’s second-largest city, Graz
- Researchers from Australia’s Data61, data/digital arm of the national science agency, develop ‘vaccine’ for algorithms subjected to machine learning attacks
- Australia: NSW to roll out opt-in Digital Driver Licence across the state
- Interview covering the Australian Stock Exchange’s moves with blockchain tech, aiming to replace legacy system with decentralised ledger technology
- Australia: BDO accounting firm partners Decentralised Capital for cryptocurrency and blockchain auditing service, aiming for first Bitcoin ETF on the ASX
- Australia: Verrency payments startup raises Au$10M with sights set on Singapore and US expansion
- Australia: Gobbill AI bill payment platform partnered by Cointree crypto exchange platform to provide ‘pay any bill with any coin’ service
- FinTech Australia overhauls membership structure, opening avenues for connections from international members and associates
- Australia: Antler, global VC fund and startup generator, launches with cohort of 71 prospective startup founders
- Australia: A collection of the country’s tech and startup news from the last month
- Future Food Asia Award selects Australia’s RapidAIM for US$100K grand prize with real-time pest detection technology suite
- Australia: Government’s Austrade seeks agtech and foodtech startups and operators to showcase the country’s capabilities
- Australian National University data breach points to China as key suspect, given sophistication of hack
- Australia: The nine 2019 IoT Award winners unveiled
- Australia: Near 100,000 Westpac banking customers’ details exposed after cyber security breach
- Australian Venture Consortium launches, aiming to be the voice of regional and suburban innovation
- Australia: Complexica partnered by Jacob’s Creek wine parent company on AI Foundations project to blend ML and AI into production and supply chain
- Australia: Mobi ride-share startup gains seed funding from NEM Ventures
- Australia: Stone & Chalk fintech space to open Adelaide hub with new focus on defense and space tech startups, big data and AI
- An overview of South Australia’s solid presence in the 2017/18 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report
- Australia: Sqhub incubator and coworking space unveils 2nd cohort of 10 creative-tech startups
- An intro to the 2019 FinTech Australia Finnie award winners
- Australia’s Claimspace selected for US’s gener8tor OnRamp Insurance Accelerator with insurance claims platform
- Australia: MedTech’s Got Talent 2019 startup bootcamp set for Adelaide, June 27th
- Australia: Maxwell Plus startup uses AI and Google’s machine learning services to augment the work of clinicians in identifying prostate cancer
- Australia: Brisbane edition of Startup Onramp Founders Course set for late July, with pre-registrations open now
- Australia: Unyoked tiny house travel startup raises $1.2M to take wilderness cabins to new sites
- Australia: An intro to Wrappt smartphone video platform aiming to allow users to create and edit pro-standard content
- Australia: Be MPowered Pitch Competition aims to give female startup founders a shot at $10K, mentorship and more
- Australia: She’s a Crowd wins MKW Open Innovation Competition with data-driven women’s safety platform
- Australia: The 23 pitch videos from last month’s StartupOnRamp pitch night in Brisbane
- Australia: “It should be mandated that accelerators transparently publish even basic metrics of their performance.”
- Australia: CRIISP investor matchmaking platform launches to help startups secure capital
- Australia: 11th Space coworking opens in the heart of Melbourne, aiming to be a startup ecosystem hub
- Australia: Perth City council facial recognition surveillance cameras trial greeted with concern in light of apparent lack of community consultation
- Australia: Universities trial facial recognition tech and biometric profiling to crack down on students who pay impersonators to sit their exams
- Australia: Stadiums Queensland quietly switches on facial recognition software trial focusing on sports fans and concertgoers, prompting privacy concerns
- Australia: YBF Ventures, Melbourne-based tech and innovation hub, to take ownership of Tyro Fintech Hub in Sydney
- APAC Blockchain Conference 2019 set for 22-34 July in Sydney, Australia
- Australia: Hike retail management startup takes win at Startup Victoria pitch night with multi-channel business synchronization
- Australia: Tech in Sport & HYPE UQ SPIN Accelerator Pitch Competition set for July 10th in Brisbane, with 10 startups presenting
- Australian Technologies Competition unveils 33 semi-finalists
- Australia: CEBIT 2019 tech conference and exhibition set for October 29-31 in Sydney; to include startup pitch competition and more
- Australia: A look at how Webjet online travel agency uses blockchain tech in Rezchain and Rezpayments to lower costs and increase efficiency
- Australia: Third Aurora launches Winetales augmented reality platform focused on the wine industry, with 80 wineries on the books
- Australia: SBE Australia’s Springboard Enterprises Dolphin Tank final pitch event set for June 20th in Sydney
- Australian Women in Tech Pitch registrations open – present to potential investors, customers and partners from Australia, North America and the Asia-Pacific
- Australia: Credit Card Compare unveils Australia’s first credit score-monitoring app
- Australia: Flinders University New Venture Institute partners Mount Gambier High School to boost entrepreneurship across the Limestone Coast
- Skift’s list of 25 travel and tourism startups across the globe to keep an eye on
- Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City partners Australia’s New South Wales state on broad areas of interest, including startup and SME development