April, May & June 2020
Startup Australia
Startup News Asia’s quarterly collection of Australia’s startup news from April, May and June 2020.
Each item listed here is a technology-focused or startup news headline from Q2 2020 connected with Australia’s startup ecosystem in some way, whether an announcement by a startup around a product, pivot or funding, or an article detailing a likely impact on Australia’s startup space.
The focus, obviously, is on Australia, but wider-world tech and startup news headlines are included where useful as points-of-reference, food for thought for domestic startups, or to provide additional industry knowledge.
June 2020 | May 2020 | April 2020
June 2020
- Australia: GovPass, whole-of-government way to verify identity across government and private sector services, looking into monetization to mitigate costs
- ICYMI: News Corp announces end of more than 100 Australian print newspapers in huge shift to digital, with expectations of significant job losses
- Australia: Amazon steps up moves into pharmacy space with trademark application for BasicCare, Amazon-branded medication for purchased directly from the company
- Australia: Digital Agriculture Services tech startup gains backing from IAG insurance giant to help farms manage property risk with data insights from satellite imagery
- A look at recent developments for Australia’s Okra Solar, launching new layers of solar-focused tech aiming to combat energy poverty
- Australia: ‘Productivity is not an accident – The economics and impact of Victoria’s startup ecosystem’ report now available from LaunchVic and Deloitte (pdf)
- Australia: An intro to Kaddy, B2B liquor marketplace startup focusing on suppliers and trade customers which recently closed a $3.5M funding round
- ICYMI: The Australian EdTech Market Census 2019 from Deloitte – impacts of technology trends and changing nature of work are having on the sector
- Australia: HATCH Taronga Accelerator Program applications open, seeking solutions for pressing environmental and conservation challenges
- Australia & NZ: 1200 Coca-Cola vending machines now accept payments using cryptocurrency via Centrapay digital payments tech
- Australia: BlueVolt solar energy startup’s Savo Solar Initiative one of only 8 selected from 700 applicants for Honnold Foundation grant
- Australia: Amazon Australia launches online liquor store and delivery service, taking aim at legacy players and challenging startups and small businesses
- Australia: Diffuse Energy secures $400K seed funding to scale production of small wind turbine, alternative to diesel used in remote and emergency telecom facilities
- Australia: Queensland University of Technology to winding down Creative Enterprise Australia program after 12 years, citing impacts of COVID-19 on university sector
- Australia: An intro to iNTTN, the Indigenous National Technology and Telecom Network
- A look at the 7 entrepreneurs selected under the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards working on social impact issues
- Australia: A look at H2X, aiming for full line of hydrogen-powered cars by mid-2020s, focusing on hybrid of hydrogen energy and kinetic and external electricity charging
- Australia to join 13 nations and European Union for Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, organisation setting a framework on use of artificial intelligence
- Australia: UNE SMART Region Incubator’s 100 Steps2Grow program applications open now, focusing on regional Australia – online info night set for June 24
- Australia: West Tech Fest set for November 30 to December 6, celebrating innovation, investment and entrepreneurship in the Asia-Pacific region
- Australia: Kraken, US cryptocurrency exchange, launches in Australia, allowing users to trade in crypto, following January acquisition of Australia’s Bit Trade exchange
- Australia: 7-Eleven to deploy facial recognition tech to 700 stores nationwide as part of customer feedback capture; says the technology is ‘not used for any other purpose”
- Australia: Taskforce formed by NSW gov’t, AustCyber and Standards Australia, aiming to create consistent, internationally harmonised cybersecurity standards
- Australia: An intro to Sprout Stack, growing fresh produce in a near closed-loop system using shipping containers, each one equivalent to near 1 hectare of farmland
- Australia: Gov’t to build Au$4.3M online ‘microcredentials’ marketplace, national platform for students to compare courses, duration, delivery mode and credit point value
- Download: Australian Attitudes to Facial Recognition, A National Survey Whitepaper drawn from a sample size of 2291 individuals (pdf)
- Australia: CORE Innovation Hub set for Adelaide, aiming to bolster collaboration between startups and resources and energy sector
- Australia should take the UK’s lead and ditch the centralised [COVIDSafe app] model for digital contact tracing in favour of the Google and Apple option
- US states, cities, police forces and tech companies are turning their backs on facial recognition technology. Why is Australia continuing to embrace it?
- Australia: Customers of BitcoinComAu crypto exchange will be able to pay for Bitcoin at over 3500 Australia Post offices
- Australia: Footage from compromised security cameras found to be streamed on Russia-based website
- Australia: UniSA Innovation & Collaboration Centre unveils 7 startups selected for 2020 Venture Catalyst incubator, working in fintech, education technology and more
- Australia: Vic Gov’t to contribute $1.5M to establishment of country’s first multimillion-dollar accelerator and fund for artificial intelligence scale-ups (pdf)
- Australia: PictureWealth secures $12M with financial specialists on demand to help users gain a comprehensive view of their total wealth, and to grow it
- Australia: Government unveils $1.35BN plan to boost cybersecurity capabilities over 10 years, including new team of 500 cybersec-focused specialists
May 2020
- Australia: The RegTech Association Virtual PitchFest set for May 7th, featuring 6 early-stage RegTech startups
- Australian Technologies Competition entries close May 8th, seeking globally-minded Australian scale-ups across 12 categories
- AWS Summit Online Australia New Zealand set for May 13th
- China’s Tencent acquires 5% stake in Australia’s Afterpay buy-now-pay-later consumer lending startup
- Australia’s Aglive livestock traceability platform completes blockchain-backed beef traceability trial from Australia to China
- Australia: Labor Party floats UK-style Active Cyber Defence program and Civilian Cyber Corps, focusing beyond critical infrastructure and ‘big-ticket capabilities’
- Australia: Shelfie AI-driven retail tech startup gains Series A follow-on backing from Singapore’s d:tribe to analyze and automate replenishment of stock levels on shelves
- Australia: Qwilr SaaS document design and automation firm raises Au$10.8M
- Australia: Property management tech startup :Different raises $7.1M Series A with sights on nationwide growth
- Australia: GovPitch 2020 set for August 28th, allowing SMEs in cybersecurity firms to pitch directly to decision-makers in the federal government
- Australia: Festival Of Dangerous Ideas Digital live-streamed conference takes place May 9-10, holding conversations on the them of ‘dangerous realities’
- Australia: Springboard Enterprises E3 Program applications are now open for women-led tech or life-science businesses
- Australian transportation and logistics company, Toll Group, suffers 2nd cyber-attack in 4 months, shuts down IT systems and key customer portal as precaution
- Australian universities soon to run exams online to comply with Covid-19 requirements – using facial recognition and machine-learning surveillance tech
- Australia: Verteva raises Au$33M Series A with digitised home loan solutions
- Australia: RMIT Online partners IBM to deliver courses to help business leaders prepare for wide-scale adoption of IoT and 5G
- Australia: StartupAus 2.0 – ‘Imagining the future of the ecosystem’ video conference set for 27th May, looking at pandemic recovery and beyond
- SafeStay Australia short-term rental safety auditor partners I-PRAC membership platform to invest $6M in short-stay rental standards
- Australia: Fishburners to launch Fempowered 2020, a 6-month free program for 30 women across Australia, with applications closing May 31st
- Australia: Xccelerate 2020 Pitch Event applications close May 30th, seeking startups focused on improving financial wellbeing of micro and small businesses
- Australia: LaunchVic aids 4 angel groups with Au$1.16M boost, allowing groups to assist 40+ early-stage startups in securing seed investment
- Australia-founded GO1 enterprise learning platform gains $40M from Microsoft, Salesforce and others
- Australia: An interview intro to Sprintlaw, startup using tech to make legal services affordable for small business
- Australia: Afterpay buy now, pay later startup gains 1M new users as online shopping booms during pandemic lockdown
- Australia: A video capture of the recent ‘RegTech Solutions in a COVID-19 world’ event, delivered online
- Australia: Tripfuser gains $4.5M led by RACT with online travel platform offering near 1400 customisable and digitally-manageable itineraries
- Australia: Preezie secures $575K seed funding with personal assistant approach to e-commerce via tool that quizzes customers on what they’re looking for
- Australia and COVID-19: “As physical doors close, new digital doors swing open”, from McKinsey
- Thai Digital Energy Development public-private JV partners Australia’s fast-growing Power Ledger energy firm to develop blockchain-backed digital energy trading business
- Australia: An intro to Envirostream Australia, making fertilizer supplement from repurposed alkaline batteries, 97% of which currently end up in landfill
- Australia: A look at StructureFlow, tech startup focused on visually modeling complex legal structures and transactions for lawyers and finance professionals
- Australia: RMIT Online launches postgrad cybersecurity and blockchain courses, partnering IBM, Palo Alto Networks and Stone & Chalk
- Australia: X15 Ventures, Commonwealth Bank’s fintech investment vehicle, to run virtual pitch event for startups supporting SMEs, with $150K prize pool
- A brief intro to 10 plant-based food tech startups boosted by Germany’s ProVeg Incubator
- Startup Vietnam Foundation Australia launches, aiming to develop startup and innovation ecosystem for Vietnamese students and entrepreneurs in Australia
April 2020
- Australia: Airwallex fintech raises $160M to expand cross-border payments and tools in Europe, the US and new overseas markets
- Australia: Facebook and Google to face mandatory code of conduct requiring platforms to pay news media businesses for the content they produce
- Australia: An intro to Angel Next Door, Geelong startup helping neighbours through the coronavirus pandemic
- Australia: An intro to Remarkable accelerator’s startups, creating technology to change the lives of people with disability
- Australia: EdApp online learning startup partnered by United Nations Institute for Training and Research for ‘Educate All’ global learning initiative
- Australia: A brief intro to 3 startups working on aspects of the real estate industry
- Australia: An intro to the mentors offering online consultations via Sydney Startup Hub
- Australia: Power Ledger to roll out blockchain energy trading to apartments in WA, delivering renewable energy via embedded network, solar PV and microgrid
- Australia Post launches trial of Remotely Piloted Aircraft, drones to deliver small parcels to customers, particularly time-critical deliveries such as medication
- Australia: An intro to eBottli, providing blockchain-enabled tracking, geolocation for bottles or containers, and unique identifier labels for winemakers
- Germany’s ProVeg Incubator selects Australia’s Heuros and India’s Mister Veg for plant-based and cultured food program
- Australia: Coworking businesses in Sydney Startup Hub gain access to 6-month rent deferment from NSW Gov’t as move to maintain viability past coronavirus crisis
- Australia: WHOOP fitness and health tracking wearable to be studied for use in early detection of COVID-19 respiratory issues
- Australia’s Power Ledger, peer-to-peer energy trading pioneer, unveils world’s largest choose-your-own-energy-source project in France
- Australia: An intro to Meld Gold, scheduled to launch a blockchain-based platform for tokenized gold trading in Q3 2020
- Australia: New spyware targeting Android users identified by Bitdefender, adding to woes as country targeted by more banking trojans than any other developed country
- 10 early-stage startups selected for SportsTech Melbourne Accelerator Program, from Australia, Spain, Germany, Austria, India, the US and Canada
- Australia: Washington Post highlights University of Queensland’s actions regarding student critical of China over Hong Kong, Tibet, Uighurs and free speech
- ICYMI: Opera web browser expands crypto wallet service across whole of Europe, and adds Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Switzerland to roster
- Australia: Myriota IoT firm raises $19M with sights set on constellation of at least 25 satellites to connect internet-of-things devices globally
- Australia: An intro to SilVR Adventures, providing guided communal VR sessions encouraging social interaction for seniors in care homes across Victoria
- Australia: Startup Onramp launches Online Founders Course training and mentoring program
- Australia: M8 Ventures VC fund announces hibernation in response to coronavirus, setting sights on post-pandemic restart
- Australia: EnergyLab Australia cleantech startup acceleration program gains $480K in government funding, focusing primarily on Scale Up program
- Australia: 86 400 neobank startup secures $34M Series A in round led by Morgan Stanley, with 170K registered accounts and expectations of 500K accounts in 12 months
- Australia: Animoca Brands blockchain gaming firm engages PrimaryMarkets online marketplace to launch private trading of unlisted securities and investments
- Australia edition of Techstars Online Global Startup Weekend Unite to Fight Covid-19 set for April 24-26
- Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre now working with Google, Microsoft to publicly flag COVID-19 scam websites as malicious
- Australia/New Zealand: Startups Hiring Through COVID-19 – a live, continually-updated spreadsheet of jobs and opportunities, from Airtree VC
- Australian Technologies Competition 2020 applications now open, seeking Australian technology scaleups with the greatest global potential
- Australia: Eftpos digital ID trial approaches, aiming to provide a ‘smoother, faster and more secure onboarding experience, including for government services’
- Australia: Longtail UX SaaS startup secures $5M to connect online searchers to products with exact matching of long tail search terms
- Australia: Okra Solar lands $40K from the $1M Chivas Venture fund with plug-and-play smart grid tech focused on off-grid populations
- An intro to RMIT Activator from Australia’s RMIT University, running simultaneous online LaunchHub programs for startups in Melbourne and Vietnam
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