The June 2020 Australian startup news summary, drawn from Startup News Asia’s daily news updates
This June 2020 summary covers Australia’s tech startup news with a focus, where possible, on the early-stage funding space. News headlines are gathered at the country level to provide an overview of developments in Australia’s startup ecosystem.
Links listed below are online startup news headlines reported in, or concerning, Australia across June 2020, with each link taking you to the online news source for that headline. Generally, items will cover an individual Australian startup in the news or an aspect of the wider Australian startup ecosystem in some way – venture capital firms, funds and funding, government and private startup support programs, startup industry body news and similar.
While you read, please also take a moment to visit Startup News Asia’s friends and partners, shown in the banner ads below; these are startups or initiatives worthy of your notice, your support and of startup news headlines of their own.
- 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
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