Australia’s startup news
in March 2021
Australia’s tech and startup news in March 2021 covered items across a wide range of subjects: New VC funds, artificial intelligence in podcasting, Vietnam-Australia partnership opportunities, virtual payment cards and BNPL services and more.
Items listed here are Australia’s tech and startup news headlines for the month, drawn from Startup News Asia’s daily feeds; each item is linked directly to the free-to-read article behind that headline, available to read online in full. This gives readers two things instantly:
- an at-a-glance overview of March 2021’s startup news from Australia (obviously); and
- instant access to more detail on the Australian startup news items that interest you the most.
If you’re looking for March 2021’s technology news, rather than startup news from Australia, see our other tech news collections, listed at the foot of this page.
You can also download a one-page snapshot of Australia’s tech news:
- A round-up of some of the country’s tech, startup and funding news headlines from the month past, February 2021
- “Collapse of crypto platform a cautionary tale” – ACX banned for life by peak industry body, while AUSTRAC has revoked platform’s digital currency license
- Australia’s Giant Leap Fund launches first run at open source database of the world’s impact venture capital funds
- Northern Territory Gov’t trials custom-made medical drones for delivery of potentially life-saving medicines, with a flying range of 250km
- PropTech Awards 2021 applications close March 19th
- An overview of Australia’s seaweed-farming startups, and the recent growth they’ve experienced
- Sea Forest gains $1M federal gov’t commercialisation grant to fast-track seaweed additive for livestock feed, drastically reducing methane emissions
- “Small, independent and niche publishers do not have the means or the avenues to negotiate with Facebook or Google in the same way as…the bigger media players…”
- Sonnant gains early-stage backing from Southern Cross Austereo broadcaster with AI-driven content discovery for the spoken word
- Antler Australia to open Melbourne office mid-2021, moving forward from a year of online programs to larger physical presence
- Dep’t of Defence to host Gameathon, aiming to generate ideas around use of AI in wargaming – applications open March 15th
- Australian Competition & Consumer Commission seeks public feedback on choice and competition in internet search and web browsers, in part looking at pre-installations
- PayPal to launch its interest-free ‘Pay in 4’ service in Australia in June, stepping into the country’s ‘buy now, pay later’ market
- Litt social media platform secures $1.5M via equity crowdfunding on Birchal platform, breaking records with speed of funding
- GGWP esports education and creator marketplace raises over $350K in initial funding, focusing on gaming influencers
- Au$6.9M allocated to Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources to explore feasibility of blockchain use, specifically in regulation
- Adelaide to gain from launch of 42, French firm delivering college-level, non-profit, free programming school with peer-to-peer learning
- $10M Alice Anderson Fund launched by LaunchVic, a ‘sidecar’ fund co-investing in women-led early-stage startups set to operate over 3 years
- NewsFarm launches, with sights on establishing mastheads in 100+ regional news ‘deserts’, create over 450 jobs, and publish 5K local stories weekly
- Vietnam-Australia partnerships gain boost via Innovation Partnership Grants, helping scale tested activities in any sector of Vietnam’s innovation ecosystem
- 2021 AWS Summit Online Australia & New Zealand set for May 18-19, providing the cloud community with educational sessions, hands-on labs and more
- Startup Adelaide relaunches, outlining 12-month strategic plan to help the city’s innovators with advice, resources and connections for growth
- Investible seed-stage investment firm to raise 2nd early-stage fund, targeting Au$50M and looking at startups across SE Asia as well as in Australia
- SecondQuarter Ventures closes $51M for the country’s first ‘secondary fund’
- Startup Onramp Regional NSW Program applications close April 9th, a program supported by NSW Gov’t and Sydney Startup Hub
- TechReady Women’s Female Founder Program 2021 applications close April 5th
- Linktree raises $45M Series B, aiming to add tools to make social commerce easier for users
- A look at Soil Carbon Co, specialising in microbe-mediated carbon sequestration, removing carbon from the atmosphere via microbial fungi and bacteria
- SwingVision lands 2-year agreement with Tennis Australia around video analysis app that uses a smartphone camera to track ball and player movement
- “In Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Cook Islands and elsewhere, Facebook is…most frequently used social media platform and…the first port of call for news.”
- Australia’s OneQode launches world-first gaming hub on island of Guam, aiming to connect hundreds of millions of gamers across Asia-Pacific
- Victorian government invests additional $1.8M into Startmate, in part delivering a local accelerator program for 30 Victorian startups across 3 years
- Australia’s Webjet airline takes 51% rights stake in LockTrip blockchain startup, in part allowing customers to pay for bookings using the LOC token
- Afterpay BNPL firm launches virtual payments card for in-store use, created in-app, stored in a smartphone digital wallet and accessible via Apple Watch
- An intro to the nine tech startups selected for the Venture Catalyst Space program
- ICYMI: Australia’s Splend ride-hailing rental startup to transition half of 1500-strong Australian car fleet to electric by end of 2022
Technology-focused news in March 2021
The links below will take you to news round-ups focused on particular technologies, rather than technology news from a particular location:
• Artificial intelligence news, March 2021
• Blockchain news in March 2021
• Crypto & digital currency news in March 2021
• Cybersecurity and related news, March 2021
• FinTech and digital banking news in March 2021
Today: Asia’s technology news
Tech, startups & venture capital // South & SE Asia, Indo-Pacific:
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