Australia’s technology news headlines across February of 2024 touched on a range of industries, applications, issues and developments, including: Australian agricultural tech startup funding; the government’s Boosting Female Founders startup initiative; the addition of nickel to Australia’s critical minerals list; quantum technology services entering Australia; and more.
For more technology news from across Asia and the Indo-Pacific, you should take a look at our daily editions and weekly newsletters.
Critical technologies, globally: February 2024
- Uni of South Australia Innovation & Collab Centre and Aus Centre for Business Growth partner to launch fully-funded 6-month Growth Ramp scaleup program for space startups, backed by SA Gov’t
- Australia-US CLOUD Act now in place, streamlining law enforcement data access for agencies in order to detect, prevent, investigate and prosecute serious crime, and safeguard national security
- Australia: Banking Reverse Pitch event was held February 21st, hosted by Fintech Australia, ANZ, Westpac, Investment NSW and 1835i
- Australia: Government’s Medical Research Future Fund backs 4 digital health startups with solutions featuring AI, wearable health tech and data analysis
StormWall: DDoS Cyber Attacks in 2023 in Asia Pacific
- Australia: Highlights from the Choosi Swipe Right Modern Dating Report 2023, looking at dating apps, websites, customer behaviors and more
- Australia: An intro to 5 of the country’s startups that collectively raised over $38 million in the week to February 2nd
- Australia: An intro to Bodd, 3D body scanning and data insights company customising apparel based on an individual’s measurements, with particular relevance for multi-item businesses and services
- Australia: TEKLAB Grains accelerator program launches to boost early-stage agri-tech startups and concepts, an initiative from Farmers2Founders and Grains Research & Dev Corp’n
- An overview of Australia’s MyVenue and its successes in the US market with point-of-sale software focused on stadiums, arenas and hospitality venues
ORF: Fixing Cyber Vulnerabilities – An Agenda for the Quad
- Australian Space Agency seeks expressions of interest from industry and academia working on or researching fields that can add value to international space exploration – deadline February 14
- Australia’s GrainInnovate Fund applications are open to grains industry startups from seed to growth stage
- Australia: An intro to the 34 female-founded startups selected for funding under the government’s Boosting Female Founders Initiative
- Australia: An intro to the 10 startups selected for the next cohort of the Startmate 2024 Summer Accelerator, working on solutions in agriculture, graphic design, composite materials and more
- Australia: A quick intro to 7 of the country’s tech startups that collectively raised $10M in the week to Feb 8, working on decarbonization, health-tech, quantum computing and more
Harnessing hidden value: US Tech workers boost Australia’s tech ecosystem
- Australia: Diraq quantum firm secures $15M Series A-2 with focus into the future on development of a quantum chip produced via a standard semiconductor foundry
- Australia: Queensland gov’t boosts inaugural VC fund with $55M addition to new $130M total, with 5 participating VC firms unveiled
- Australia: Gov’t to legislate a ban on ‘doxxing’ following online publication of nearly 900 pages of private information identifying Jewish individuals
- Arrest made in Malta of individual allegedly training criminals to use Warzone remote-access trojan software as part of a global cybercrime network targeting Australian citizens
- Australia: Virescent Ventures and gov’t-backed Trailblazer for Recycling & Clean Energy initiative partner to back UNSW Founders Climate 10x Program for climate-tech startups
ASPI: Australia’s Semiconductor Manufacturing Moonshot – Securing Talent
- Australia: Nickel to be added to critical minerals list in response to global price drops, with mining firms set to gain from funding support boost
- Australia: Bupa Ventures has rolled out a $20M fund focused on Seed to Series A startups working on solutions in a range of health sectors
- Australia: BindiMaps selected by Westpac OpenAir Cinema with digital accessible wayfinding tech providing mapping and directions for the differently-abled
- Australia: Gilmour Space Technologies raised US$36M with launch vehicles and upcoming first test flight
- Australia: Japan’s NEC conglomerate and Canada’s D-Wave launch two quantum tech services for the Australian market, featuring cloud access to quantum computing alongside consultancy services
Australia: National Quantum Strategy
- Australia: Business Research & Innovation Initiative opens grant funding, offering up to $100K to aid startup and SME firms to explore renewables and low emissions solutions
- Australia: Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in WA gains NVIDIA CUDA Quantum platform, built around Grace Hopper Superchips, for quantum computing research
- A look at the opportunities presented by India-Australia technology skills-focused migration
- Download: ‘Growing and Sustaining Australia’s Space Engineering Capability and Competency – Policy Advice Paper’ from Engineering Australia (direct pdf link)
- Australia: A transcript of the speech by Minister for Industry & Science at the recent Quantum Australia event, outlining opportunities in the sector
Australian Signals Directorate Cyber Threat Report 2022-2023
- Australia: Battery manufacturing supply chain set for Queensland with agreement inked with Japan’s Idemitsu for grid-scale production of vanadium flow batteries, an alternative to lithium-ion
- Australia: CSIRO-run National AI Centre launches AI Sprint initiative to help startups develop AI solutions to address national issues including cost of living, supply chain resilience and environmental well-being
- The Australian Taxation Office faces 4.7 million cyber-attacks each month, with ID theft for fraud resulting in $635M ‘illegally accessed’ from self-managed super funds during 2020 and 2021
- Australia: Swinburne University to lead $3M grant-funded project testing heavy electric vehicles tech, including road-embedded dynamic wireless charging
- FinTech Australia ups environmental focus with launch of monthly event showcasing sustainability-focused fintech firms, with first FinTech for Net Zero event set for March 12th
- Australia: LaunchVic unveils $1M MedTech Market Growth Program providing up to $5K in matched funding for selected Victorian medical-tech startups
- Australia: Space Machines preps for launch of Australia’s largest private satellite to provide orbital logistics and services to maintain, refuel, repair and decommission satellites and other spacecraft
- Australia: Quasar Satellite Technologies selected as 1 of 7 companies for 13th edition of US Air Force research Catalyst Accelerator with space domain awareness innovation
“…the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy includes $78M of investment in submarine cables in the Pacific through the AIFFP [Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific]…”
- New Zealand: Launch Club Aotearoa launches with 10-week pre-accelerator program for early-stage startups, in partnership with Australasia’s Startmate accelerator and investor
- Google published ‘AI Opportunity Agenda for ASEAN’, a whitepaper outlining policy recommendations to ASEAN member states with suggestions on how to make the most of artificial intelligence
- ‘Bolstering cooperation among Quad and Pacific Islands countries’ webinar took place February 28th, a discussion on boosting collaborations with Australia, India, Japan, the US and Pacific Island nations
Panthur: Web Hosting in Australia
Asia’s tech news: Other editions
Deloitte: Global Semiconductor Industry Outlook in 2024 –
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