Australian tech news in May of 2024
Items this month covered, for instance: Australia’s Critical Technologies Challenge Program; a possible ban on social media access for young Australians; Australian-driven improvements in silicon production, underpinning semiconductor production; the Australian government’s $1 billion investment in a single quantum technology firm; and more.
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Australia: National Robotics Strategy
- “Australia has the chance to resolve the problems the AUKUS partners and their friends and allies have with critical minerals, particularly with rare earths…” / read it here
- Australia: Ice Cube hip-hop and film star partners MyPremo to help artists better monetise their digital and online work / read it here
- Hydrogen Systems Australia and The Desert Springs Group, an Indigenous Australian business group, ink MOU to work on hydrogen development and production / read it here
- Australia: SpatialAI raised Au$5.1M with AI-boosted efficiency in construction and space design across architecture, education, healthcare, retail and beyond / read it here
- Australia: Western Sydney University discloses data breach, notifying 7500 ‘impacted individuals’ / read it here
- Australia: An overview of the government’s $36M Critical Technologies Challenge Program, looking at national challenges from medical imaging to quantum tech / read it here
- Australia: Gov’t endorses ban on children registering social media accounts until age of 16, saying too much online engagement at a young age damages mental health / read it here
- Australia: An intro to The Daily Aus, news outlet for non-news people, speaking to as many as one in eight Australians aged 18-35 / read it here
- “Australia urgently needs to put into place well-funded public disinformation literacy campaigns, augmented by digital media literacy education in schools…” / read it here
Australia: National Quantum Strategy
- Australia: A brief intro to 5 startups that collectively raised $163M in the week to May 17th, working in insurance-tech, ID verification, real estate tech and more / read it here
- Australia: Deakin University invites submissions by end of May for ‘Digital Complexity and Disinformation in Indo-Pacific’ conference in September / read it here
- Australia: A brief first look at the cybersecurity-related provisions in the 2024 Federal Budget / read it here
- Germany’s HyImpulse completes launch of SR75 rocket from Southern Launch’s Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, marking a milestone for Australia’s commercial space launch capabilities / read it here
- Australia: Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards 2024 nominations are now open across 15 categories / read it here
- Australia: Government earmarks Au$288M for national digital ID program / read it here
- Australia: China’s Xpeng EV brand appoints Australian distributor, with expectation of launching rival model to compete with Tesla Model Y by year-end 2024 / read it here
- Australia: Hysata has raised $111M to scale up its more efficient method for producing hydrogen / read it here
Australian Government National Battery Strategy
- Researchers at Melbourne and Manchester universities unveil breakthrough technique for manufacture of highly-purified silicon, critical for quantum computers / read it here
- Australia: An intro to RapidGraphite, transforming waste carbon into high-purity graphite, key component of lithium-ion batteries / read it here
- Australia: MetroElectro secures $680K from Singapore’s Wavemaker Impact venture builder to develop mid-sized renewable power plants, looking to unused rooftop solar potential / read it here
- Australia: A brief intro to 6 firms selected for South Australia’s Growth Ramp space pathway, working in electronics, illegal fishing monitoring, space debris and more / read it here
- Australia: A quick intro to 9 startups that collectively raised $233M in the week to May 10th, working in agri-tech, music technology, AI and more / read it here
- Critical minerals: “…there are clear ongoing efforts, including by China’s state-owned entities, to extend their nation’s monopoly by controlling Australia’s rare earths deposits…” / read it here
KPMG Venture Pulse Q1 2024
- Australia: China’s Xpeng EV brand appoints Australian distributor, with expectation of launching rival model to compete with Tesla Model Y by year-end 2024 / read it here
- Australia: H2PowerBox launches mobile, off-grid solar-hydrogen energy system, generating and storing hydrogen via electrolysis in the day and using a fuel cell to convert back to electricity as needed / read it here
- Australia: Firstmac, non-bank lender focusing on mortgage lending, investment management and securitization, hit by data breach of potentially 500GB / read it here
- Australia: Government earmarks Au$288M for national digital ID program / read it here
- Australia: Airwallex for Startups launches, aiming to be Australia’s most comprehensive program for local startups looking to accelerate their growth / read it here
Flight Critical: Drones, cyber security & critical infrastructure
- Australian gov’t makes near $1BN investment in quantum tech firm, PsiQuantum, with sights on delivery of the country’s first quantum computer / read it here
- A quick intro to 7 Australian and New Zealand startups that collectively raised over $27M in the week to May 3rd / read it here
- Australia: Dep’t of Foreign Affairs & Trade Cyber & Critical Tech Cooperation Program opens call for funding proposals, aiming to boost cooperation with and capabilities across 8 SEA nations / read it here
- Australian Technologies Competition 2024 applications are now open for startups and tech firms across 16 award categories / read it here
- Australia: Victorian state gov’t fund, Breakthrough Victoria, draws US stratospheric near-space exploration firm, World View, to Melbourne in $37M deal / read it here
- Australia: University of Sydney awarded $18.3M federal grant over 4 years to establish research and commercialisation group for the country’s quantum sector / read it here
- Australia: Thinktank proposes big tech companies face a digital platform tax to fund trusted news media, in bid to confront ‘rising tide of misinformation and disinformation’ / read it here
- A quick look at the impact of the Australian government Investing in Women program on women-led small businesses in The Philippines / read it here
- India’s Digantara joins Space-MAITRI – Mission for Australia-India’s Tech, Research & Innovation – project, adding optical tech to Australia’s Space Machines for debris monitoring / read it here
Critical technologies, globally, in May 2024
Asia’s tech news: Other editions
Our other tech news editions and formats span the range from daily to quarterly, and are available on a range of platforms so as to provide readers with the widest array of reading options.
Australia: StartUp to ScaleUp Summit 2024 – September in Sydney
