= First quarter 2018 =
Australia’s startup news
Below is an uncategorised summary of broad
Australian startup and tech-related news reported through
January, February and March 2018.
We also deliver a monthly Australian startup news update.
Accompanying this, we also deliver a daily startup news report
via social media, posting Australia’s startup news on Twitter,
on LinkedIn and via StartupAsiaNews on Facebook.
The collected quarterly items – spanning all countries in South and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand – can also be ordered as a 90+ page publication in full-colour hardopy.
- MediaPinch to launch self-service digital advertising marketplace for offline media buying and selling
- Melbourne’s Blockchain Centre launches Block Engine blockchain-focused incubator
- Blockchain and beyond – innovation insights from WestTechFest
- Blockchain Developers Course – Writing Ethereum Smart Contracts – Melbourne, February
- SuperEd digital financial advice startup raises $5M
- An infographic overviews of Australia’s fintech achievements in 2017
- TravelbyBit crypto payment system lands implementation with Brisbane Airport in world-first
- PageUp cloud-based talent management software backed by global investment firm
- Indigenous Business Australia accelerator sets for virtual program for remote startups
- Investible startup accelerator launche, focusing on Indigenous entrepreneurs
- A look at Adelaide’s smart city vision using sensors and IoT networks
- A look at Uni of Queensland’s inaugural HYPE UQ SPIN Lab sports innovation program
- Pause Fest set for February 7-11 in Melbourne – creative, tech and business
- Why non-technical founders need greater support from Australia’s startup ecosystems
- Canberra seeks 4 regional locations for startup incubator establishment
- NTT DATA Open Innovation Contest – Melbourne Pitch Day set for February 1st
- Australian Federal Police seeks tech for efficient submission of A/V content by public
- VivaTech meetup set for WeWork Melbourne, January 10th
- Department of Defence seeking partners around potential use of quantum tech
- A look at Big Tiny’s minimalist houses for the great outdoors
- $240M Australia-focused fund set for launch by end of March
- Techstars Startup Weekend Women – Brisbane, February
- Myriota, South Australian satellite comms firm, to invest $2.72M into IoT lab in Adelaide
- $6.7M SA election pitch includes all public primary students to be taught coding and entrepreneurship
- SA’s Fleet Space Technologies wins Dutch government grant to fast-track IoT network for farms
- Ceres Tag IoT startup partners CSIRO and Data 61 for cattle ear tag monitoring location, movement and temperature
- An intro to Wynergy, building small-scale solar farms on rural grazing land
- Hackastron Sky Mining 2018 astronomy-focused hackathon set for Perth, 16-18 February
- Legislation passed in Victoria for driverless car trials
- A look at Daisee, bringing AI to business decisions around structured and unstructured data
- Nuonic data analytics and IoT startup gains KPMG backing
- Queensland water authority to run water industry hackathon around IoT, blockchain and Smart Cities tech
- Pelikin bank-in-an-app startup launches $400K crowfunding equity drive
- Xinja digital bank startup offers housing loans following license approval
- Shping blockchain startup raises US$3M in pre-sale ICO, aiming for later $40M raise
- InStitchu custom tailoring startup raises $2.5M from Chinese manufacturer Dayang
- AgriFutures applications open for high school entrepreneurial program
- What can Australia learn from Estonia about creating a digital society?
- WePower blockchain green energy startup raises US$40M in ICO
- A look at GlamCorner, making online rental the future of fashion
- Sydney Women Startup Weekend set for February 16-18
- RMIT to run nation’s first blockchain strategy course – 8 weeks beginning in March
- CanYa blockchain startup develops own accounting software after finding a compliance gap
- Entersoft cybersecurity firm named 2017 FinTech Startup of the Year in Hong Kong
- Reserve Bank and Payments System Board launch New Payments Platform for real-time inter-bank payments
- Stone & Chalk Insurtech Program 2018 to gain from Hall & Willcox lawyer partnership
- ‘Why Australian startups should forget Silicon Valley and leverage new opportunities in Asia’
- Car Next Door P2P car sharing platform lands $5M
- Cashless welfare card trials extended for a year in SA and WA
- Havven blockchain startup sees $31M pledged for ICO with aim to create first stable coin
- Shping launches ICO to rewrite how advertisers reach consumers
- Melbourne’s Forticode cybersecurity startup backed to $1.3M
- VIctoria leg of Global Legal Hackathon set for 23-25 February at Monash University
- Boost Juice partners CoinJar for marketing around Bitcoin giveaway
- TBSx3 blockchain startup partners Hamburg Sud following logistics solutions trial securing cargo across supply chain
- Adelaide’s Flinders University’s New Venture Institute incubator named best in Asia Pacific
- AgTech Summit set for March 13-14 in Melbourne
- Honee AI-driven online beauty platform raises $1.8M
- Power Ledger blockchain startup partners Helpanswers NFP energy firm for P2P energy trading across hundreds of US sites
- The 10 blockchain startups chosen for Melbourne’s Block Engine incubator
- A look at 5 growing blockchain startups
- The Studio Incubator to open in Sydney for tech, media, entertainment, music, design and game developers
- Penten cybersecurity startup secures AU$1.3M from Dept of Defence for mobile access cryptography
- Disability-focused accelerator Remarkable to invest $35K into 6 startups in next batch
- Australian Medical Association chief’s take on the concerns around healthtech, privacy and more
- PDF download: Australia 2030 – Prosperity Through Innovation
- A look at Binary Beer’s IoT platform for keg tracking and content monitoring
- Myriota satellite communications startup to open $2.7M IoT lab in Adelaide
- ActivePipe real estate proptech company backed by NAB Ventures for automated communications
- An intro to Sellable, startup paying house vendors agreed minimum price before sale
- A look at Shebah female-focused ride-sharing startup
- First Gens accelerator launched for migrant and refugee-led social impact ventures
- A brief look at Tinybeans photo sharing startup targeting ‘sharenting’ and online security
- USQ WiRE boot camp established to encourage rural female entrepreneurs
- One Roof Community Market set for Melbourne, Feb 17, showcasing some of the finest female-led startups and small businesses
- Springboard Enterprises Australia Accelerator applications open for women-led companies, startups and entrepreneurs
- The wins and challenges, post-accelerator, for SheStarts alumni
- An intro to the newly-opened Sydney Startup Hub (pdf)
- River City Labs lands Bank of Queensland for 2-year corporate partnership
- Microsoft targets Australian tech startups with launch of ScaleUp accelerator in Sydney
- France’s Le Wagon coding school to set up Melbourne and Sydney campuses
- Tech Inclusion Conference set for Melbourne, February 13, to push diversity and inclusion solutions
- A look at teenager-led EduKits, startup supplier of 3D printers, electronics and STEM kits for home and classroom learning
- Could nanobots transform mining?
- South Australia unveils details of $2M local games development fund
- Fleet Space partners Reekoh IoT data and API management firm for constellation of 100 nanosatellites
- Everproof ID verification startup closes $1.5M round, sets sights on Silicon Valley backing
- CSIRO to add 3 more US offices, first Asian premises likely for Singapore, and China launch in sights
- Telstra’s Muru-D has accelerated over 100 startups since launch 5 years ago
- Melbourne’s York Butter Factory to launch world-first hub for Web 3.0 tech
- Google set to base fast-growing photos product team in Australia
- Australia’s Muru-D accelerator unveils latest cohort of 10 startups
- WA-grown Kanopy now offers 30K free online movies for library users
- Cab Digital Media signed by Telstra for IoT-based digital advertising
- An intro to the winning startups from Kohmatsu’s mining-focused hackathon in Brisbane
- Ansarada AI-powered firm raises $19M for business data analysis
- Tax Office seeking public feedback around taxing cryptocurrency
- Australian agtech startups take honours at World AgriTech Innovation Summit in San Francisco
- Chinese ecommerce giant JD partners InterAgri for Australian Beef Blockchain Project
- MailGuard cloud email and cybersecurity firm developing first of its kind blockchain and AI network
- What to expect from this week’s APAC Blockchain Conference in Melbourne
- Paid By Coins set to allow Australians to pay bills with cryptocurrency
- A look at CSIRO’s moves into Asia, based out of Singapore
- Sydney Airport to trial biometrics, enabling facial recognition for check-in and boarding
- WeChat banned by Australia’s Department of Defence, citing security concerns
- Techstars Asia Pacific accelerator 2018 applications open for defense technology startups
- Xinja, Australia’s 1st digital-only bank, launches prepaid card and app – with no ATM fees in Australia and overseas
- Revvies Energy Strips dissolvable caffeine startup closes Australia’s first finished equity crowdfunding campaign
- EverMarkets aiming to improve futures trading using blockchain tech
- Commonwealth Bank looking at potential blockchain payments apps
- Liven dining rewards-based payment startup to launch own cryptocurency, LivenCoin
- Goodworld hashtag-to-donation platform partners Australia’s Verrency fintech to make donating easier
- An intro to CoVesta, fractional investment platform for real estate
- Tyro business-only challenger bank launches Tap & Save payments service
- UK-Australia FinTech Bridge signed to aid collaboration between Governments around FinTech trends and policy
- 2018 Finnies Awards open for nominations to April 8th for Australia’s fintechs
- Fintech Australia CEO steps down to focus on bridging gap between Australian and Asian startups
- Employment Hero cloud-based HR startup raises $6.2M
- An intro to Indigital AR startup, telling Indigenous peoples’ stories through tech
- WA establishes national cyber group focusing on critical infrastructure, cybercrime and big data
- Forticode cybersecurity startup secures $1.3M
- HUMM Tech brain function accelerator device set for Kickstarter funding
- FirstStep micro-investments platform now in public beta
- A$15M IoT boost announced for Victoria to be AgTech hub
- Daisee AI startup raises $9M to create software applications for companies
- Blockchain Centre’s Block Engine Demo Day set for late April in Melbourne
- Women-focused dating app Bumble launches professional networking feature in Australia
- LocalAgentFinder secures $5.5M led by News Corp
- BrickX real estate investment platform backed by NAB Ventures for $9M
- More on Australia’s ShareRing, blockchain startup aiming for a tokenized sharing economy
- Myriota, Adelaide’s nanosatellite communications startup, backed to $15.6M by Boeing HorizonX and others
- FluroSat satellite farm analysis startup secures $1.5M for US expansion
- SproutX to set up Victoria’s first agricultural technology hub in Mildura
- Power Ledger unveils first commercial deployment of energy trading platform
- An overview of Ribit, digital matchmaker for students and tech industry
- TotallyAwesome launches program to teach kids to create safe YouTube content
- Vygo tutoring platform set for national expansion after successful rollout in Queensland universities
- Prosper Education raises $3.57M to grow RoyalABC language learning ecosystem in China
- An intro to Catalysr, supporting migrant and refugee entrepreneurs
- An intro to To Me Love Me, Melbourne fashion-tech startup helping you find the right fit
- SkyBuys partners global duty free giant Heinemann to boost travelers’ options
- An intro to Afterpay Touch digital payments system
- Whispir gains US$10M backing for Indonesia entry
- Grants to $250K available to NSW startups in Australia-Israel R&D collaboration
- ShareRing blockchain-powered marketplace for sharing services lands US$3M
- Socialsuite social impact measurement wins $100K pitch competition
- A look at Tinybeans, secure online platform for parents to scrapbook memories of their children
- BlueChilli tech accelerator to use AI to identify 240 startups to back
- Biteable ‘Canva for video’ startup from Tasmania lands $2.8M
- The 8 startup founders selected for the women-only Springboard accelerator
- An intro to 9 of Australia’s female entrepreneurs
- ‘Entrepreneur visa’ for foreign entrepreneurs and investors to be piloted in Adelaide
- Melbourne’s Room Xchange a finalist in 2018 Australian Small Business Champion awards
- Mad Paws pet-minding startup receives $5M backing
- Flamingo AI scores paid trial for Fortune 500 insurer Liberty Mutual
- Blockchain Environmentalism presentation by Flux Party’s Riley Kinnunen – March 21st, Hobart, Tasmania
- Cross-Border Hackathon, a NAB and Alibaba Cloud initiative, set for Melbourne, April 20-22
- $2.9M assigned to run education programs for up to 2000, aimed at boosting Victoria’s startups
- Tank Stream Labs launches its first Perth startup coworking space
- Sextech Hackathon on now in Sydney – a $30bn industry growing 30% a year
- Solus Health takes win at Startup Weekend Brisbane for wearable device that detects cognitive decline
- Lingmo launches Time2Translate smartwatch, translating 9 languages on the go
- An intro to Eat Fit Food, fresh healthy meal delivery service
- Girl Geek Academy launches Australian-first all-female SheHacksGames hackathon
- A look at how Daigou purchasing is changing how Australia and China do business
- Indonesia: UnionSPACE coworking space operator partners Australia’s Stone & Chalk to support local fintech startups
- A look at why 19 Pacific countries are building a single civil registration platform
- Australia’s Artesian Venture Partners scanning Vietnam’s early-stage startup scene
