Australian tech news in Q1 2024 – that’s January, February and March – touched on items including: Tesla’s battery plant agreement in Queensland; Australian 3D metal printing for space technologies; StartMate’s 2024 startup accelerator intake; the Australian Taxation Office’s monthly 4.7 million cyber-attacks problem; Australia’s alternative proteins industry; Australian landing points for undersea information and internet cables; and many more.
Hit the links below for the monthly Australian tech news collections for Q1 2024; each leads to individual Australian technology news items in full.
In March 2024 | In February 2024 | In January 2024
ASPI: The Sydney Dialogue – critical, emerging & cyber technologies
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Tech in Australia: March 2024
- Australia: Kathleen Valley Lithium Project secures $230M loan agreement following lithium price collapse-prompted pull-out of previous support, with sights on mid-year production / read it here
- Australia: Bandicoot Imaging deep-tech startup secured $1M pre-seed funding with digital twins tech for physical fabrics / read it here
- Online now: Australian Signals Directorate Blueprint for Secure Cloud, an online tool to support the design, configuration and deployment of collaborative and secure cloud and hybrid workspaces, focusing on Microsoft 365 / read it here
- Australian global payments firm, Airwallex, partners McLaren Formula 1 racing team to offer acceleration grants to startups / read it here
- Australian Sports Technologies Network partners etrainu community education solutions firm for SportsTech Startup Series, aiming to aid early-stage ideation, concepts, initial testing phase or first MVP / read it here
- Australia: Microsoft partners Tank Stream Labs for AI Hub at Sydney Startup Hub to build support ecosystem for founders, developers and startups working on AI technologies / read it here
- Australia Cyber Conference 2024 Canberra is set for March 25–27, presented by the Australian Information Security Association / read it here
- Australia: Flight Information Management System moves forward with traffic control system linking drones, air taxis and other uncrewed aircraft with existing air traffic management system / read it here
- Australia-ASEAN Summit to see Prime Minister Albanese unveil a $2BN fund to boost Australian trade and investment in South-East Asia, focusing particularly on clean energy and infrastructure / read it here
- A brief overview of the opportunities for Australia, Singapore and Malaysia to collaborate on addressing the various cyber issues that each nation faces / read it here
- Australia: Anni raises $1M seed funding with on-demand platform connecting users with wellness, health and wellbeing experts / read it here
- Western Australia moves forward with plan for digital twin of the state, announcing $140M package for 10-year project to improve outcomes across infrastructure, emergencies and more / read it here
- South Australian Gov’t and Fearless Females Network join for 2-year pilot program providing grants to female-founded businesses / read it here
- ‘Darwin Dialogue on Critical Minerals and Rare Earth Elements’ is set for April 17-19, an event from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute / read it here
- “More than $9 million in funding has been awarded to 12 Australian space firms as part of the latest rounds of the federal government’s Moon to Mars Supply Chain Capability Improvement Grants program…” / read it here
- Australia: Nullify cybersecurity startup raised US$3.4M seed funding with AI-backed assistant bot that helps software devs and security teams detect and fix code vulnerabilities as it is being written / read it here
- Australia: Former coal mine in Queensland set to become a Tesla Megapack grid-scale battery energy facility / read it here
- Australia: Cicada Innovations opens applications for Cicada x Tech23 2024 cohort, seeking Australian deep-tech innovators and solutions / read it here
- Australia: A brief intro to Great Southern Bank’s news all-in-one mobile app, Australia’s first end-to-end digital banking platform focusing on businesses with less than 10 employees / read it here
- “…like the US, Australia is concerned about the data that TikTok collects, about the potential for that data to be shared with a foreign adversary, and about the potential for content to be weaponised by that adversary…” / read it here
- Australia: LaunchVic 30X30 mentoring program unveils the 10 scaleups selected in pursuit of unicorn status / read it here
- Investment NSW invites expressions of interest from NSW New Energy firms for participation in New Energy delegation to India, and to attend India Energy Storage Week in July / read it here
- Australia and Canada to partner on critical minerals, aiming to coordinate on supply chain security, sustainability, investment and beyond / read it here
- Australian competition regulator calls for consumer, business and industry feedback on developments in and competition between search services, alongside trends such as generative AI use and search quality / read it here
- Australia: EnergyLab climate-tech startup accelerator unveils Decarb Debrief, a review of impact in 2023 – alumni collectively raised Au$289M in 2023, with Australia-based startups securing Au$124M / read it here
- An intro to 5 Australian and New Zealand startups that collectively raised over $36M in the past week, working on solutions in fintech, foodtech, advertising and more / read it here
- Stripe payments giant expands Amazon partnership, implementing Amazon Just Walk Out payments tech in Australia and Canada, requiring only a card check-in on store entry / read it here
- A brief overview of results from a recent Australian study comparing Hydrogen batteries and lithium-ion batteries in both technical and financial performance / read it here
- Australia: A brief look at the work of ELO2 Consortium, one of two consortia working with Australian Space Agency funding on the Moon to Mars Trailblazer Program Stage 1 / read it here
- Australia: Stables, digital wallet and payments startup, launches international remittances powered by stablecoins, focusing on Australia-Philippines transactions / read it here
- Australia: Canada’s WonderFi to acquire FX Institutions, yet-to-launch Australian crypto exchange, giving WonderFi its first crypto licence outside Canada, to provide OTC crypto trading services / read it here
- Australia: Cicada Innovations deep-tech incubator launches Cicada HealthTech Hub in Sydney, targeting health-focused pre-revenue stage startups, spinouts, research projects and more / read it here
- Australia: iLAuNCH Trailblazer initiative commissions Nikon multi-metal 3D printer to make space missions more affordable and efficient with lighter, faster and more robust aerospace components / read it here
- Australia: Cauldron Ferm fermentation-focused foods company secures Au$9.5M Series A to build large-scale facility to manufacture high-value ingredients / read it here
- Australia: QuantumTX 2024 Queensland METS Technology Incubator Program applications are now open for solutions in the mining equipment, technology and services sector / read it here
- Australia: An intro to the Seabin, a simple world-first product aiming to clean the oceans, one marina at a time / read it here
- Australia: Diraq quantum tech firm hits milestone for spin-based quantum processors, functioning at temperatures 20 times warmer than before while holding stability and accuracy / read it here
- Sunrise Australia tech, startup and creativity conference set for May 1-2 in Sydney / read it here
- Australia: AGL Energy and SunDrive Solar cells firm partner for facility feasibility study into commercial-scale solar cell manufacturing / read it here
- Australia: An overview of the recently-announced Solar SunShot, a Au$1 billion government initiative to bring solar manufacturing back to Australia / read it here
- The Philippines and Australia ink agreements around boosting maritime commitments, and for cooperation on cyber and critical technologies / read it here
- India’s NASSCOM and Australia’s Business NSW ink MOU to facilitate market access for tech companies in the two markets, leveraging the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement / read it here
ASPI: Australian and the global critical minerals race
Australian tech: 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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: 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
- 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
#startupaus: January 2024
- Australia’s privacy watchdog launches privacy inquiry into how China’s TikTok harvests personal data, and whether it is being done with consent
- Australia: An overview of the country’s alternative-proteins sector, with plant-based meats potentially capable of Au$3BN in domestic sales
- Podcast: Female Startup Club interviews Australian skincare brand Naked Sundays founder
- Australia: Gov’t assigns $22M in grant funding for 3 critical minerals research projects aiming to develop ‘knowledge, technology and IP on critical mineral extraction and processing’
- Australia: 11 universities selected to participate in Startup Year pilot, delivered via the Higher Education Loan Program with students able to access a STARTUP-HELP loan to support participation
- Australia: SparkLabs Cultiv8 agri-food tech accelerator opens applications for sixth cohort, seeking 10 solutions ranging from early-stage founders to growth-stage startups
- Australia: Lander & Rogers law firm opens applications for 7th LawTech Hub accelerator program for legal-tech startups
- Australia: Getmee education-tech firm gains funding $2.5M total with AI-driven English language coaching, building on white-label approach and international enterprize-level customers
- Google to help with Humboldt undersea cable project between Chile and Sydney, linking South America with the Asia Pacific and boosting access to the global digital economy
- “Australia welcomes this new trans-Pacific cable connecting Australia and Latin America for the first time, supporting the growth of digital and economic ties,” federal communications minister Michelle Rowland said.
- Australia: Afiyah Islamic finance startup adds to solutions with launch of a Shariah-compliant self-managed superannuation fund product, seeing growing opportunities in the sector
- Australia: A brief intro to Metakosmos, focused on next-gen spacesuit tech and a recent selection for the New South Wales Space Research Network’s Seed Project Program
- Evolution of a scam: “…’Hi Mum’ was a text message, and this has now evolved to become a phone call [generated by AI] that a person will receive pretending to be from a family member that is in distress”
- Australia: Reserve Bank, Dep’t of the Prime Minister & Cabinet, and Federal Police among 62 gov’t entities that had data stolen during 2023 Russia-linked hack of 4TB from contracted law firm
- Australia: 4.95MW Bell Bay Solar Farm in Tasmania is now online, with 16000 solar panels targeting the generation of enough renewable electricity to power the equivalent of 1000 homes
- South Australia’s Allied computer maker to assemble Google Chromebook laptops for two SA high schools in Australian-first partnership with Google
- Australia’s Green Gravity prototyping utilizes NVIDIA Omniverse simulation for ‘digital twins’, aiming to refine gravity-based energy storage methods focused on disused mines
- Australia: Lygon, blockchain firm backed by ANZ, CBA, Westpac, IBM and Scentre Group to digitise bank guarantees using blockchain tech, has gone into liquidation with debts of $14.3M
- Australia: Element Zero raised $10M with zero-carbon minerals processing tech, using renewable energy
- Australia: Fashion, fast food and entertainment companies struck by the latest wave of ‘credential stuffing’ cyber-attacks, using customer details from one hack to fuel others
- “In what is colorfully termed a ‘brute force’ attack, hackers use bots to test millions of username and password combinations on different websites until they find a match. It’s easier and quicker than many people realize. It is happening more often because the barrier to entry for would-be cybercriminals has never been lower. The dark web is readily accessible and the resources needed to launch attacks are available to anyone with cryptocurrency to spend and the will to cross over to the dark side.”
- Aviation/Aerospace Australia Leadership & Excellence Awards nominations are open for individuals, teams and companies across these sectors and including the Australian space sector
- Australian Securities & Investments Commission to examine details of Blockchain Global bitcoin company’s collapse following Guardian Australia investigation reveals director links to series of failed crypto schemes
- Telstra’s global arm, Telstra International, partners Trans Pacific Networks consortium to build and operate subsea Echo Cable to connect the US to Singapore
- High-capacity undersea link connecting Sydney & Melbourne to New Zealand’s Invercargill is planned, connecting with planned Invercargill hyperscale data center
- Australia: Flinders University launches Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurial Growth, integrating with Federal Gov’t Startup Year program
- Australia: CSIRO Next Generation Graduates Program to fund more than 160 postgrad students in emerging technologies, quantum and AI with dedicated opportunities for regional students
- Australia: A quick intro to 3 startups that collectively raised $36M in the week past, working on solutions in health-and-wellbeing, skincare and AI-driven water infra management
- Australia: Web domains administrator auDA proposes police training to raise knowledge of roles and responsibilities across telcos, ISPs, web hosts, cloud operators, DNS systems, devs and more
- ICYMI: ‘The Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools seeks to guide the responsible and ethical use of generative AI tools in ways that benefit students, schools, and society…’
- Australia: A brief intro to Sydney-based Hullbot, developer of autonomous underwater drones for boat hull cleaning and hull mapping
- Australia: CSIRO opens applications for ‘Innovate to Grow’ program, seeking startups and SMEs working on solutions in digital health and medical technologies
- Australian Space Agency seeks expressions of interest for discussions on niche Australian technology capabilities, with submissions closing February 14th
- Aus-NZ tech startup, Aquila, completes successful test of ground-based photonics system for wireless drones charging potentially paving the way for non-stop flight
- An overview of the bitcoin ETF space, focusing on readiness in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates
- An intro to Japan’s EX-Fusion, working on ground-based laser systems to destroy space junk, building on 2023 partnership with Australia’s EOS Space Systems for debris detection and laser test site
- “In October, EX-Fusion signed a memorandum of understanding with EOS Space Systems, an Australian contractor with technology for detecting space debris. EX-Fusion has announced its plans to install a powerful laser system at the EOS Space Observatory near Canberra.”
- India’s Tata Consultancy Services partners Australia’s Macquarie University to launch TCS GoZero Hub, a research and innovation centre focusing on a net-zero future
- Available to download: ‘The Quad and Submarine Cable Protection in the Indo-Pacific – Policy Recommendations’ from the Stockholm-based Institute for Security & Development Policy
Critical technologies, quarterly: Q1 2024
Asian tech news: Other platforms
- Daily – LinkedIn / Twitter/X / Facebook
- Newsletters – weekly on LinkedIn / Substack
- Monthly collections – countries across AsiaPac / IndoPac
- Asia tech, quarterly – 3 months’ coverage per country
- Critical technologies – global news, monthly & quarterly
