Christmas comes early for 14 Aussie startups that raised $260 million this week

A rival to Elon Musk’s Neuralink, Synchron has developed an endovascular brain computer it calls a stentrode. Its purpose is to stimulate parts of the brain to avoid open surgery. It is also being developed to assist paralysed people to communicate as they control the stentrode with their mind.

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Willow: $42.3 million

Digital Twin startup Willow has secured $42.3 million, led by existing backers from its 2021 pre-Series B round.

The software company allows businesses to create a ‘digital twin’ of an asset, meaning it can make more tested and informed decisions. It operates primarily within the real estate and infrastructure industries.

It has also moved into the airport space, with projects across Dallas Fort Worth airport. It’s also working with Microsoft and Walmart.

Partly: $34 million (NZD $37 million)

New Zealand-based tech company Partly has completed what is being labelled as the country’s biggest Series A raise, locking in an impressive NZ$37 million ($34 million) from Octopus Ventures and Aussie VCs Square Peg and Blackbird.

The raise values Partly, which was founded by Levi Fawcett, at over NZ$180 million as it continues its mission to disrupt the market for car parts.

Expanding its Australian presence is high on the list for Partly following the raise, with the startup already actively hiring for multiple roles here. It also plans to use the capital injection to continue growing in New Zealand and Europe, with plans to double its headcount over the next 12 months.

Blackbird Ventures partner Samantha Wong says the VC is “incredibly excited” to once again be backing Partly.

“Partly is tackling one of those most challenging but valuable problems in one of the biggest markets globally, and the revenue ramp in the last year has been amongst the best we’ve ever seen,” she said in a statement.

“The team is already world-class, but with this round, it will help supercharge not just the go-to-market in Europe and Asia-Pacific, but also more engineering and product talent”

Roller: $28.2 million

Roller, a startup providing venue management software to the music and entertainment industries, has raised $28.2 million in new funding this week, and paid out $18.2 million of that amount to early investors as liquidity.

Existing US-based investor Acadian Software increase its shareholding in the startup via the raise, while Partners For Growth provided a $10 million line of credit to the business as part of the transaction.

Originally founded by Mark Finn and Luke Finn to service local venues in Melbourne, Roller is now operating across 25 countries, serving more than 1200 business, and says it has grown revenue at a 75% CAGR over the past three years.

The startup now has a headcount of 120 and acquired US-based competitor Active8 Software in June.

“We will continue to invest heavily in product, along with sales and marketing to cement our position globally as the partner of choice for growing leisure and attractions businesses,” commented co-founder and CEO Like Finn.

BiomeBank: $10.65 million

South Australian-based biotech BiomeBank has completed a $10.65 million capital raise to scale the manufacturing facility for its donor-derived microbiome drug product that recently received regulatory approval.

BiomeBank is combining machine learning and microbiology to create a series of therapies to treat and prevent disease by restoring gut microbial ecology. The company was founded in 2018 by Dr Sam Costello and Dr Rob Bryant.

The new funding comes from Ellerston Capital and the South Australian Venture Capital Fund, which is managed by Artesian Venture Partners. Existing investor The Hospital Research Foundation also participated in the round.

Zipline.io: $10 million

Aged care compliance startup Zipline.io has $10 million in fresh capital in the bank, after pivoting from its first iteration as a retail tech platform that helped the likes of Coles and 7-Eleven run customer experience surveys.

As reported by the The Australian Financial Review, the funding comes from B2B software fund EVP, with other participants including King River Capital, TechnologyOne founder Adrian Di Marco, Aconex co-founders Leigh Jasper and Rob Phillpot, SecondQuarter Ventures and the Sypkes family office.

Zipline’s platform is reportedly used in one in three Australian aged care homes, and the startup is looking to expand into the hospital market.

Pathzero: $8.6 million

Sydney-based envirotech startup Pathzero has raised $8.6 million in what it is calling a Series A+ round, reports StartupDaily, adding to the $6.8 million it secured in October 2021. 

The new funding from VC Cathona Capital, Antler Australia and Clyde Bank Holdings brings the total raised by Pathzero in its Series A to $15.6 million. The startup also raised $1 million in seed funding in October 2020, in the same year of its launch. 

Founded by Carl Prins and Charbel Ayoub, Pathzero helps corporates measure their carbon emissions, implement emissions reduction plans, purchase verified carbon credits and publicly disclose emissions data.

FairSupply: $6.3 million

An Aussie startup that is attracting global attention as a leading platform for environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting has also raised this week. 

FairSupply, founded by human rights lawyer Kimberly Randle and academic Dr Arne Geschke, has $6.3 million in new capital from a Series A round led by AirTree, and joined by Tidal, Minderoo Foundation and QIC. 

Randle said in a statement the startup’s total addressable market — companies that are required to identify and manage ESG risks in supply chains and investment portfolios — is “rapidly increasing”. 

“However, despite increased societal and regulatory pressure to report on ESG impact, quantifying and gathering this data has never been more complicated, especially when assessing ESG further down the supply chain. 

“And while many companies have good intentions and want to prioritise ESG, the vast majority don’t have access to the knowledge or tools to properly assess, understand and make informed decisions to improve their ESG rating — but we’re changing that.”

AirTree partner Jackie Vullinghs, Serena Grant and Kate Bromley from Fair Supply, Tidal Ventures’ Georgie Turner, and FairSupply co-founder and CEO Kimberly Randle. Source: supplied.

Avarni: $3 million

Carbon management tech seems to be the flavour of the week, with carbon accounting startup Avarni also locking in new funding, raising $3 million in a round led by Main Sequence, and existing investors Vulpes Ventures and Common Sense Ventures.

Avarni was founded in 2021 by Tony Yammine, Anuj Paudel and Misha Cajic to help businesses quantify and manage their Scope 3 emissions, which usually account for most of a company’s carbon footprint. 

Since then, the startup says it has analysed some $100 billion in procurement spend and identified more than 150 million tonnes of CO2e in 200,000 suppliers across 1800 industries.

GeoMoby: $3 million

Perth-based ‘location technology’ startup GeoMoby has secured $3 million this week to continue rolling out its tech to the mining industry and build out its team. 

The funding comes from a host of unnamed investors based in Europe, existing shareholders, one of the company’s strategic partners, Agreement Hub, and also includes a grant from METS Ignited, which is part of the federal government’s Industry Growth Centre Initiative. It follows a successful $1.25 million raise in 2021.

GeoMoby founder Chris Baudia (left) and director Mathieu Paul. Source: supplied.

The Yield: $1.78 million grant (via NSW government grant)

Agtech startup The Yield plans to extend its precision yield management platform after securing a $1.78 million grant from the New South Wales government’s Physical Sciences Fund.

The Yield was founded in 2014 by managing director Ros Harvey to use Internet of Things technology, as well as data science and artificial intelligence, to tackle challenges in farming and throughout the food supply chain.

The startup has previously raised $11.5 million in funding, and last year, partnered up with ASX-listed vino giant Treasury Wine Estates and global tech leader Yamaha Motor Co on an R&D project.

The $5 million Physical Sciences Fund supports the commercialisation of tech innovations in NSW. Three other recipients will share in this year’s funding, including Hysata, SiteHive and Zetifi, which also recently completed a $12 million Series A funding round.

The Yield founder Ros Harvey. Source: suppled.

Neighbourlytics: $1.3 million

Melbourne-based startup Neighbourlytics has secured $1.3 million in new funding, as it seeks to meet what it says is “unprecedented demand” for urban analytics. 

The pre-Series A round was led by California-based ALIAVIA Ventures, and joined by LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund. It brings the total capital raised by Neighbourlytics to date to $3.5 million. 

Neighbourlytics helps property developers better understand property data and therefore improve their forecasts by analysing how real people use the built environment. The platform has been adopted by approximately 80% of Tier 1 property developers in Australia, according to the startup, a figure which has doubled this year. 

Founders and co-CEOs Jessica Christiansen-Franks and Lucinda Hartley plan to use the new capital to hire more staff in product development, sales and marketing, and further enhance the platform’s automation processes and analytics. 

“Life has changed a lot in the last couple of years and, as a result, there’s currently demand for lifestyle and behavioural data like never before,” said Christiansen-Franks in a statement. 

“It’s no longer valid to look back at five-year-old census data, or rely on gut feeling, to understand what people want in an office building or shopping mall or how they look after their health and wellbeing. Behavioural big data is the missing piece of the intelligence puzzle for our customers.”

In Australia, Neighbourlytics has worked with the likes of developers such as Lendlease, while globally, the platform was used to help plan the use of the stadiums and precincts that were developed for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Flave: $891,000 (via Birchal)

Startups working with plant-based proteins have been among the top trends to emerge from the sector this year, and now a stalwart of the fast food industry has raised close to $1 million to continue his mission to create a global plant-based burger chain.

Stuart Cook, the former chief executive of Mexican food chain Zambrero, already operates two Flave outlets in Sydney and will soon open a third with his wife Samantha. The pair are aiming to open as many as 100 Flave plant-based burger outlets in three countries, according to the Nine papers.

Picaluna: $386,000 (via VentureCrowd)

Sydney-based deathtech startup Picaluna has secured $386,000 in fresh funding, after also completing an oversubscribed equity crowdfunding raise via VentureCrowd.

Picaluna says its platform ‘reimagines’ funerals by connecting families, friends and communities with funeral celebrants to take the stress and burden out of arranging a funeral for a loved one.

The startup says it has grown its revenue by 60% in the 2022 financial year, to more than $2.9 million in revenue, as it seeks to shake up Australia’s $1.8 billion funeral industry. The new funding will go towards further developing its recruitment and training programs, upgrading its tech platform, hiring more staff in operations and marketing, and expanding into Melbourne and Brisbane.