Six Aussie startups that raised $42 million this week

Despite evidence of a more challenging funding environment, Australian startups are continuing to secure fresh capital.

This week’s funding news includes millions for a rapidly growing pet food startup, a number of climate-focused companies, and a virtual sports league.

Take a look.

Lyka: $25 million

Lyka CEO Anna Podolsky. Source: supplied.

Pet food startup Lyka has bumped up its Series B with an extra $25 million, which brings the total to $55 million after an initial $30 million was secured six months ago.

The demand is there for its products, says co-founder Anna Podolsky, who was motivated to create healthier food alternatives for dogs after her own Border Collie cross, named Lyka, experienced health issues.

With the capital market “tightening”, Podolsky said the startup decided to take on the additional capital “at favourable terms to continue our high growth trajectory”.

“We raised this money early as a preventive move ahead of a potential recession when it would be more difficult to raise capital,” she said in emailed comments to SmartCompany this week. 

Participating in the round was StepStone Group, as well as existing local investors AfterWork Ventures, Shearwater, and Point King Capital. 

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HydGene: $6 million

Hydgene founders — from left to right, Robert Willows, Louise Brown, Kerstin Petroll, Tony Jerkovic. Source: Hydgene

Green hydrogen tech startup HydGene Renewables has secured $6 million in seed funding, in a round led by UK venture capital fund Agronomics and also included Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), Understorey Ventures, and NOAB Ventures.

HydGene was founded by bioengineers Louise Brown, Robert Willows, Kerstin Petroll, and Tony Jerkovic in 2020, and spun out of research that began at Macquarie University. Its biocatalyst technology process uses biomass waste to create a renewable, carbon-negative source of hydrogen.

The startup plans to use the new funding to scale up production of its tech for pilot testing, hire more staff, and invest further in research and development. It is also working on developing a new biocatalyst for producing an ammonia-based fertiliser product.

“We are grateful for the overwhelming support in this round from our lead investor, Agronomics, and are equally thrilled to have secured the backing of the CEFC as a strategic investor, bringing us one step closer to revolutionizing the chemical manufacturing and energy industries,” said co-founder and CEO Louise Brown in a statement.   

“Our innovative technology not only paves the way for the growth and adoption of decentralised manufacturing hubs but also plays a crucial role in the global transition to an affordable, green hydrogen economy. ”

JDoodle: $3.2 million

Mike Nicholls, Partner at Main Sequence (left) and Gokul Chandrasekaran, Founder and CEO at JDoodle (right). Source: Supplied

Sydney-based startup JDoodle is also among the startups to raise millions this week, securing $3 million in seed funding in a round led by deep tech venture firm Main Sequence.

Founded by former software developer Gokul Chandrasekaran as a $20 weekend side project, JDoodle wants to “turbocharge” the software development industry by creating an accessible, and more affordable, ecosystem that allows students and developers to write and run code in their browsers and devices without the need for local software or libraries.

The startup says it has close to 800,000 monthly users around the world and is being used by 3,000 educational institutions too. The new funding will allow it to expand its team and enhance its products to meet the goal of attracting 8 million users within the next 12 months.

“As a former software developer, I’ve seen firsthand the problems and inefficiencies facing my peers when it comes to learning about code or building the latest products,” Chandrasekaran said in a statement.

“Devs, computer science students, teachers and recruiters are all handcuffed by a tangle of expensive tools that currently make learning about and building software inefficient.

“Even in this AI era, software developers spend at least one month of their time just setting up and managing their software development environments — wasting around 20% of any organisation’s software funding. What the industry needs is a platform that unifies learners, teachers, practitioners, recruiters and organisations. And that’s what JDoodle does; it brings everyone together and turbocharges the whole industry.”

One Future Football: $3 million

Left: One Future Football co-founders Rohit Bhargava and Peter Davis. Right: Virtual soccer star Luca Johnson. Source: Supplied

Melbourne-based startup One Future Football (1FF) has raised $3 million, in a round led by Blackbird Ventures, for its wholly virtual, and global, football league.

As SmartCompany reported, 1FF officially launched on Thursday this week, offering football fans the ability to watch weekly matches between 12 digital teams and more than 250 imaginary players via YouTube and TikTok.

1FF was founded by Rohit Bhargava, founder of fashion crowdfunding platform StageLabel and business development manager for AWS’s startup team, and Peter Davis, founder of social media agency Get Glossy and accelerator Ampjar.

“As mad football fans for over 25 years, we craved a deeper connection and richer ability to engage with the team and sport we love and that’s exactly what we built,” Bhargava said in a statement.

“1FF has a unique model that for the first time allows fans to have a share of their favourite teams and players, ultimately making decisions that affect their career development and trajectory.”

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Aquila: $3 million 

Aquila co-founders. Source: Supplied

Renewable energy startup Aquila has $3 million in fresh seed funding to help it in its mission to create a global, wireless energy network.

Founded by software developer Billy Jeremijenko and mechatronics engineer Nelson Smith in 2022, Aquila is developing proprietary tech that transmits electricity through beams of light, instead of wires.

Already, the startup says its prototypes can power drones in flight and it plans to scale the tech to power faster, higher aircraft and then satellites. Its ultimate goal is to create the “internet of energy”, or space-based optical relay systems to provide electricity globally.

“Think of it as like the leap from dial-up internet to Wi-Fi,” said Jeremijenko in a statement.

“We’re taking electricity from power lines and poles along a direct route and extending it through a dynamic, wireless network.”

The seed round was led by Blackbird Ventures, with Startmate, Icehouse Ventures, and Possible Ventures also participating.

Number 8 Bio: $1.8 million

Biotech startup Number 8 Bio has secured $1.8 million in pre-seed funding for its proprietary feed that reduces methane emissions in cows, joining a number of other local startups also working in the emission reduction space.

The round saw participation from CSIRO’s Main Sequence, the deep tech fund founded by CSIRO, Possible Ventures, UNSW Founders, and Bioplatforms Australia.

Number 8 Bio, which has found a scalable way to bioengineer naturally occurring yeasts to make a feed additive that reduces methane emissions, plans to use the funding to accelerate R&D and expand its lab capabilities.

“What we do is engineer microorganisms like yeast which can be grown all around the world at multi-millilitre leader scale. You can make tons of yeast in a couple of days in a pretty standard facility,” Tom Williams, CEO and co-founder of Number 8 Bio told SmartCompany.

“And we have those organisms produce the active molecules that decrease methane emissions from ruminants, and then the yeast cells are dried and included in the diet as an additive.”

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