Eight Aussie startups that raised $55.2 million this week

Funding has continued to flow to Australian startups in December, with more than $55 million raised this week alone.

The eight startups in this week’s roundup are pioneering medical devices, helping businesses create their own low-code AI agents, and making it easier to share recipes with fellow foodies.

Take a look.

Vitruvian: $21.8 million

Vitruvian founder and CEO Jon Gregory. Source: supplied.

Leading this week’s funding round-up is Perth home fitness startup Vitruvian, which has secured $21.8 million in what the company is calling an internal extension to a previous raise.

A Vitruvian representative confirmed to SmartCompany earlier this week that the funding has come from previous investors and is considered an extension of its $21 million Series A round last year, which was led by Larsen Ventures and Ten13.

Vitruvian, which was founded by CEO Jon Gregory in 2008, has previously completed two seed rounds. In 2020, the startup raised $3.4 million and in 2021, it raised $11.2 million.

Vitruvian describes its Trainer+ apparatus as an “all-in-one home gym solution” and a “personal trainer in a box”, which comes with an accompanying app.

Gregory says the new funding will be used to “execute on our hardware, software and content roadmap to get more stronger, faster”.

Read more.

Relevance AI: $15 million

L-R: Relevance AI co-founders Daniel Vassilev, Daniel Palmer, Jacky Koh. Source: Supplied

Australian SaaS startup Relevance AI has secured $15 million in Series A funding, in a round led by King River Capital.

Peak XV’s Surge, Galileo Ventures, and Insight Partners also contributed to the raise by Relevance AI, which was launched three years ago by Daniel Vassilev, Jacky Koh, and Daniel Palmer.

The startup wants to make it easier for businesses to build custom AI agents through the use of low-code tools. The ultimate goal is to help businesses improve the performance of their team, with the AI agents able to perform detailed tasks or workflows autonomously.

Co-founder Daniel Palmer told SmartCompany earlier this week that around 6,000 companies have so far registered to use the Relevance AI platform, which has facilitated more than 250,000 tasks.

“Our tools have been used to help automate individual tasks, all the way from things like reviewing 5000 patents, which usually takes three weeks in a day, or synthesising user research in a few minutes,” Palmer said.

Read more.

Cyban: $6.3 million

Cyban founder Dr Barry Dixon. Source: St Vincent’s Hospital

Victorian medtech startup Cyban has completed a $6.3 million Series A funding round, which includes a $2 million investment from the Victorian government’s innovation fund, Breakthrough Victoria.

Founded by intensive care specialist Dr Barry Dixon in 2019, Cyban has developed a patented Brain Pulse Monitor, which can monitor brain oxygen levels in patients with brain injuries without the need for invasive surgery.

Victorian Minister for Economic Growth Tim Pallas announced Breakthrough Victoria’s investment in the startup on Monday and said the investment will help Cyban in its bid to gain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the tech.

Cyban is in the process of finalising its FDA submission, and if approval is granted, it expects to deploy the monitors in major US hospitals next year.

The medtech is already conducting clinical trials with the monitor at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, where Dixon has extensive experience working as a clinician, as well as Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and Ballarat Hospital in regional Victoria.

Internationally, the device is being trialled at Scotland’s Royal Edinburgh Infirmary and the Cleveland Clinic Ohio in the US.

Joining Breakthrough Victoria in the investment round are Significant Early Venture Capital and InterValley Ventures, with the new funding expected to allow Cyban to expand its Victorian-based team from 13 to 50 by 2027.

Clove: $4.15 million

L-R: Clove co-Founders Sam Killin and Anna Guerrero. Source: Blackbird

Two former Canva employees have secured $4.15 million in seed funding for a culinary content marketplace, called Clove.

Founded by Anna Guerrero, former head of content at Canva, and Sam Killin, former Canva engineering team lead, Clove wants to make it easier for home cooks to create, discover and share recipes.

Startup Daily reports the seed funding round was led by Blackbird, with Silicon Valley-based VC Shakti also participating in the round along with founders and executives from Canva, Pexels and Google Maps.

This investment from Blackbird comes after the VC’s 12 latest funding announcements featured startups with all-male founding teams, as first reported by SmartCompany‘s Tegan Jones earlier this month.

Blackbird is part of a growing group of Australian VCs that have made public commitments to invest in more women-led startups, and the VC told SmartCompany it had made 10 investments that were yet to be announced, five of which involve women founders. Clove appears to be one of those.

Co-founder Anna Guerrero, who has spent time working as a restaurant chef, told Startup Daily the Clove team is working to “make cooking something millions of people feel confident about and look forward to”.

Recipe creators will be able to post their own video and text recipes on the Clove platform, which will operate on a freemium model. The premium tier will involve cooking products, exclusive recipes, and “AI-powered cooking tools”.

STRAAND: $4 million

STRAAND co-founder Sarah Hamilton. Source: Supplied.

Microbiome-focused scalp care brand STRAAND has raised $4 million in funding from existing investor Unilever Ventures and the Harvey Family Office.

The company was founded by Jeremy Hunt, Sarah Hamilton, Tim Brown, Nick Morris, and Meagan Pate and launched to market in mid-2022.

It has since locked in a multi-regional deal with global beauty chain Sephora, which will see its products on the shelf in more than 70 stores in early 2024 across Australia, the UK, and South East Asia. It also has secured a number of US retail partners, including Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Amazon.

Co-founder Sarah Hamilton, who co-founded beauty subscription box business bellabox, told SmartCompany she was invited to join STRAAND by Jeremy Hunt and Tim Brown, who had previously sold one of her other beauty brands, Sand & Sky, into China.

“The co-founding team identified a gap in dandruff/scalp issues that were maligned by consumers and only had chemical solutions,” she said.

“STRAAND was created with a natural, efficacious solution in mind and a focus on gen-Z or next-generation crown care.”

Read more.

Downsizer: $2 million

Mark Macduffie, CEO and co-founder of Downsizer. Source: Supplied

Property tech startup Blockbuilder has locked in $2 million in fresh funding and wants to raise another $2 million, for its Downsizer platform aimed at retirees looking to downsize their homes.

The Australian Financial Review likens Downsizer to a ‘buy now, pay later’ platform for property downsizers, as it allows homeowners to use the equity in their existing property to buy a smaller one without needing a deposit.

The raise was led by Correlation Australia Holdings, which also contributed to the startup’s $3.75 million seed round earlier in 2023.

The company, which was founded by former CommBank executive Mark Macduffie alongside Michael Kelly and Damian Morgan, is now planning to launch its platform in the UK and US.

Mist: $1.6 million

L-R: Dave Malcolm, Jayden Basha (Investible), John Crutchley, Nick Ooi. Image: Mist

Sydney-based startup Mist has completed a $1.6 million seed funding round for its relocation app aimed at international students and skilled migrants.

The funding comes from Investible, Allectus Capital, Archangel Ventures, Seedspace, and The Hunter Angels.

Founded by John Crutchley and Dave Malcolm, Mist wants to make it easier for international students and migrants when moving to different countries by helping them with payment services, local account and SIM setup, health coverage, and student cards, before they actually move.

Mist will also offer cross-border payment services, Visa card issuance, and student discounts.

“The process of moving to a new country to study is stressful and complicated. As the international student market continues to grow rapidly, Mist is developing our application to ensure a smooth relocation by solving many of the pre-departure issues around verification, payments, and communications,” said Crutchley.

Read more.

Omni biotech: $300,000

Omni Biotech founders. Source: Skalata Ventures

Skalata Ventures has invested $300,000 in Perth-based startup Omni Biotech, according to Startup News.

Omni Biotech was founded by Curtin and Stanford University graduates Will Poot and Zac Farrow in 2018.

The startup is developing a non-invasion hydration monitoring platform that uses sensors in smartphones and other wearables to keep track of an individual’s hydration levels in real-time. Users are then notified if their hydration levels are too low.

The pre-seed funding from Skalata, which was announced during last week’s West Tech Fest in Perth, will go towards building out the platform, which Farrow says aims to help the “75% of Aussies who are spending their whole day in a state of dehydration”.

“By increasing access to insights previously reserved for elite athletes, we’re giving everyday people and teams the opportunity to perform at their elite level,” he said.

The startup is also undertaking a validation study at Monash University and plans to explore other health applications for its tech.

In the VC’s investment notes, Skalata’s Rob Greco said investing in Omni Biotech was an easy decision to make.

“This technology will be a world first, and provides a resounding yes to all the questions we love to ask: does it solve a crucial problem? Is there demand? And is it insanely scalable?” he said.