Ten Aussie startups that raised $39 million this week

This week’s startup funding news features AI-enabled healthcare, call centre software, HR tech, insurance tech, and even a two-sided marketplace for cakes.

The total raised this week — $38.8 million — is also much lower than last week’s massive $433 million, which was by led this year’s largest raise so far in Employment’s Hero’s $263 million in Series F funding.

Take a look at which startups raised this week.

Heidi Health: $10 million

Heidi Health founders Waleed Mussa (CFO), Dr Tom Kelly (CEO), Yu Lui (CTO). Image: Supplied

Melbourne health-tech startup Heidi Health leads the funding roundup this week, with a $10 million Series A funding round, led by Blackbird Ventures.

Hostplus, Hesta, Wormhole Capital, Archangel Ventures, Possible Ventures and Saniel Ventures also participated in the round, which follows Heidi Health’s previous $5 million seed funding round, also led by Blackbird.

The AI-integrated platform was founded in 2021 by Dr Thomas Kelly, Waleed Mussa, and Yu Liu to help free up time for doctors. The platform includes a standalone transcription product to help doctors with patient files, notes and consultation letters, as well as a Clinic AI solution that can automate pre-consults and allow patients to manage their own bookings and payments.

Read more.

Local Measure: $7.9 million

Local Measure founder and chief Jonathan Barouch. Source: Supplied.

Call centre software startup Local Measure is also preparing to roll out generative AI features, after raising $7.9 million from existing investor Future Now Capital, reports the Australian Financial Review.

The funding round also included founder Jonathan Barouch, Local Measure’s board and management team, family offices, and other existing investors.

Barouch founded the startup in 2014, initially focusing on hospitality and tourism software. It was forced to change tack during the Covid-19 pandemic and is now seeing growth in its call centre software, with a partnership with Amazon Web Services helping drive this.

The new AI features on the platform will reportedly help call centre staff summarise conversations with customers and resolve their complaints.

LAB Group: $6.5 million

Regtech startup LAB Group has raised $6.5 million in capital from private credit provider Global Credit Investments to pursue local and international growth opportunities.

Founded by CEO Nick Boudrie and chief technology officer Lyndon Webster in 2020, LAB Group provides an onboarding and compliance platform, primarily in the financial services sector.

The startup has offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Copenhagen.

In a statement, said GCI’s investment “will bring LAB Group the support we need to further strengthen and scale up our team and accelerate our growth strategy”.  

“We are particularly pleased to have found a capital investment solution that will help us take our business to its next growth phase while minimising shareholder dilution,” he added. 

CipherStash: $4.8 million

A cybersecurity startup that wants to put a stop to data breaches for good has also locked in $4.8 million in fresh funding this week.

The seed funding for CipherStash comes from US VC Skip Capital as lead investor, as well as SixThirty Ventures and existing backer AirTree, reports The Australian.

The startup’s goal is to offer companies a way to directly protect their data, instead of only protecting the systems where the data is stored, said CEO Dan Draper.

“CipherStash uses an advanced form of encryption technology to directly protect data and so that means that if it moves around, or if it’s leaked unintentionally, the data is still protected,” he told The Australian.

CarExpert: $3 million

CarExpert co-founders Paul Maric, Alborz Fallah and Anthony Crawford. Source: supplied.

Serial entrepreneur Alborz Fallah’s online classified platform for new cars is now valued at $50 million, following a $3 million Series B capital raise, completed last month, reports The Australian.

Since founding CarExpert in 2019, Fallah and co-founders Anthony Crawford and Paul Maric have raised more than $15 million, including a $3 million pre-Series A round in 2020 and $10 million in 2021.

The latest funding comes from billionaire Laurence Escalante and Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media, and has been described as a “bridging round”. The startup is reportedly planning a pre-IPO funding round in 2024 before going public in 2025.

CarExpert now employs 55 people in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and is expanding its auto content platform into Southeast Asia.

Fallah and Maric previously founded CarAdvice.com.au, which they sold to Nine Entertainment for more than $60 in 2018.

Orkestra: $2 million

Okestra founders. Source: Tidal Ventures

Clean energy startup has secured $2 million in seed funding in a round led by Tidal Ventures, less than 12 months after raising $1.1 million in what was labelled seed funding, also led by Tidal Ventures.

Startup Daily reports the November 2022 raise is now considered as pre-seed funding.

Joining Tidal Ventures in the latest funding round were Rampersand, Impact Ventures, Luxem, and a number of climate tech investors, including Phil Blythe, Danin Kahn, Oliver Hartley and Andrew Rogers.

Orkestra develops tools for energy companies to succeed in planning, selling and managing new energy rollouts to business customers. According to Startup Daily, those customers now range from small operators to the largest market players in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Outstaffer: $1.5 million

HR tech platform Outstaffer has completed its first external round after bootstrapping for three years, securing $1.5 million to scale its platform and in-house team, reports Startup Daily.

Outstaffer was founded in 2020 in Victoria’s Yarra Valley by Thomas Derum, who previously founded Australia Broadband and iTW. His latest venture is a tech platform that helps businesses manage remote and distributed teams.

The funding round was co-led by former Listing Loop chief operating officer Michael Locaso, who has joined Outstaffer as COO, along with Utiliti Ventures, 1in100 Ventures and Side Stage Ventures.

Other investors participating in the round included Beachhead, Mondo Ventures, Alua Group, Spring Capital and John Poynton.

LifeBid: $1.45 million

LifeBid founder Brett Wright. Source: Supplied

Insurance tech startup LifeBid has completed its equity crowdfunding raise, locking in a total of $1.45 million in funding, which includes $700,000 in the form of a strategic co-investment by Stride Group and unnamed industry partners.

The startup’s equity crowdfunding campaign was completed via Stride Equity, which is operated by Stride Group.

Founded by Brett Wright in 2019, LifeBid seeks to offer an end-to-end tech solution for the life insurance market, to streamline the management of life insurance policies as well as cut costs.

According to the company, it has 2000 advisors on the waitlist for its platform in Australia.

Factory.app: $1.05 million

Factory.app co-founders Paul and Michael Lutkajtis. Source: Investible

Sydney-based startup Factory.app has raised $1.05 million in seed funding for its software platform that seeks to help SME manufacturers streamline their processes and save money.

The funding round was led by early-stage VC fund Investible and included participation from TechnologyOne founder Adrian DiMarco, 1in100 Ventures, Beachhead Venture Capital and Hugo-Hamman Investments, according to Startup Daily.

Factory.app was founded by brothers Paul and Michael Lutkajtis in 2021 with a mission to develop a solution for small and medium businesses that need to create, track and manage manufacturing jobs.

According to Investible’s investment notes, the founders witnessed the pain points of running a manufacturing business firsthand by watching their parents run their business.

“We were literally living the same pain of manual processes and constant double handling that our customers face every day. With 90% of the manufacturing industry being made up of similar-sized businesses to our own [SMEs], we knew we could deliver huge value to thousands of companies globally by leveraging our own experience,” commented Paul Lutkajtis.

Got Cakey: $580,902 

Got Cakey founders Jay Curtin and Blayz Meredith. Source: Instagram

A Perth-based marketplace hoping to shake up the cake-making industry has raised more than $580,000 from 726 investors via a Birchal equity crowdfunding campaign that closed on Thursday evening.

Got Cakey’s goal is to become the “easiest way to order cakes, anywhere in the world”, by connecting consumers with bakers, who can operate their own virtual cake shops via the Got Cakey app. The two-sided marketplace hopes to save buyers from having to spend hours searching online for a baker, and bakers from the hassle of creating cake quotes only to have sales fall through.

Got Cakey is the brainchild of mother and son duo, and co-CEOs, Jay Curtin and Blayz Meredith, and plans to officially launch in January 2024.