This week’s funding roundup appears to be like a bit totally different.
Whereas it consists of startups constructing AI, photo voltaic and medtech options, it additionally features a bakery with a cult following and a quickly rising retailer that caters to oldsters.
Maintain studying to be taught extra about 19 Australian and Kiwi firms which have raised greater than $59.6 million in funding this week.
Brooki Bakehouse: $25 million
Brooki founder Brooke Bellamy. Supply: Instagram/Brooki Bakehouse
Queensland bakery model Brooki Bakehouse is gearing up for a interval of speedy enlargement, after securing a $25 million funding from UAE life-style developer Arada.
As reported by SmartCompany, the brand new funding will enable Brooki Bakehouse to open flagship bakeries in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in December, forward of further world markets in 2026.
The corporate, which was based by Brooke Bellamy in Brisbane in 2022, is opening its first Sydney retailer this week.
In addition to its flagship retailer in Fortitude Valley, Brooki Bakehouse additionally has everlasting areas in Chermside, Mount Gravatt, Pacific Honest and Brisbane Airport.
The enterprise has constructed a cult following for its outsized New York-style cookies and Bellamy’s social media movies exhibiting a day in her life as a bakery proprietor.
The funding from Arada will take the “Australian story to a global stage”, mentioned Bellamy.
“We built Brooki from scratch — no shortcuts, no compromises — and now, with Arada, we have the platform and resources to share our creativity, quality and community with the world,” she mentioned in an announcement.
Learn extra at SmartCompany.
The Memo: $20 million
The Memo co-founders Phoebe Simmonds and Kate Casey. Supply: The Memo
Parenting retailer The Memo additionally revealed particulars of a brand new funding this week, after securing $20 million to open extra shops throughout the nation.
The funding was led by Pier 12 Capital.
The Memo, which was based in 2019 by Kate Casey and Phoebe Simmonds, brings a complicated and premium strategy to the parenting sector, and affords a extra personalised purchasing expertise in comparison with bigger, established big-box rivals.
The Memo operates a web-based storefront, in addition to 4 shops in Sydney and Melbourne. It plans to broaden this community with one other Sydney location and new shops in Perth and Brisbane.
In an announcement introducing The Memo to Pier 12 Capital’s funding portfolio, Pier 12 Capital govt director Laz Siapantas mentioned The Memo holds a singular place within the native retail panorama.
“We recognised The Memo’s ability to redefine parenting and baby retail in Australia through its unique combination of curated products and exceptional in-store experience,” he mentioned.
Learn extra at SmartCompany.
Medow Well being: $3 million
Medow Well being cofounders and siblings Josh and Joel Freiberg. Supply: Equipped
Sydney startup Medow Well being AI, which is utilizing synthetic intelligence to automate medical stories for specialist medical doctors, has raised $3 million in new funding from the clinicians who backed its first elevate earlier this 12 months.
Medow Well being was co-founded by Joel Freiberg, who has Crohn’s illness, and his brother Josh Freiberg, impressed by the point their father, a respiratory doctor, spent doing admin after work.
The medtech startup beforehand raised $2 million in January from the likes of Chris O’Brien Lifehouse CEO Dr Michael Boyer, orthopaedic surgeon Dr Michael Solomon, and eye surgeon Dr Johnny Wu.
In the meantime, income has grown by 300% in 2025, and the platform’s AI is already processing greater than 100,000 specialist consults a month, alongside a profitable pilot at a number one Australian hospital.
Medow Well being has additionally expanded to New Zealand and Southeast Asia, and Joel says the startup has had a robust pick-up in each areas.
“The capital raise will enable us to launch new AI products to specialist medical communities across the country, increase integrations into key healthcare systems, and see us through to profitability within 12 months,” he mentioned.
Learn extra on Startup Day by day.
Hopr: $3 million
Hopr founder Jose Ramirez
Sydney-based purposeful drinks model Hoprhas raised greater than $3 million in contemporary funding from particular person worldwide buyers, skilled athletes and finance professionals, after being knocked again by VC corporations.
The buyers backing Hopr embrace John Bromley, Chris Titley, a former Morgans dealer and host of the Scoreboard podcast, and former Matildas goalkeeper Sue Learn.
Hopr has developed a variety of non-alcoholic glowing waters that embrace hops, adaptogens and nootropics.
The enterprise was based in 2020 by Jose Ramirez, who, in line with a video on Hopr’s Instagram account, took out a private mortgage to initially fund the enterprise. He says he later obtained a number of rejections from VC corporations when in search of funding.
“Every VC said no. Banks wouldn’t even lend. So I bet on myself and built Hopr from nothing,” he mentioned within the video.
“The VC scene here is built for software, fintech, AI – not fizzy drinks. Investors want high margins, low ops. But building a beverage brand means logistics, manufacturing, distribution – real product stuff.”
HOPR plans to make use of the brand new funding to scale up its manufacturing and distribution and proceed to develop the model’s presence throughout Australia.
Learn extra on Startup Day by day.
Trainer’s Buddy: $1.85 million
Ben Sze and Matt Abraham of Trainer’s Buddy. Supply: Equipped
Melbourne AI-based training startup Trainer’s Buddy has raised $1.85 million in seed funding to deal with instructor burnout.
The spherical was led by Large Leap, supported by Flying Fox Ventures, Co Ventures, Exhort Ventures, Saniel Ventures and Soul Capital.
Trainer’s Buddy was based in 2024 by Matt Abraham and Ben Sze, co-founder of faculty content material and assets edtech Edrolo, the potential unicorn that raised a $40 million Collection B in 2022.
Sze’s new startup lightens the executive load and helps ongoing skilled improvement for lecturers, in addition to analysing information to enhance pupil outcomes.
“Teachers are working more than 50 hours a week, with up to a third of that time lost to planning and admin,” he mentioned.
“Teacher’s Buddy aims to reverse these trends by delivering an all-in-one, AI-enhanced workspace designed to lighten the load, foster growth, and unlock every student’s potential.”
Learn extra on Startup Day by day.
MetroElectro: $1 million
Ecotone Companions’ Nicole Kleid Small with MetroElectro founder Lloyd Heinrich. Supply: Equipped
Solar energy startup MetroElectro has raised $1 million from its present investor, Singapore local weather tech VC Wavemaker Impression.
Alongside the fairness elevate, the Melbourne startup, based in 2024 by Lloyd Heinrich, additionally secured a $4 million debt facility from Ecotone Companions.
Wavemaker beforehand backed MetroElectro’s $1.03 million pre-seed spherical in Could 2024. Heinrich mentioned the startup will elevate an extra $3 million in early 2026.
MetroElectro designs, installs, and maintains photo voltaic rooftop programs – panels and batteries for industrial and industrial buildings with out upfront prices for tenants or the landlords, producing income from the sale of the facility.
Heinrich, who was Redbubble’s GM of technique and development when it listed on the ASX, had the revelation of the potential for deploying photo voltaic on industrial buildings whereas working The Wine Collective (beforehand The Wine Society).
“This round of funding is the result of a significant amount of hard work by the team in deploying early projects, building a strong pipeline and partnering with industry leaders in knitting together technology that is ready to scale right now,” Heinrich mentioned.
Learn extra on Startup Day by day.
Dispute Buddy: $765,000
Dispute Buddy founder Jenny Rudd. Supply: Equipped.
New Zealand-based Dispute Buddy has raised $765,000 in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding spherical, which noticed participation from Techstars, Epic Angels, and Dame Theresa Gattung.
Based in 2022 by Jenny Rudd, the authorized tech startup goals to assist people concerned in authorized disputes extract related communications from textual content messages and emails right into a PDF, to allow them to be used as paperwork match to current in a courtroom of regulation.
The thought for the startup got here from Rudd’s personal difficult expertise of extracting messages for a authorized continuing.
“I remember what it was like to screenshot and email hundreds of messages and send them to my lawyer for an emergency application to Family Court. It was so stressful; I had no idea which messages were important for my case. And I needed to do a good job so that my kids were safe,” Rudd writes on the startup’s web site.
“It was so scary and confusing.”
Dispute Buddy says its platform has been “designed to remove stress, and help you resolve your dispute successfully and quickly so you can move on with your life”.
12 medtech startup concepts: $5 million
Photograph: AdobeStock
Practically $5 million in funding has been awarded to 12 Western Australian innovators and startups engaged on native well being and medical innovation tasks.
The concepts, many from lecturers and WA’s universities, span assessments for liver most cancers to coronary heart monitoring, endometriosis prognosis, bronchial asthma remedy and extra, have been funded from the Innovation Seed Fund 2024-25 Program.
The state authorities’s Future Well being Analysis and Innovation Fund frequently awards grants to particular person researchers and corporations. Its Innovation Seed Fund backs WA innovators to develop and commercialise their improvements that would enhance the well being of West Australians, create high-level well being sector jobs and improve the manufacturing/manufacturing capability of the state. Funding within the newest spherical ranged between $90,000 and $500,000.
The Innovation Seed Fund 2024-25 recipients are:
DermR Well being Analysis WA
Curtin College
Respirion Prescription drugs
Murdoch College
ProGenis Prescription drugs
College of Western Australia
The Youngsters Analysis Institute Australia, on behalf of the Centre for Youngster Well being Analysis, The College of Western Australia
ArthoLase
Proteomics Worldwide
Biotome
Pretect Units
Materia Well being.
Learn extra on Startup Day by day.
This story first appeared on SmartCompany. You’ll be able to learn the unique right here.
