There’s been a flurry of funding offers introduced by Australian and Kiwi startups this week — from a Brisbane startup constructing superfast, hydrogen-powered planes to a Perth firm reworking seaweed right into a pure various to plastic.
Maintain studying to study extra in regards to the eight Australian and New Zealand startups that collectively raised greater than $113 million this week.
Hypersonix: $46 million
Hypersonix CEO Matt Hill and co-founder, CTO, head of engineering Michael Sensible. Supply: Sarah Keayes/The Photograph Pitch
Brisbane-based aerospace startup Hypersonix Launch Techniques has been backed by the federal authorities’s Nationwide Reconstruction Fund Company (NRFC) and the Queensland authorities’s funding arm in a $46 million Collection A funding spherical.
Hypersonix is constructing reusable hydrogen-powered hypersonic plane that it claims can fly at 5 occasions the velocity of sound and go away no carbon path.
The spherical was led by UK-based Excessive Tor Capital and included participation from the NRFC, the Queensland Funding Company, European defence agency Saab, and Polish space-tech investor RKKVC.
The NRFC contributed $10 million in what’s the fund’s first funding in Australia’s defence sector. Defence represents one of many NRFC’s precedence areas, stated NRFC CEO David Gall.
“We see huge potential in backing Australian companies and innovations that build our sovereign capability while also tapping into the global market for hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities among our friends and allies,” he stated in an announcement offered to SmartCompany.
Learn extra right here.
ENA Respiratory: $34 million
ENA Respiratory CEO Christophe Demaison, a picture of the corporate’s nasal spray, and Brandon Capital associate Chris Smith. Supply: Provided
Melbourne-based clinical-stage biotech ENA Respiratory has secured $34 million (US$22.4 million) in a Collection B funding spherical because it prepares for the subsequent stage of testing for its virus-agnostic nasal spray, INNA-051
The spray is designed to assist the physique’s pure defenses towards respiratory infections, together with influenza, RSV, rhinovirus, and coronaviruses. The remedy will quickly be examined in a neighborhood Part II trial.
As reported by SmartCompany, the Collection B spherical was led by current traders Brandon Capital and Uniseed, with participation from Stoic Enterprise Capital. The Gates Basis additionally participated within the spherical, which additionally included a beforehand introduced funding from Flu Lab.
ENA Respiratory was based in 2020 and is led by CEO Christophe Demaison, who informed SmartCompany the corporate is taking up a worldwide problem.
“In Australia, around one in four people live with a chronic condition that increases their risk of complications from common respiratory viral infections such as influenza, COVID-19, RSV and the common cold, and hundreds of millions more face the same risks worldwide,” he stated.
Learn extra on SmartCompany.
Uluu: $16 million
Uluu co-founders and co-CEOs Michael Kingsbury and Dr Julia Reisser. Supply: Provided
Perth sustainable supplies startup Uluu has raised $16 million in a Collection A funding spherical to assist it scale its expertise that may flip seaweed right into a pure plastic various.
The funding spherical was led by Germany’s Burda Principal Investments, with current investor Important Sequence as soon as once more backing the startup. The spherical additionally included contributions from Novel Investments, Startmate, and influence traders and household places of work, together with Fairground and Trinity Ventures.
Uluu’s superior fermentation course of is utilized to seaweed to provide supplies referred to as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), that are then extracted, collected and changed into pellets that can be utilized by packaging and cloth producers.
The startup, which was launched in 2021 by co-CEOs Dr Julia Reisser and Michael Kingsbury, has already partnered with Quiksilver to create a wax scraper for surfboards, and with sleepwear model Papinelle to create luxurious pyjama buttons.
With its new funding, it hopes to construct a business facility that’s able to producing 10 tonnes of PHA supplies yearly, to broaden the marketplace for its product.
Learn extra on SmartCompany.
Human Well being: $8.5 million
Human Well being co-founders Georgia Vidler and Kate Lambridis. Supply: Provided
Affected person care platform Human Well being has raised $8.5 million because it appears to be like to broaden its world attain.
The spherical was led by new UK backer LocalGlobe, and supported by current traders Airtree, Skip Capital, Aliavia and Scale Traders, and several other angel traders, together with Cricket Well being’s Arvind Rajan, former Kantar CEO Eric Salama and OIF’s David Shein.
The recent capital for the Sydney startup shall be used for increasing attain in Human Well being’s current US and UK markets, deepening the platform’s intelligence in focus areas like ladies’s well being, respiratory, ache, and autoimmune illnesses, and funding Human Proof, a platform serving to researchers study instantly from affected person information, which they’ll contribute anonymously.
Founders Kate Lambridis and Georgia Vidler met at Canva, the place the previous was a senior product supervisor and the latter head of product. In 2022, they closed the largest seed spherical for an all-women-founded Australian startup, at $10.15 million.
Greater than 200,000 sufferers within the US, UK, Canada and past have already logged 20 million-plus well being actions (now 40,000 each day) on the Human Well being, which Lambridis says is the lacking layer between sufferers and drugs — a care administration platform that learns from their experiences and coverings.
Learn extra on Startup Day by day.
SecurePII: $5 million
L-R: SecurePII co-founders Jason Thals and Haydn Faltyn. Supply: Provided
Melbourne compliance and information privateness startup SecurePII has raised US$3.5 million (AU$5 million) in seed funding.
The spherical was led by Sydney VC Tidal Ventures.
SecurePII was based by Jason Thals, Haydn Faltyn and Invoice Placke, self-confessed skiers, mountain climbers, soccer gamers, cyclists, marathon runners, campers, golfers, paragliders and travellers who’re “into motorbikes, sports cars, woodwork, Lego, science fiction, Pink Floyd and walking in the rain” in addition to beer brewing.
Additionally they have deep experience in cloud communications, information compliance, and large-scale software program supply, spinning SecurePII out of cloud communications firm BroadSource in early 2025.
PII stands for personally identifiable data, and the startup’s cloud-native experience is initially centered on the PCI (fee card trade) and the brand new PCI DSS (information safety normal), launched in March, which has stricter necessities for the way delicate fee information is saved, dealt with, and guarded for firms storing name recordings containing cardholder data.
Learn extra on Startup Day by day.
Huckleberry: $1.84 million
L-R: Huckleberry co-founders Diogo Böhm and Aaron Ward. Supply: equipped
New Zealand voice-based 360 suggestions platform Huckleberry has raised NZ$2.1 million (AU$1.84 million) in pre-seed funding.
The spherical was led by US VC Oregon Enterprise Fund, with assist from Archangel Ventures, plus US and NZ founders, together with Mineral CEO Nathan Christensen, TradeMe’s Rowan Simpson and M-Com’s Serge Van Dam.
Huckleberry allows folks to speak reasonably than taking notes, giving suggestions to teammates. The unreal intelligence-augmented platform listens, guides and delivers sensible options in minutes, changing lengthy surveys and different suggestions strategies to make it really feel extra like speaking to a private AI government coach.
The funding shall be used to speed up product growth, advance Huckleberry’s AI fashions, broaden the group, and develop in its key markets in america, Australia and Aotearoa.
Aaron Ward, of Maori descent, beforehand based buyer expertise platform AskNicely. He based Huckleberry earlier this yr with Auckland-based Diogo Böhm, the engineering and AI growth lead.
Learn extra on Startup Day by day.
StrongRoom AI: $1.2 million
Picture: AdobeStock
Pharmacy software program startup StrongRoom AI has raised $1.2 million in new funding because it seeks to reposition itself, following a authorized dispute between its former administration and traders.
Based on the AFR, the funding has come from rich particular person pharmacy house owners, healthcare personal traders, aged care operators and hospitals.
Pharmaceutical entrepreneur Joe Zhou acquired StrongRoom AI from directors in June, following a dramatic sequence of occasions following the corporate’s $17 million increase in March, which was led by EVP at a $70 million valuation.
Ten days after the increase was introduced, EVP launched authorized motion to recuperate its funds, and StrongRoom’s board positioned the corporate in voluntary administration. Authorized proceedings towards former administrators of the corporate are ongoing.
The AFR reviews StrongRoom AI plans to make use of the brand new funding for product growth, transitioning to a cloud platform, and increasing the corporate’s business partnerships within the pharmacy and aged care sectors.
Tala Thrive: $500,000
Tala Thrive founder Sonia Kaurah. Supply: Provided
Australian-founded psychological well being startup Tala Thrive this week revealed particulars of a beforehand undisclosed $500,000 pre-seed increase.
The spherical was accomplished on the finish of 2024, following a profitable crowdfunding marketing campaign that raised £220,000 (AU$443,600 on the time of writing) when founder Sonia Kaurah was primarily based in London.
This was topped up by extra funding from angel traders, together with Duncan Gould, ex-global head of product at Amazon, Feike D, 800x Restricted angel syndicate lead and ex VC, and Izzy Obeng, CEO of Foundervine.
Tala Thrive, which is within the technique of shifting its operations again to Melbourne, gives culturally responsive psychological well being care and training providers.
The platform connects purchasers with therapists and coaches who both share or deeply perceive their cultural background, language and lived experiences.
Learn extra from SmartCompany right here.
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