The 10 best Australian startups to work for in 2023 [Post Tech-Wreck]
2023’s shaping up to be a tough year for startups around the world. The market has been battered, capital allocators are obsessed with profitability and recessionary pressures are going to start to flow into consumer/business spending.
The silver lining, however, is that the best companies will survive and come out the other end stronger than ever (with a sharper focus on good business fundamentals). Also, if you time the market right you will be able to secure a bag of equity at a significant discount.
Things that are important to watch out for when making a decision to join an AU-based startup in 2023:
1. Does the business have rock-solid product-market fit? (Better PMF = Cheaper to acquire customers + higher LTV = Better Cash Flow and less exposure to capital market conditions)
2. What is the potential TAM, SAM, SOM?
3. When did they last raise and at what valuation? (More cash in the bank & runway is good, but remember big 2021 raises may have taken a 50%+ write down due to market conditions — ideally look for a company with plenty in the bank that has re-pegged their valuation since the market has dipped)
Considering the 3 vectors above, below are my view of the top 10 Aussie startups coming into the new year:
1. NewCo (Find some co-founders & start your own!)
There’s never been a better time to start your own startup. Tons of incredible talent are being laid off from great companies and a lot of them have great ideas. No one really wants to work for someone else — find a collection of friends with complementary skillsets and build something together.
2. Dovetail — (Software, Series A)
Backed by the best SaaS VC in the world (Accel Partners), with rock-solid stranglehold on product-market fit, a leadership team of ex-Atlassians and $70M+ in the bank — Dovetail makes the top of my list for Aussie startups to join next year.
Dovetail makes customer/user research software, and is on a path to build a platform in 2023 that ingests data from any source, in any format, that empowers customers to produce engaging insights that drive action.
3. Zeller — (Payments, Series A)
Australia’s answer to Square, Zeller, is hot to trot after bagging one of the biggest AU series A raises of all time. Over the span of eight months, Zeller signed up over 10,000 Australian businesses — all coming out of the pandemic where SMBs were ravaged and hyper cost-conscious.
Money’s in the bank, the product clearly is loved — only question is whether the Zeller team can crack global markets and take on the 500lb Gorilla in the room (Block/Square).
4. Zoomo — (Mobility, Series B)
Clearly I am biased on this one. But Zoomo very much warrants a place on this list. In the last 2 years since I joined, Zoomo has grown from ~50 people operating in Australia to ~500 employees operating in 8 countries (Australia, USA, UK, Canada, France, Spain, Germany).
Zoomo is a full-stack commercial platform for delivery. The potential TAM/SAM is huge, especially as we expand into new hardware form factors (Trikes and Cargo Bikes) and roll out our next generation of fleet management software.
5. Who Gives A Crap (Consumer, Series A)
WGAC makes this list for 3 reasons. (1) They are highly global, serving over 50 countries when I last checked (2) They have an incredible brand and purpose = happy, loyal customers (3) They have a strong revenue business that was bootstrapped until very late in the game.
Who Gives a Crap makes 100% recycled toilet paper, and donates 50% of profits to build toilets in the developing world.
6. Vow Food — (FoodTech, Series A)
Vow Food has to be on this list because it has by a wide margin the most ambitious vision of any company in the cohort. They are mad scientists developing “cell-based” meats. While the market is very nascent, Vow has secured a hefty bag from investors and is planning to launch its first product (a rare quail meat) in Singapore early next year.
If the stars align and the product meets investor expectations this one could go to the moon and create generational wealth for the first 100 employees. But obviously as with all earlier stage operations the risk profile is higher.
7. Sonder — (HealthTech, Series B)
After banking a cool $35 mil in September (no mean feat in current environment) workplace wellness startup Sonder is poised for a strong push in 2023. Employee health is top of mind for a lot of big businesses right now as we venture further into a post-pandemic world and Sonder is well positioned to capture and convert that demand with amazing products and services.
The scalability question will (similar to Zeller) come down to whether they can scale beyond AU.
8. Circular (Consumer, Seed)
Feeling extra bold? Going into a seed round startup is a pretty big bet but the reward if successful can be life-changing.
Circular is a Y-combinator company based out of Sydney and Singapore. They are accelerating the adoption of the circular economy by making subscriptions the best way to access and experience tech: from smartphones, laptops, and headphones to gaming, VR and wearables.
The reason I like these guys is that their founding team are very experienced operators. They all come from C-suite teams from solid tech companies and are playing in a space that is on the rise. Also — YC has a great track record of hitting home runs.
9. Zepto (Fintech, Series A)
Another early stage fintech makes the list, and not only because they are based in beautiful Byron Bay. Zepto is a real-time account-to-account (A2A) merchant payments platform that raised $18.8 million USD last year from co-led by AirTree Ventures and Decade Partners. I like them because they are the first non-bank to plug into the NPP (New Payments Platform) — if they can carve out a nice niche in the payments ecosystem here it’s possible that they can grow a really powerful business and scale up 10X.
10. Immutable (Web3 Gaming, Series C)
No list of hot AU startups would be complete without including the most hyped startup of the last 12 months, Immutable. They are locked and loaded with a $200M warchest and some of the most talented operators in the biz are fleeing from the likes of Canva to join the ranks at the Web3 Platform.
The reason, however, that they sit at #10 and not #1 is that I have absolutely no idea how to comprehend their TAM or GTM. With the catastrophic implosion of crypto and NFTs in the last 12 months it’s hard for me to see how they could significantly outgrow their massive valuation without a use case that touches me directly. Having said that, I’m no gamer or online card player so I could just be missing the point.
