AirTree’s monthly update on the Aussie and Kiwi Tech scene. And a few things we find interesting…💕
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The Big News 🔊
🦄We have a new Aussie unicorn! Hotel guest acquisition software SiteMinder has become the latest company to be valued at over $1 billion after a $100 million round from investors including BlackRock, Ellerston Capital, Pendal Group and AustralianSuper. Huge congratulations to Mike and Sankar on this 13 year “overnight success”! It is wonderful to see another market-leading, global software company proudly Made in Australia. 🙌
🏦A big start to the year for the neobanks: Xinja announces attracting more than $30 million in deposits within days of launching its savings account, and Volt bank announces closing a $70m raise ahead of its launch. The competition is heating up! 🔥
🏆Aussie startup entrepreneurs are making it big on global lists. Mike Cannon-Brookes of Atlassian has been recognised in Bloomberg’s inaugural ‘Green 30’ list, alongside the likes of Bill Gates, David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg. Melanie Perkins of Canva has been named as one of Forbe’s Top Under 30 Founders of the Decade, alongside the likes of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel & Dropbox’s Drew Houston. This comes after Forbes’ cover page profile piece of Canva late last year. Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi! 🇦🇺
And a recap of some big news from Dec last year in case you missed it in the end of year frenzy…
👏Kudos to our friends at Blackbird Ventures for announcing the return of $100m to investors in a 40% sale of its first (2012) fund! This is great news for everyone in startupaus! 🚀
☁️💪🏻Congrats to cloud computing training platform A Cloud Guru for announcing its acquisition of its biggest competitor, the US-based Linux Academy, making the combined entity the world’s largest content library for cloud and developer training. We are delighted to have doubled down on our earlier investment in this Australian-born global rocketship! 🙌
🔒Congrats to Secure Code Warrior for closing the largest ever external funding round for an Aussie cyber security startup at $70m ($47.6m USD). AirTree is proud to have doubled down in this round, along with Goldman Sachs, Cisco, Forgepoint Capital and Paladin Capital.
Finally, in case you missed our 2019 year in review: AirTree’s fam of companies raised a total of >$1 billion in 2019 of which AirTree contributed $71m.
Topics That Caught Our Eye 👀
♻️BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, made headlines this month with its announcement that it plans to make investment decisions with environmental sustainability as a core goal and avoid investments that present a ‘high sustainability-related risk.’
Economics Professor John Quiggin from the University of Queensland believes this announcement is the canary in the coal mine for Australia as other global investment institutions have made similar moves in the last couple of years and this trend is expected to continue. ‘The bushfire catastrophe and the government’s inadequate response have shown the world Australia is both among the countries most exposed to climate catastrophe and one of the worst in terms of contributions to solutions.’ He continues to warn that ‘once there is a serious threat of large-scale divestment in Australian bonds, the [ratings agencies like Moody’s and Standard and Poors] will be obliged to take this into account in setting Australia’s credit rating. The much-prized AAA rating is likely to be an early casualty.’
🔮We’re starting a new decade which means it’s predictions galore time! We found this list of predictions on Hacker News posted 10 years ago by user IsaacL which turned out to be pretty on-the-money — with assertions like ‘China will not become a democracy or even make moves in that direction’ and ‘Facebook will not be displaced by another social network’. Taking us to the new decade is this list of 20 mega trends from Peter H. Diamandis, co-founder and executive chairman of Singularity University. Our favs: ‘AI will achieve human-level intelligence’ and ‘Augmented reality and the spatial web will achieve ubiquitous deployment’. 🤔
⚛️🖥This fascinating look at Australia’s race to build a viable quantum computer breaks down how decisions and research work from 25 years ago set Australia up to be a world leader in this field. While investors’ need for fast and certain returns inevitably lead to a push for commercialising research immediately, our edge in quantum computing shows that sometimes it’s important and worthwhile to play the long game.
🛣‘John Adams said infamously that a way to subjugate a country is through either the sword or debt. China has chosen the latter.’ A visual depiction of Chinese-backed projects across the globe from 2000–2017 has been developed by AidData. The database offers a comprehensive look into China’s efforts in growing its financial, technological and military influence throughout the world, particularly in Africa and South Asia.
Lab grown sushi has arrived! We’re o-fish-cially excited! 🐠🤪
Major Funding Rounds 💰
Soul Machines, Kiwi virtual human startup, raised NZ$57m
Pegasus, workplace management software company, raised $28m
Pearson acquired Smart Sparrow for US$25m
Practifi, business management and customer engagement software company, raised $24m
Imagr, Kiwi smart shopping trolley startup, raised NZ$14m
Shutterock, Kiwi visual marketing company, raised NZ$7.5m
Spoke Phone, Kiwi legacy phone system migration startup, raised NZ$7m
Love for the AirTree Fam ❤️
🌊Jackie breaks down the wave of change that’s coming to healthcare and the major trends we are keenly tracking and looking to invest in. If you know of awesome startups working to improve healthcare, get in touch! You can follow more insights from Jackie by signing up to Making Connections, her newsletter that aims to connect ideas across domains, and people within Australia. 🔗
👩🏻⚕️HotDoc’s CEO Dr Ben Hurst shares his inspiring founder journey building the healthcare booking platform and his David vs. Goliath turnaround story with the Age.
🌏How can you run a successful business while also doing good for the world? B-Corp certification is a great framework to help achieve this and James has created this detailed guide for startups.
👏Kudos to Prospa for further strengthening its commitment to gender equality by partnering with The Dream Collective and growing its workforce from 33% to 41% women in one year.
💡Congrats to team Brighte for being recognised as the 4th fastest growing startup in APAC by Deloitte, woop woop!
Community Bulletin 📌
👼Aspiring early-stage tech investors look over here 👀👉The VC Catalyst program run by the Wade Institute at Melbourne University is open for enrolment and commences in March.
🏢Looking for office space? Hatch has up to 10 spaces in Potts Point while Expert360 has up to 20 spaces in the CBD up on offer. To enquire, contact Chaz from Hatch (chaz@hatch.team) and Chris from Expert360 (cford@expert360.com)
Your Next Job 🇦🇺🇳🇿
🔒Secure Code Warrior, the global secure coding company that makes software development better and more secure, is hiring a Head of Product Security in Sydney
🤓Expert360, one of Australia’s fastest growing startups reinventing the way we work, is hiring a Chief Operating Officer in Sydney
🏡:Different, the property management platform, is hiring a Chief Marketing Officer in Sydney
👩🏻⚕️Hotdoc, the digital healthcare booking platform with the mission of improving patient experiences, is hiring a Growth Marketer in Melbourne.
What’s On 📅
7 Feb — Adam is judging at Pausefest in Melbourne 🏆
10 Feb — Em is judging the UNSW & IE Business School Legaltech pitch night in Sydney
19 Feb — John is speaking at EvokeAG in Melbourne
5 Mar — Em and Elicia are doing an Investor AMA lunch and learn at Fishburners
What We’ve Been Reading 👀
The Wife Drought: Why Women Need Wives, and Men Need Lives by Annabel Crabb
‘I need a wife’ is a common joke among women juggling work and family. But it’s not actually a joke. Having a spouse who takes care of things at home is a Godsend on the domestic front. But why is the work-and-family debate always about women? Why don’t men get the same flexibility that women do? A witty and insightful exploration of gender roles and work life balance that’s a catalyst for a long overdue conversation.
Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again by Eric Topol
The doctor-patient relationship at the heart of medicine is broken: doctors are too distracted and overwhelmed to truly connect with their patients, and medical errors and misdiagnoses abound. Leading physician Eric Topol reveals how artificial intelligence can help.
