A Message From Mel 🙋🏻♀️
Wowser, June has been an absolutely massive month in Aussie & Kiwi Startupland.
In one month, we’ve seen 3 unicorn announcements (more details below)! We also featured more startups that raised over $1m in our ‘Major Funding Round’ section this month than any other month since we started this newsletter over 2 years ago.
We’ve known for a while that the startup community has done a phenomenal job bouncing back from COVID, but it’s still heartwarming to see such clear evidence of it.
And…that’s the perfect segue to mention that we are hiring again! Help us back the next generation of world-class Aussie & Kiwi founders by joining our happy fam as an Investment Associate, Portfolio Analyst or Investment Operations Analyst.
Finally, to those living and working in Sydney: it’s time to double down on WFH again. Let’s do our part to end this latest COVID outbreak as fast as we can! 💪
The Big News
🤩Massive news and congratulations to Sam, Ryan & the team at A Cloud Guru as they announce their acquisition by Pluralsight in one of the largest startup exits in Australia’s history. We’re thrilled for the team as they continue the next phase of their mission to ‘build the next-generation platform for hands-on learning across all of technology’.
📱 Also joining the unicorn acquisition ranks — congratulations to Grant and the team from MessageMedia on their sale to Swedish Competitor Sinch for $1.7b.
🦄 Finally, kudos to the team at Judo Bank on announcing their $174m raise and $1.9b valuation. It comes after their 100% growth in business lending since March 2020 — another positive signal of post-COVID economic recovery.
🎉 Welcome to the AirTree fam to Mathew and Team Grow with the announcement of their $25m round!! It’s exciting to see the team partner with the ASX which will allow them to develop new infrastructure for superannuation funds and continue to create the future of finance through distributed ledger technology.
👍 Congratulations to Aulay and team Ento on announcing their $5m series B with plans to double their team after a record year in 2020 despite the challenges of COVID.
🚴 Kiwi electric bike maker UBCO continues to go from strength to strength due to the accelerating adoption of EV. They’ve raised $AU13.3m as they plan a dual listing on the ASX and NZX within the next 12–18 months.
There’s a string of great news for early-stage founders looking for capital…
🦊 Our friends Kylie Frazer and Rachael Neumann launched Flying Fox Ventures to invest $5m annually to create lots of on-ramps for early-stage startups.
💰Investible announced $35m of new funding. Just like their first fund, it will be sector agnostic with a global tech focus.
🧑🌾 For agtech startups, Sarah Nolet and Matthew Pryor raised $35m for Tenacious Ventures’ first fund. From maggot waste management to cell-based meats, the fund aims to put “Australia at the forefront of the innovative solutions that will allow agriculture to tackle the challenges of climate change.”
📋 Fantastic news for founders trying to hire tech talent from overseas: Software Programmers and Engineers are amongst the 22 new additions to Australia’s Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List. FINALLY!
Topics That Caught Our Eye 👀
🧠 Researchers have devised a way for a person to communicate directly with a computer from their brain by imagining they’re writing-by-hand. It’s a gamechanger for brain-computer interfaces (BCI), enabling communication at a rate more than twice as fast as previous typing-by-brain experiments. To trial the new system, a participant who had been paralyzed for a decade had the electrical activity of his brain recorded as he imagined writing. A machine-learning algorithm then decoded the brain patterns associated with each letter. End result: a life-giving communication method.
⚠️ A single company outage took down a good chunk of the internet from Pinterest to Reddit to the BBC earlier this month. Cloud computing company, Fastly, that provides CDN (content delivery network) services, had a lot to answer for tweeting that a “service configuration…triggered disruptions across our POPs globally.” So much of our internet infrastructure hinges on a handful of companies like Fastly. The outlook: outages will become more frequent and will continue to get worse. Any business with a substantial online presence should have multiple CDN providers to avoid these kinds of disruptions.
💡 How do you design products that achieve a dent-in-the-universe level of adoption? NfX chatted with Tony Fadell, inventor of the iPod and co-inventor with Steve Jobs of the iPhone, about his 6 product frameworks and first principles for design. They are: learning how to see, storytelling, creating your constraints, finding your product development heartbeat, taking different perspectives and building upon them, and finally, being a troublemaker.
📈 0 to 10 million users,130 employees and an upcoming IPO: How did expense management SaaS company Expensify achieve its growth? Check out this detailed 5-part deep dive covering how they: 1. Created a culture of efficiency, autonomy and collaboration by hiring ‘stem cells’ and not ‘cogs in the wheel’. 2. Hacked their way to a robust, scalable tech stack and 3. Paved the path for SaaS growth with a bottom-up sales and product-led growth approach.
🤖 US-China tech war intensifies with the US going on offence: US Senate allocates $US250 million to developing AI/QC/semiconductor tech. And they didn’t stop there, barring government agencies from buying drones manufactured by Chinese companies and banning federal employees from downloading Tik Tok.
⛓ There’s a new vision for crypto, and it’s wildly different from bitcoin: Joe Weisenthal breaks down the differing potential and implications of cryptocurrencies vs. decentralised finance. ‘The general bet for DeFi at this point seems to be: Regulators will be cool with all this. Or: If they did want to stop it, they couldn’t because it’s just open-source software and that even if the companies were to go away, the software will live on. We’ll see about all that.’
💻 Looking to launch a startup but don’t have ‘friends and family’ available to fund it? We’re big fans of the ‘no code’ movement. It drastically reduces the cost and time for any founders or teams looking to build and test the demand for new products or features. Our pick of the resources: Makerpad no code tutorials.
Major Funding Rounds 💰
Synchron, a BCI platform, raised $52m
Zeller, a small business-focused fintech, raised $50m
Sendle, a parcel delivery service, raised $45m
Ena Respiratory, a respiratory health biotech, raised $32m
Memories, an alternative social media platform, raised $31m
UpGuard, a cybersecurity startup, raised $25m
Honey, an insurance-tech startup, raised $15.5m
OCR Labs, an ID verification startup, raised $15m
InstantScripts, an online health and prescription service, raised $10.9m
IVVY, a cloud-based SaaS, raised $7m
Travello, a travel startup, raised $6.5m
Endua, a clean energy startup, raised $5m
Grounded, a sustainable packaging startup, raised $5m
Mooven, a construction tech startup, raised $5m
Tanggram, an investment platform, raised $5m
Paytron, a cloud-based fintech for SMBs, raised $4.3m
Kanopi, an insurtech startup, raised $4m
Blossom, a savings app startup, raised $3.4m
Listing Loop, a proptech startup, raised $3m
Driva, an online car loan marketplace, raised $3m
Hey Bud, a hemp-based skincare brand, raised $2m
1Question, an edutech app, raised $1.94m
Cubiko, a medtech startup, raised $1.7m
Unhedged, a share trading algorithm startup, has raised over $1.7m in equity crowdfunding
Tixel, a ticket marketplace platform, raised $1.5m
NextMinute, a job management tool for tradies, raised NZ$1.5m
Tribu, a machine learning helpdesk solution, raised $1.25m
The Village Co, a hospitality tech startup, raised $1.2m
Bubble Tea Club, a home-brew bubble tea startup, has raised $1.1m in equity crowdfunding
Mys Tyler, a fashion startup, raised $1m
Antler has invested in 13 new early-stage startups for its Autumn cohort.
Did we miss your raise? Want your yet-to-be-announced raise featured in next month’s newsletter? Let us know: community@airtree.vc
Love For The AirTree Fam 💕
👗 Dean from GlamCorner spoke with the SMH about how the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of fashion rentals and sustainable circular fashion.
👪 We’re so proud of the Linktree team’s leadership on parental leave policies. Take a look at how they’re designing a “very holistic approach” to help parents navigate work, leave and everything in between.
🎙️ Our Cofounder and Chair Daniel discusses the need to overhaul philanthropy in Australia with Seth Aylmer on the Fear and Greed podcast.
👏 The Fund, a global community of founders & operators making seed stage investments, is expanding to Australia and our Principal, Elicia will be a part of the founding investment committee. Great news for early-stage founders!
Community Bulletin 📌
🔋 Innovation Bay and ARENA are partnering once again to bring together startups, investors and key industry stakeholders at the Renewable Energy Founder Forum in October. This event will allow renewable energy startups to forge important connections and open up pathways for funding and partnerships. Startups can apply to pitch at the event here.
🛫 The 2021 Lift Off Awards to celebrate diversity in tech are happening in July. Register for the Sydney, Melbourne and online events.
🗣️ Calling women and non-binary entrepreneurs working on the world’s to-do list! SheEO has launched applications for their next cohort of Ventures in Australia and New Zealand offering support, coaching and funding to grow your business. Applying is simple: No pitch decks. No attachments. No jargon. Check it out here.
🔭 Galileo Ventures Founders Showcase is happening Wednesday, June 30 at 5.30PM AEST. Join the livestream to meet the first 8 startups to go through Galileo’s accelerator. Register here.
🔨 Australia’s eSafety Commission is trying to shift the mantra of “move fast and break things” to “moving more thoughtfully and building in safety protections upfront”. A new set of online tools, Safety by Design, will help internet startups avoid building bad tech by putting user safety at the centre of product design and development.
📝 Applications are now open for the Founder Institute Australia — New Zealand Virtual Spring 2021 Program. This program is designed for founders and teams all throughout the pre-seed stage to help you build a business that matters, sustainably.
Jobs Jobs Jobs! 🇦🇺🇳🇿
🔗 LinkTree, a tech platform that connects audiences to a user’s entire online ecosystem is looking for a Head of Product Design.
🦸 Employment Hero, Australia’s first all-in-one HR Software is looking for a Chief of Customer Experience, CXO.
💼 Grow, Zoomo, :Different, Open and Secure Code Warrior are all looking for a Chief People Officer. There’s also a Head of Technology opportunity up for grabs. Reach out to our Head of Talent Andrew Donald (andrew@airtree.vc) for more info.
🌲 And we’re looking for 3 superstars to join AirTree: an Investment Associate, Investment Operations Analyst and a Portfolio Analyst.
Is your startup hiring? 🚀 Add your jobs here.
Say Hi to Team AirTree! 👋
28 June — Elicia is speaking on the Open the Pod Bay Doors podcast
30 June — Mel will be speaking at Founder Institute’s Meet Australia and New Zealand Startup Community Leaders (Online Event)
7 July — Craig will be attending a dinner with New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden hosted by NZTE to discuss New Zealand’s economic and investment priorities.
21 July — Rich will be meeting founders at the Giant Warm Intro Office Hours by Rampersand
26–27 July — Rich will be speaking at Venture & Capital’s Wholesale Investor Conference
Throughout July — Mel is offering mentoring hours with Sydney Startup Hub
What we’re reading & listening to 👂
🤓 Who gets to be smart by Bri Lee
“In the Australian context it’s not always true to say ‘knowledge is power’. What’s much more true is to acknowledge that whoever has the power shapes the knowledge.” In Who gets to be smart Bri lee explores Australia’s education system and its gatekeepers. With that comes some soul-crushing statistics (e.g. in 2019, Australia’s four richest schools spent more on new facilities and renovations than the poorest 1,800 combined). What’s missing? The many voices — Indigenous, disabled, minorities and more — who fall between the ever-growing education gap.
Social issues and difficult conversations have become part and parcel. But what if applied the principle of charity, and we sought to understand ideas before “cancelling” them? Are we prepared to listen in search of the truth, or are we too busy trying to win the fight? In the podcast series ‘Principle of Charity’, hosts Emile Sherman and Lloyd Vogelman bring together two expert guests with opposing views on today’s biggest social issues. On paper, that reads like a recipe for a dumpster fire. But, while each guest passionately advocates their views, they also have to present the best, most generous version of the other’s argument.
