Aussie startups raised $471 million in September — the strongest funding month since March

According to the latest Cut Through Venture report, startup funding saw an encouraging uptick in September after falling off a cliff in the previous two months.

September saw 71 deals close, coming to a total of $471 million in local investment. This is roughly double the amount of injected cash compared to July and August, which saw $242 million and $231 million, respectively.

Hardware and IOT deals dominated the space at $199 million, securing almost three times more funding than the next sector in line — healthcare at $65 million.

According to Cut Through Venture, this is the first time this sector has been at the top of the charts since it first began publishing.

This win was largely due to a few “mega deals” such as $140 for Wi-Fi chip solution startup, MorseMicro.

The majority of September deals had a value distribution between $5 and $19.9 million. Nine deals were valued between $1 and $4.9 million and a further six were valued between $20 and $49.9 million. Only one deal came in between $100 and $200 million.

The gender split for capital and deal participation for 100% female teams continues to be depressing, though Cut Through points out that’s continuing to trend “mildly above the long-term average”.

In the past three months, 12% of capital raises has gone to mixed gender teams, with 8% going to all-female teams. Deal participation during that time has consisted of 9% mixed gender teams and 13% all-female teams.

On the flipside, 80% of capital raises has gone to all-male teams during that time, with 78% being involved in deal participation.

$1 billion month is skewing the startup funding numbers

While $471 million is still a far cry from the $1.8 billion raised in September 2021, it’s important to look at the numbers here.

The particularly bullish September 2021 came from a ‘billion-dollar week’ rush (well, eight days) that occurred between September 13 and September 20. And within that time there were some big investments that arguably skewed the numbers.

The biggest included Canva ($270 million), AirWallex ($276.5 million) and Scalapay ($210 million).

Here’s some of the other big deals from the month:

Sep 13: Scalapay: $210 million
Sep 14: Who Gives a Crap: $41.5 million
Sep 14: SiteMinder: $100 million
Sep 14: Mable: $100 million
Sep 14: Prospection: $45 million
Sep 15: Canva: $270 million
Sep 15: Immutable: $82 million
Sep 16: Delegate Connect: $10 million
Sep 16: Alex Bank: $20 million
Sep 20: Airwallex: $276.5 million

“September is a notoriously hot month for birthdays (thank you, NYE+9mths) and startup funding announcements,” the Cut Through Venture report read.

It’s also worth remembering that these numbers are still being impacted by economic downturn, inflation and the continued bear market. We continue to be in a vastly different economic landscape in Q1 2022 than Q1 2021 — even without the billion-dollar week.

And Cut Through Venture certainly doesn’t seem to believe it’s all doom and gloom out there, pointing out that September 2022 has been the strongest month since March.

“Funding slowdown over? Unlikely.”