Fifteen ANZ startups that raised $81 million this week

This week’s startup funding round-up features three tech companies aiming to solve three very different, but equally important, problems: Australia’s clean energy transition, the diagnosis of gut health disorders and the large volume of product packaging ending up in landfill.

It also features a further dozen early-stage ventures, each emerging from Antler’s startup generator program with $225,000 in pre-seed funding.

Keep reading to learn more about Neara, Alimetry, Earthodic, and Antler’s latest portfolio additions.

Neara $45 million

(L-R) Neara founders Jack Curtis, Dan Danilatos and Karamvir Singh. Source: Supplied

Climate tech platform Neara leads this week’s funding round-up, with a $45 million Series C raise it says will help accelerate its international expansion.

Founded in 2016 by Daniel Danilatos, Karamvir Singh and Jack Curtis, Neara uses AI and machine learning to create 3D digital models to discover underutilised grid capacity, allowing for accelerated clean energy deployment.

Global investment firm EQT is a lead investor in the Series C round, which represents EQT’s first venture growth investment in an Australian headquartered company.

Square Peg Capital, one of Neara’s earliest investors, also participated in the round, alongside Swiss outfit Partners Group, and existing investors Skip Capital and Prosus Ventures.

In September 2023, Neara added $15.25 million to its $20 million Series B round from 2022. At the time, the startup had raised a total of $45 million in funding.

Neara’s Australian utility partners include the likes of Essential Energy, Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy, Powercor, and SA Power Networks. It says these partnerships are now helping it expand globally, including in the US, UK, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

Gloablly, Neara is working with CenterPoint Energy and Southern California Edison in the US, and ESB Networks (Ireland), Scottish Power (UK), and Hedno (Greece).

In a statement provided to SmartCompany, the company said its technology has now modelled more than 12 million infrastructure assets spanning more than 2.4 million kilometres across four continents.

“Neara helps strengthen critical infrastructure to keep global communities safe, connected, and economically viable despite intensifying severe weather, age, and overuse,” explained chief commercial officer Jack Curtis.

“Reliable, affordable, clean energy depends on resilient high-functioning infrastructure, which demands the laser-focused, fast decision-making we’re empowering for utilities”.

Alimetry: $27.3 million

(L-R) Dr Armen Gharibans (Co-Founder, Alimetry), Vignesh Kumar (GD1 Co-Managing Partner), Dr Greg O’Grady (Co-Founder, Alimetry). Source: Supplied

Auckland-founded startup Alimetry leads the funding round-up this week with US$18 million ($27.3 million) in new funding to help it continue developing its AI-integrated wearable device to improve gut health.

The company plans to use the oversubscribed Series A2 funding round to commercialise its wearable device, which is already being used in a growing number of US hospitals.

The startup has also recently received its fourth clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and completed more than 30 clinical studies.

Alimetry was founded in 2019 by Dr. Greg O’Grady and Dr Armen Gharibans and its research began at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute. The company’s R&D team continues to be based in New Zealand, while its devices are manufactured in the US.

The devices themselves are powered by AI and designed to analyse and diagnose gut disorders that have been difficult to test for with conventional methods.

They do this by detecting electrical currents from the skin’s surface via a process called body surface gastric mapping, which is similar to an ultra-high resolution electrocardiogram (ECG). These signals are recorded while a patient eats and digests a meal to produce objective data for clinicians, while patients are also asked to log their symptoms into an app.

In a statement provided to SmartCompany, Alimetry chief executive Dr. Greg O’Grady, who is also a Professor of Surgery at the University of Auckland, said the startup is “designed to introduce clarity into a field that has involved lengthy, uncertain diagnostic journeys”.

“It gives clinicians the tools they need to quickly and correctly diagnose patients so that we can move on from trial and error — and guesswork — into clarity of care and personalised medicine,” he added.

The funding round was led by GD1 (Global from Day One) and included participation from the American Gastroenterological Association, GI Opportunity Fund, Olympus Innovation Ventures, IceHouse Ventures, and other existing investors.

Earthodic: $6 million

earthodic startup raise — L-R: CEO Anthony Musumeci, strategy lead Melissa Mail, operations and sales lead Fiona Donaghey, CTO Albert Tietz. Source: Supplied

Also raising this week was Brisbane-based packaging startup Earthodic, which has secured US$4 million ($6 million) in an oversubscribed seed round.

The funding is earmarked to help Earthodic increase production of its product Biobarc, a water-resistant paper coating derived from bio-based materials.

As reported by SmartCompany earlier this week, the startup is also looking to build commercial partnerships in the American market.

Founded by Anthony Musumeci, Melissa Mail, Albert Tietz and Fiona Donaghey in 2022, Earthodic says products made with Biobarc coatings are easier to recycle, compared to those with traditional coatings like wax.

This funding round was led by FTW Ventures, and included participation from a host of new investors, including Circulate Capital, Queensland Investment Corporation, UniQuest Fund, Significant Capital Ventures, Branch Venture Group, RedStick Ventures, and American angel investors.

Existing investors Tenacious Ventures, Investible and Closed Loop Partners, which backed Earthodic in its $1.85 million pre-seed round in 2023, also contributed to the round.

Antler’s latest cohort: $2.7 million

Seestone co-founders Nilufer Haksever and Josh Leask. Source: LinkedIn

Early-stage investor Antler has revealed the next twelve startups to earn funding through its residency program, spanning solutions for the fashion sector through to AI-powered communication tools.

As first reported by Startup Daily, the startups have each bagged $225,000 in return for a 12% stake.

The startups include:

Authentified: Founded by Ben Chamberlain and David Johnson, focused on automated fashion consignment services
Balo: Founded by Michael Joo and Yomi Joseph, providing pay-as-you-go access to experts in enterprise technology platforms
Bella: Founded by Danilo Podrascanin, offering AI-powered tools for LinkedIn and email communication
Communiti Labs: Founded by Steven Germain and Daniel Ferguson, transforming qualitative feedback into useable data for councils
Frontcover: Founded by Alan Crabbe, presenting a new kind of community engagement platform
JubJub: Founded by Tom McCarthy and Gilbert Pochet, JubJub is an app promising faster and simpler content distribution across social media channels
Lyngo AI: Founded by Tanmay Patel and Cam Moore, providing automated call answering services for medical clinics
Pactify: Founded by Rahul Moudgil and Nagendra Yadav, delivering a new CRM solution for talent managers in the creator economy
Seestone: Founded by Nilufer Haksever and Josh Leask, Seestone intends to help clothing retailers improve their stock-buying decisions
Shopfront: Founded by Nathan Spiteri and Drew Flaherty, creating AI-powered product listing details on a wide variety of online marketplaces
Spoony: Founded by Nicholas Carlton and Kenneth Liang, providing digital connections to neurodivergent people and those living with chronic illness or disability.