It’s been another $100 million-plus week for Australian startup funding, with this week’s total of $115.7 million coming in slightly ahead of last week’s $107.35 million.
Like last week, this week’s funding round-up was led by a mammoth raise from one company, with cyber security startup Secure Code Warrior revealing it has secured $73 million (US$50 million). A medtech startup also starred in this week’s funding, as did two non-alcoholic drinks brands.
However, it would be remiss of us not to highlight that the four startups featured below are all founded by men.
As Cut Through Venture’s report for the second quarter of 2023 shows, there is still a long way to improve the share of venture capital that goes to women-led startups in Australia. While the report found the participation of women founders in funding deals is at an all-time high across most funding stages, this isn’t the case for Series A rounds, which fell to its lowest point in five years.
With significantly fewer deals being completed overall, the report found the absolute count of women founders funded in the quarter dipped lower than the 2021-22 market peak, and the median deal size for women-founded startups remains stubbornly lower than startups with all-male founding teams.
Coding security startup Secure Code Warrior has locked in $72.58 million (US$50 million) in Series C funding, led by Paladin Capital Group.
This follows its almost equally-massive $69.2 million Series B that was led by Goldman Sachs and also included ForgePoint Capital. Both investors returned for the Series C round.
The latest funding execution is the company’s highest to date, bringing its total funding to $145 million. It’s also one of the largest raises we’ve seen this year, with the first half of 2023 recording the lowest investment numbers for the period since 2019.
Secure Code Warrior was first launched in 2016 by Pieter Danhieux and Matias Madou, who both have cybersecurity backgrounds.
The Saas platform educates developers on writing secure code with individual company guidelines, as well as applying software security principles.
Non-alcoholic spirit giant Lyre’s has also raised big this week, bagging an impressive $34.5 million funding round as many Aussies take a break from alcohol during Dry July.
Lyre’s launched only four years ago, in 2019, but has also previously raised a $37 million round in 2021 and $16 million in 2020. The latest funding round was led by previous investors, DSquared and Morgan Creek Consumer Fund.
Lyre’s plans to use the latest funding round to expand its supply chain and production capabilities and the news coincides with the appointment of chief marketing officer Paul Gloster to CEO.
A medtech startup that helps train surgeons through simulations, and was inspired by the way Qantas trains its pilots, has raised $5.6 million in new funding, in a round led by VC Trefor Capital.
According to the Australian Financial Review, International Medical Robotics Academy (IMRA) will use the funding to manufacture more synthetic organs and fake torsos to be used in training surgeons.
The company was founded by surgeon and entrepreneur Professor Tony Costello in 2017, originally as a non-profit organisation focused on training surgeons. It now makes and exports synthetic organs to be used in such training, with the goal to better equip surgeons and IMRAreduce rates of surgical complications.
Another non-alcoholic drinks brand has also raised new funds, with Naked Life Non-Alcoholic Spirits setting a new record for the food and beverage sector with its $3 million equity crowdfunding raise on Birchal.
David Andrew founded the brand in 2016 and in the past three years, it has increased its revenue from $400,000 to almost $13 million in revenue in just three years.
As well as its non-alcoholic cocktails, Naked Life also produces sugar-free sodas, iced teas and functional drinks and the reduced sugar family range of products called The No Nasties Project, which includes cereal, cookies, spreads, and sugar-free, all-natural icy poles SugarFreezies.
Naked Life says the money raised from investors will help accelerate its grocery channel growth, which it hopes to also replicate in other channels and countries.
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Eloise is an experienced business journalist and editor, who has held senior editorial roles at SmartCompany since 2014. Prior to joining SmartCompany, Eloise was news editor at Books+Publishing, the trade press for the Australian book industry. Eloise has degrees in media and communications, marketing and business management, and political science. You can follow her on LinkedIn, and Twitter at @ellykeating.
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A multi-award-winning journalist, Tegan has been reporting on technology, telecommunications and gaming for the past 10 years. She regularly appears on mainstream media channels as an expert tech commentator. Her previous roles include editor of Gizmodo Australia and global reviews editor at Finder. She has also served as a reporter and editor across Business Insider, Lifehacker and Kotaku Australia. Tegan is also the co-host of one of the top technology podcasts in Australia, Weird Tech. You can find her on Twitter @Tegan_Writes.
