Nine Aussie startups that raised $66.4 million this week
Learn more about nine Australian startups that collectively raised $66.4 million this week, including Sendle, Redactive AI and ReciMe.
It’s been another busy week for startup funding in Australia and we’ve counted nine startups with fresh capital to deploy.
Keep reading to learn more about these innovative companies.
Dash Technology Group: $22 million
Leading this week’s funding round-up is fintech Dash Technology Group, which has completed a $22 million capital raise, led by ASX-listed capital fund Bailador Technology Investments.
Bailador announced its $20 million investment to the market on Monday, with the deal to be structured with an initial up-front investment of $15 million, followed by an additional $5 million in January 2025.
The deal comes two months after Bailador invested $20 million in telehealth startup Updoc.
Dash Technology Group was established through the merger of Wealth02 and Roar Software in 2022 and is chaired by the former chair of the Financial Services Council Geoff Lloyd.
The company operates a cloud-based financial advice and investment management software platform, which is used by independent financial advisors (IFAs) and financial institutions.
Its goal is to democratise financial advice by making it more affordable, and according to the Bailador statement, the platform currently administers around $1 trillion on behalf of IFAs.
In the statement, Lloyd said Bailador and Dash share the same vision “of delivering an innovative technology platform that empowers IFAs to provide Australians with access to affordable financial advice”.
“This new capital raise positions Dash very well as we look to expand our sales and marketing investment and accelerate our exciting product development roadmap,” he added.
As part of the investment, Bailador co-founder and managing partner David Kirk and partner James Johnstone will join the Dash board.
Sendle: $16 million
Parcel delivery operator Sendle has raised $16 million (US$11 million) to help it scale further internationally and reach profitability in all of its markets.
Founder and CEO James Chin Moody confirmed to SmartCompany this week the funding is from Sendle’s existing investors, including Federation Asset Management, which backed the startup in its 2019 funding round.
According to The Australian Financial Review (AFR), Federation has contributed US$5 million to the funding round, which values Sendle at US$60 million. The AFR also reports the terms of the capital raise guarantee investors will receive four times their money in the event of a sale, which has been described as unusual in the Australian market.
In a statement to SmartCompany, Chin Moody said the new funding “underscores our investors’ confidence in our strategic direction and commitment to amplifying our growth”.
“With this capital, we are focusing on scaling internationally to help us reach profitability across all markets, scale our technological infrastructure and continue to support our small business customers while fostering a more competitive landscape globally,” he said.
Chin Moody said Sendle is already profitable in Australia, and is seeing growth in emerging markets too.
“We’ve been operating in the US for five years and less than two in Canada, yet we’re already experiencing remarkable year-on-year growth of more than 100%,” he said.
Sendle has previously raised significant amounts of external capital, including $45 million in Series C funding in mid-2021, $19 million in 2020, and $20 million in 2019.
Redactive AI: $11.5 million
Also raising capital this week was Redactive AI, a startup founded by Atlassian alumni that is building an enterprise-grade AI solutions platform.
Redactive AI has locked in $11.5 million in a seed funding round led by Blackbird Ventures and US-based Felicis Ventures. Atlassian Ventures and automation software company Zapier also contributed to the round.
The startup was founded in September 2023 by former Atlassian product managers Andrew Pankevicius and Alexander Valente, and AI engineer Lucas Sargent.
As reported by SmartCompany earlier this week, the platform aims to address the lack of AI engineering and security skills within enterprise software teams. It does this by helping software engineers develop secure generative AI applications that comply with stringent data access, auditing and AI governance requirements.
Redactive AI co-founder Andrew Pankevicius told SmartCompany the startup’s competitive edge will come from its focus on solving complex enterprise challenges from the outset.
“We’ve gone for a really hard problem from the start. I’m really proud of the fact that Redactive is an organisation that’s aimed at enterprises’ big, hairy challenges and has engaged CIOs and CTOs from day one,” he said.
Millibeam: $6 million
Australian semiconductor startup Millibeam has raised $6 million in its latest funding round, which includes a $3 million investment from Breakthrough Victoria.
According to Capital Brief, CSIRO’s deep tech fund Main Sequence also contributed $3 million in the round, after previously backing the startup when it launched in 2021.
Millibeam is developing radio chipsets that use millimetre wavelength (mmWave) technology for 5G and 6G communications networks, to help address the congestion that is occurring in the current 5G/6G bandwidth as more and more devices connect to these networks.
The Sydney-based startup is designing chipsets that will use both the existing 5G spectrum at lower frequencies and the 5G spectrum at millimeter-wave frequencies. The design is more energy efficient than other alternatives and uses smart frequency switching capabilities.
In a statement, Breakthrough Victoria said the investment will see Millibeam expand its operations in Melbourne. The startup already employs four full-time engineers in Melbourne and plans to hire four more engineers and five technicians this year.
Millibeam also plans to establish semiconductor packaging capabilities in Victoria and a research partnership with a Victorian university.
Co-founder and CEO Dr Venkata Gutta said the support of Millibeam’s investors is “instrumental in bringing out groundbreaking 5G/6G solutions to market faster”.
“Millibeam is leading the charge in 5G disruption with a clear vision, a team of innovators, and the backing of visionary investors like Breakthrough Victoria,” Gutta added.
Marketboomer: $4.9 million
Sydney-based Marketboomer has received $4.9 million in new funding in a round led by the Salter Brothers Tech Fund, which together with co-investors will now hold a 20% in the procurement platform.
Marketboomer was established in 1995 and provides a business-to-business procurement platform for hotels and suppliers in the hospitality sector, called PurchasePlus.
The company has a presence in 23 countries, and more than 10,000 active monthly buyers and 20,000 active suppliers in its network. The new funding will go towards expanding its presence locally, as well as in southeast Asia and the UK.
The deal represents the second transaction by the Salter Brothers Tech Fund, after the fund led the bid to take SME lender Prospa private in February.
In a statement provided to SmartCompany, Salter Brothers head of equities Gregg Taylor said the funding will give Marketboomer additional sales and customer service resources to accelerate its growth and expand further internationally.
“The business has achieved impressive historical organic revenue growth recently with less than 1% churn,” he said.
Gelomics: $2.2 million
Brisbane biotech Gelomics has secured $2.2 million for its system that helps eliminate the use of animal testing in pharmaceutical drug development.
The pre-seed funding round was led by Sydney venture capital fund Jelix Ventures, with participation from the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) Enterprise Acceleration Fund and Angelloop.
Gelomics has developed technology that helps scientists better replicate human biology in laboratory settings, via a 3D tissue culture system that can produce representations of human organs and tissues on a microscopic scale.
The goal is to help improve the ethics, cost, reliability and efficiency of medical research and pre-clinical studies.
Gelomics plans to put the funding towards its expansion in the US and expects to create more than 70 jobs over the coming five years as a result.
The startup’s system has the potential to affect serious change in the medical research space, said co-founder and CEO Dr Christoph Meinert.
“Over 200 million animals are euthanised for research and drug development every year, despite over 90% of drug candidates failing in human trials after successful animal testing,” he said in a statement from QIC.
“This technology is not just a leap forward in terms of innovation; it is a paradigm shift towards creating life-like human tissue models in the lab, which are scalable to industrial requirements and fully compatible with current automated systems.”
Sable Rubber Technologies: $2 million
Sable Rubber Technologies may have been operating for 20 years, but this week it raised $2 million from high net-worth investors via a convertible note ahead of a potential ASX float in 2025.
As reported by the AFR, Sable Rubber converts recycled rubber tyres into products that can be used to create more tyres, or in sporting fields and playgrounds.
The company, which was established by a group of investors in Queensland that commercialised the technology created by its original inventor, works with clients such as Australian Surface Supplies and a Bridgestone entity.
Reuben Hanson, a former APAC managing director for Big Ass Fans, leads the business, which is expected to raise a minimum of $10 million for a public listing next year.
According to the company, it is able to recycle used tyres at low temperatures in a process that uses less energy and reduces CO₂ emissions, compared to alternative methods for disposing of tyres.
ReciMe: $1.5 million
Melbourne-born cooking app ReciMe has raised $1.5 million from a group of high-profile investors that includes former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
ReciMe was launched in 2021 by Christine Nguyen, Ivy Nguyen, and Will Kent, who relocated to New York earlier this year to scale the startup, which has previously raised pre-seed funding from the Alice Anderson Fund, Even Capital and Tractor Ventures co-founder Jodie Imam.
The startup is aimed at home cooks, offering them a way to collate recipes from a variety of sources onto a single platform.
The latest seed funding round was led by existing investor New Zealand-based VC fund Even Capital, and included participation from Mayer, as well as Ancestry.com CEO Deb Liu, Letterboxd founder Karl von Randow, and prominent Australian e-commerce founder and investor Paul Greenberg.
ReciMe now has a user base of 800,000 and more than 100,000 unique recipes have been imported to the app.
Caresquare: $300,000
Software startup Caresquare has raised $300,000 in seed funding for its platform that aims to unlock efficiencies for managers using the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
The startup was founded in February by Joshua Suntup, who was previously studying law at the University of Sydney and later worked at software startup HospoPay.
According to AFR, the funding comes from Ace Ventures, a venture capital fund run by Michael Frazis. The tech investor also runs the Frazis Capital fund, which focuses on international equities.
Ace Ventures has taken a 10% stake in Caresquare, valuing the startup at $3 million.
Caresquare is reportedly already profitable and is projected to hit $2.6 million in annualised recurring revenue by the end of the 2025 financial year.
The platform helps NDIS plan managers automate their workflows, improving invoicing processes and fraud detection.
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