Nine ANZ startups that raised $60.3 million this week
It’s been a bumper week for startup funding announcements, with nine Australian and New Zealand startups revealing they have raised fresh capital.
It’s been a bumper week for startup funding announcements, with nine Australian and New Zealand startups revealing they have fresh capital to deploy.
From startups tackling renewable energy, logistics scheduling, due diligence paperwork and even heart disease, take a look at where the money was flowing this week.
RayGen: $51 million
Leading the startup funding round-up this week is renewable energy startup RayGen Resources, which has raised $51 million in Series D funding, led by SLB and Breakthrough Victoria.
The funding is expected to bolster the Victorian manufacturing and engineering capabilities of RayGen, while also helping it expand both domestically and internationally.
Existing investors in RayGen include Equinor Ventures, AGL Energy, Photon Energy Group, Chevron Technology Ventures, and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
Founded in 2010, the startup is known for its solar PV and thermal storage technology, which it says achieves an industry stand-out 70% round-trip efficiency.
In addition to the funding, RayGen has also signed a strategic deployment agreement (SDA) with SLB to aid its international expansion.
Veyor Digital: $2.75 million
Logistics scheduling software startup Veyor Digital has secured $2.75 million in pre-Series A funding, in a round led by Investible.
Several family offices and angel investors also contributed to the round, including those linked to Aconex co-founders Leigh Jasper and Rob Phillpot.
Founded in 2018 by Stephen Rockett and Richard Fifita, Veyor Digital’s platform helps firms manage deliveries and materials for construction sites and loading docks.
The goal is to reduce congestion and delays, improve security and minimise miscommunication between construction supervisors, loading dock managers and onsite teams, to ensure projects stay on time and on budget.
The new funding will be used to establish a local team in Austin, Texas, as the startup pushes further into the North American market, where it has already seen some momentum.
NextWork: $2.3 million
New Zealand education startup NextWork has raised $2.3 million to help workers learn new tech skills, reports Startup Daily.
Founded by Amber Joseph in 2020, the startup has committed to initially training 1000 students in an entry-level AWS certification for free.
The pre-seed funding round was led by New Zealand VC GD1 and included participation from Blackbird, Icehouse, Phase One Ventures and the founders of Eucalyptus.
Joseph said she was motivated to create the personalised learning platform to help more adults upskill while managing other priorities, including existing jobs and family responsibilities.
“At best, online learning isn’t working; and at worst, it’s stalling our progress as the gap between technology and how well prepared we are to use it is widening,” she said, according to the Startup Daily report.
“Never before has this type of education been as essential; but there is a lot of ‘noise’ out there and it’s hard for learners to determine which institutions and classes are credible.”
Peeplcoach: $1.3 million
Former Smart50 finalist Peeplcoach has secured $1.3 million in new funding, bringing its total funding raised to date to more than $3 million since its launch as a Software-as-a-Service platform in 2020.
The Melbourne-based startup was founded by executive coaching and recruitment entrepreneur Christine Khor, along with James Chisholm, with a mission to democratise access to leadership development and one-on-one coaching.
The funding round was led by a consortium of private investors including Anytime Fitness co-founder Jacinta McDonell, Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) chair Justin Punch, and One Ventures director Roger Massey-Greene.
LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund also contributed to the round and CEO Dr Kate Cornick said in a statement the fund is “thrilled” to be working with Khor.
“Christine has been a trusted advisor for many business leaders across her 35-year career,” she said.
“With Peeplcoach, she is scaling her expertise with on-demand virtual coaching that makes executive coaching accessible to anyone”.
The startup plans to use this latest funding to continue developing the platform’s tech features and its growth plans across the APAC region.
Deeligence: $1 million
Legal startup Deeligence has also raised fresh capital, locking in $1 million in pre-seed funding for its platform, which as the name suggests, helps lawyers with due diligence.
Deeligence was founded by Elena Tsalanidis and Justin Hansky and the new capital was raised with help from LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund, according to the Australian Financial Review (AFR).
The artificial intelligence-powered tool is designed to summarise and extract key pieces of information from due diligence documentation, in a way that could help resource-constrained small law firms.
“Deal points used to be available only to the world’s largest firms because they could afford to pay a junior lawyer to create a huge spreadsheet,” Hansky told the AFR.
“Now, with artificial intelligence, firms can unlock this data incredibly easily. For partners at smaller firms, they’re going to have access to tools that might have only been available to very top firms.”
Outread: $750,000
Melbourne-based AI startup Outread has raised $750,000 in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round with backing from Techstars and Google chief scientist Jeff Dean.
The startup was founded in 2023 by siblings Janhvi and Dhruv Sirohi and friend Anshika Singh. Its platform uses machine learning to uncover relevant research and insights from the millions of research papers that are published globally each year.
“It was evident that there was an information overload, a need to triage that information, and a need to use machine learning to do so,” explains Janhvi Sirohi.
“The concept for Outread was further shaped by my own academic journey, which included a rigorous phase pursuing honours at Adelaide, earning a scholarship, and the bold decision to leave the honours program to gain real-world experience at PwC.
“At Outread our mission is to leverage AI to enhance productivity and ensure users remain on the cutting edge of developments, illustrating the transformative potential of technology in making complex information readily available,” says Janhvi Sirohi.
Other Google and AWS executives also contributed to the pre-seed round, according to the startup, including Google vice president of finance, Fiona Bones.
Kindling: $500,000
Sydney-based media startup Kindling has revealed it has raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding from high-profile backers as it emerges from stealth mode.
As reported by the Australian Financial Review, the funding comes from a who’s who of startup investing, including AirTree Ventures, AirTree Ventures co-founder Daniel Petre, Archangel Ventures partner Rayn Ong, OIF Ventures partner David Shein, Ovira founder Alice Williams, Employment Hero co-founder Ben Thompson and Giant Leap partner Adam Milgrom.
Kindling co-founders Sachin Shah, a former investor at AirTree, and Adam Miller, a founding member and investor at Ultraviolet Ventures, have co-hosted their tech podcast, The Sachin and Adam Show, for the past four years.
Now, they want to help other small creators find audiences and advertisers for their content via Kindling.
The startup plans to develop AI tools to help achieve this, which will uncover what tools content creators want most, as well as an advertising marketplace for creators that deliver content via podcasts, YouTube and Tiktok.
CoraMetix: $500,000
West Australian medtech startup CoraMetix has raised $500,000 for its 3D-printed heart valves designed to treat aortic stenosis.
As reported by The Australian, the seed funding round was led by FundWA and values the startup at $2.25 million.
CoraMetix was founded by Dr Elena Juan Pardo and Dr Abdul Ihdayhid in mid-2023 and is aiming to successfully implant its replacement valves in human patients within the next three years.
“Currently, the majority of valve replacements utilise biological valves sourced from animal tissue. However, these valves have a restricted lifespan and may start to deteriorate within five years,” Dr Ihdayhid said, according to The Australian.
“Consequently, patients are at risk of requiring repeat high-risk valve surgery or, in certain cases, being deemed inoperable. Our valves are being designed to remain functional for the rest of the patient’s life, negating the need for repeat surgeries.”
WorkRex: $220,000
Early-stage venture capital fund Skalata has backed Melbourne-based startup WorkRex with $220,000 in new funding, according to Startup Daily.
WorkRex was founded by Jing Chen, Lance Qian and Myron Liu to help make consumer marketing more accessible and affordable for small businesses.
The all-in-one platform offers small businesses an AI assistant that can automate the bulk of the work involved in designing and delivering marketing campaigns, while still prioritising customer engagement.
Co-founder Jing Chen is an optometrist and WorkRex’s product is reportedly already being used by 20% of optometry practices in Australia.
“With growth being the number one priority for more than half of optometry practices we spoke to, many business owners want marketing support but are not sure where to start, or can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars each month to hire an agency,” co-founder Lance Qian said.
The startup has previously participated in the University of Melbourne’s MAP accelerator program.
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