Seven startups that raised $77.2 million this week (kind of)
This week we found out about seven Australian and New Zealand startups that made absolute bank from VC investment.
This week’s startup funding news includes raises from two health techs, an online mortgage broking platform, a New Zealand-based procurement software startup and more.
But we were also interested to learn about a $32 million raise that was finalised in mid-2022 but kept under wraps until now.
That belongs to Constantinople, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform founded by former Westpac executives Macgregor Duncan and Dianne Challenor. The Australian Financial Review reports that the pair have created a product that includes all the operational software required to run a bank, or what is being termed a “bank in a box”.
The $32 million in seed funding, which was finalised in May 2022, was led by Square Peg and Airtree Ventures.
Here are six other startups that have raised millions this week.
Eyetelligence: $18 million
The big winner for this week was Melbourne-based healthcare startup Eyetelligence. It scored $18 million from Ascertain — a New York-based health-tech partnership between Ageis Ventures and Northwell Health that focuses on AI startups.
This is its first international investment.
Eyetelligence utilises AI as well as retinal imaging to check for eye and other systematic diseases.
“The three most common eye diseases — diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma — can be detected far earlier with algorithmic retinal image analysis. These three diseases, however, are just the tip of the iceberg,” Eyetelligence co-founder, Professsor Mingguang, said in a statement.
“The eye is a window through which we can discern any disease that affects the microvascular system. This technology allows clinicians to act faster and prevent significant impacts on quality of life.
“I welcome the support of Ascertain who sees the potential of Eyetelligence’s technology for the US and is committed to identifying and accelerating the use of emerging AI technologies to drive significant health benefits globally.”
Eyetelligence will use part of the funding to launch in the US soon under rebranded name Optain.
FLINTPro: $13.5 million
Australian enterprises face a dizzying array of carbon accounting metrics. Canberra-based FLINTPro wants to help businesses navigate all of that data, promising to incorporate various carbon measurement signals into a single visualisation tool.
“FLINTpro solves this problem by integrating multiple streams of data, including best in class soil and biomass estimates, to simplify natural capital reporting for carbon, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, water and soil,” says CEO Rob Waterworth.
That promise of helping Australian businesses track their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions has landed it a $13.5 Series A investment, led by Understorey Ventures, with new backing from Pollination, Persei Venture, and early investors Ananta-OM and Synovia Capital.
Kismet: $4 million
Back to health tech, Kismet has landed $4 million in pre-seed funding led by Airtree and joined by Daniel Petre, Black Nova and Flying Fox.
Kismet is an end-to-end healthcare ecosystem that helps customers with plan and fund management. It has a particular focus on helping patients and people with disabilities find legitimate providers as well as stamp out fraud and non-compliance.
According to the company, over $6 billion NDIS funds were lost to fake services and patient overcharges. An additional $7.5 billion hasn’t been used due to a lack of visibility on how patients can use them.
“Improving access to healthcare is one of the most important challenges of our generation. Industry and government need to work hand-in-hand to simplify access and stamp out bad actors to ensure everyone has access to one of our most basic needs,” Mark Woodland, co-founder and CEO of Kismet, said in a statement.
“We saw the same problems of fraud, inefficiencies and friction in childcare a decade ago. Through Xplor, we worked with the government to stamp out $3 billion in fraud, and are now looking to do the same for healthcare.”
Cannaponics: $5 million
Medical cannabis company, Cannaponics, raised $5 million via an equity crowdfunding platform. A total of 2,771 Australian investors contributed to the raise.
This is also only the second time that the platform has hit the $5 million cap.
Cannaponics has a focus on approaching medical cannabis differently by leveraging both renewable energy and biotechnology from its 165 acres farm and facility in southwest Australia.
“We are sustainable, green, perpetual cultivators of medicinal cannabis. We are dedicated to helping improve people’s lives by providing premium-grade medicinal cannabis products that are safe and effective. We aim to be a reliable, consistent, quality source of plant-based pain relief for patients who need it most,” the company’s website reads.
Finspo: $2.55 million
Melbourne online mortgage broker Finspo plans to use $2.55 million in Series D funding to further enhance its automated home loan application platform, reports Startup Daily.
Finspo, which was founded in 2019 and launched in 2020, has previously raised a total of $9.7 million in funding across Series A, B and C rounds. The startup has not disclosed the investors that participated in the latest round.
“We’re excited to be pushing the boundaries on how smooth the home loan process can be, while providing the customer-specific expertise that people value from a mortgage broker,” said co-founder and CEO Angus Gilfillan in a statement.
Cotiss: $2.2 million (NZ)
Look, we know we usually keep this to Aussie raises, but since when has Australia not tried to claim New Zealand as our own?
The procurement software startup launched in 2020 and focuses on assisting SMEs with compliance and regulation by streamlining these processes.
Now it has landed $2.2 million pre-seed funding led by Blackbird Ventures, with participation from Icehouse Ventures, AfterWork Ventures, Phase One Ventures, and Co-Ventures.
The funds will be used to build out the engineering team as well as expand in Australia and push into the US.
“We’re thrilled to have the support of such a strong group of investors as we continue to build the Cotiss platform. This investment will enable us to expand our team and accelerate our efforts to simplify and streamline procurement processes for organisations that are typically underserved,” co-founder Harry Wilde said in a statement.
