The Wire

Real-time updates from ANZ tech sales

7 months ago
News

2025 IPO class: 10 of 13 tech companies now underwater

# The 2025 IPO Scoreboard: What It Means for Your Equity Package The 2025 IPO reopening looked promising on paper. 174 companies raised over $31 billion in the first half, the strongest showing since 2021. Tech and healthcare led the charge: 53 tech IPOs raised $17.4 billion, healthcare added another batch with 41.7% weighted returns. Then reality set in. By February 2026, 10 of 13 major B2B and tech IPOs are trading below their listing price. Several significantly below. ## The Survivors **CoreWeave (CRWV):** Up 123% from its $40 March listing. Peaked at $187 in June, now around $89. AI infrastructure with a $55.6 billion revenue backlog. Revenue hit $3.6B in three quarters. The only clear winner. **Hinge Health (HNGE):** Up 28%. IPO'd at $32 in May, trading around $41. Digital MSK therapy with actual unit economics: 51% revenue growth, 85% gross margins, 31% free cash flow margins. Proof that B2B healthtech works without AI hype. **Circle (CRCL):** Up 100% from its $31 June listing. Briefly hit $299, crashed back to $62. USDC stablecoin play, heavily correlated to crypto sentiment. ## The Wreckage **Klarna (KLAR):** Down 69%. IPO'd at $42 in November, now around $13. Valued at $45.6 billion in 2021 private rounds, public market cap today sits at roughly $5 billion. That is a 90% decline from peak private valuation. Class action lawsuits filed. The BNPL model is under pressure, AI repositioning has not convinced anyone. **Netskope (NTSK):** Down 56%. KKR-backed cybersecurity play IPO'd at $24 in December, now trading around $10.60. The entire cybersecurity sector is getting repriced on AI disruption fears. **Figma (FIG):** Down 28%. The most dramatic arc: IPO'd at $36 in September after the Adobe acquisition fell through, exploded to $143 on day one, now trading around $26. Revenue growing 40%, raised 2026 guidance to $1.36-$1.37 billion, but the market is pricing in AI disruption risk to design tools. **Navan (NAVN):** Down 27%. Valued at $9.4 billion privately, IPO'd at $14 ($6.5 billion valuation), now around $10 ($2.5 billion market cap). TTM revenue $656 million, 32% growth, but a Rule of 40 score near zero does not command a premium. ## What This Means for Sales Equity If you joined a pre-IPO company in 2024 expecting a liquidity event in 2025, your equity package likely took a 30-70% haircut post-IPO. Even companies that looked strong, Figma's 4x first-day pop, gave it all back within months. PE-backed IPOs performed terribly. KKR took OneStream public in July 2024 at $20, and now Hg Capital is taking it private 17 months later. SailPoint, another PE re-IPO, is down 38%. The 2026 pipeline includes Databricks, Canva, and Plaid, all deferred from late 2025. If you are weighing offers, factor in that approximately 30-35% of 2025 IPOs finished below their offer price by year-end. The IPO window reopened, but the returns did not follow.

SaaStr
7 months ago
News

Biometric data at work: who owns your fingerprints after you clock in?

## The case that changed workplace biometrics Jeremy Lee worked at Superior Wood, a Queensland sawmill. In 2018, the company rolled out fingerprint scanners for site attendance. Safety and payroll accuracy, they said. Lee refused to scan. Superior Wood terminated him. The Full Fair Work Commission ruled the dismissal unfair in *Lee v Superior Wood* [2019] FWCFB 2946. The reason: employers must obtain explicit consent before collecting biometric data. It is classified as sensitive information under the Privacy Act 1988. The employee records exemption only applies after you have already collected the data with proper consent. That ruling sits under every biometric system rolled out in Australia since. Fingerprint scanners, facial recognition, keystroke patterns, eye tracking. All of it requires explicit consent before the data enters company systems. ## What this means for sales teams If you are selling HR tech, workforce analytics, or productivity monitoring tools into ANZ, this case is your compliance baseline. "We enhance safety and accuracy" does not override the Privacy Act. Neither does "industry standard" or "everyone does it." The market for employee monitoring software is growing. We360.ai, Time Doctor, ActivTrak, Hubstaff: all selling versions of workplace surveillance with varying levels of biometric data collection. Some track keystrokes and mouse movements. Others want facial recognition for attendance. A few are pitching AI models trained on employee productivity patterns. Your prospects will ask about compliance. They should. If they do not, you should bring it up anyway because post-sale regulatory blow-ups kill renewals and referrals. ## The F1 comparison Formula 1 drivers produce biometric data as part of their job: heart rate, stress response, eye tracking. It feeds into race strategy and car development. When a driver leaves, that dataset stays with the team. It is written into contracts, regulated by the FIA, with clear guidelines on collection and usage. Most Australian workplaces have none of that clarity. They bolt on fingerprint scanners or AI productivity monitors without thinking through consent, data ownership, or what happens when someone leaves. The default assumption seems to be: if we bought the software, we own the data. That assumption does not hold in Australia. Superior Wood learned that the expensive way. ## What actually works If you are in the sales motion for monitoring tech: lead with consent frameworks, not feature lists. Show prospects how to implement compliant biometric policies before they buy. Include legal review in the sales cycle. Make data ownership and retention crystal clear in your contracts. If you are buying this tech: get proper consent before turning anything on. Not buried in an updated employee handbook. Explicit, informed consent for biometric data collection. Document it. Have your legal team review the vendor's data handling. The compliance risk is real. Superior Wood faced an unfair dismissal case. Larger employers face class actions, regulatory investigations, and the kind of headlines that make boards nervous. The market is moving toward more workplace monitoring, not less. AI productivity tools are the new normal in tech sales orgs. That makes consent frameworks and data ownership the new table stakes. Worth noting: no one has cracked truly anonymous biometric monitoring at scale. If the system can identify individuals (which is the point), it is collecting personal data. Act accordingly.

SmartCompany
7 months ago
News

WiseTech cuts 2,000 coding jobs, AI replacing manual engineering work

WiseTech Global is cutting 2,000 engineering jobs as AI replaces manual coding work, CEO Zubin Appoo announced during the company's earnings call. The cuts represent 28% of the ASX-listed logistics software company's 7,000 global headcount. "The era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over," Appoo said. The cuts target engineers writing code, not sales or go-to-market teams, though the company provided no specifics on whether revenue roles are affected. WiseTech, headquartered in Sydney, develops CargoWise and other logistics software used by 17,000+ customers including 24 of the top 25 global freight forwarders. The company claims its platform touches 55% of global manufactured trade flows. ## The Numbers First half revenue grew 76% to US$672m. Operating cash flow up 31% to US$192.3m. The company recently closed a US$2.1bn acquisition of e2open and ships 1,226+ product enhancements annually across 39 product centres. Shares rebounded 4% to $45 following the announcement, though still down 60% from July 2024 highs. ## What This Means for Sales No mention of sales team changes, comp adjustments, or quota impact. The cuts focus on engineering, but sales professionals at WiseTech and competitors should watch for: territory consolidation if customer success workload shifts, quota adjustments if AI efficiency claims translate to changed sales targets, and potential downstream effects on deal cycles as product development accelerates. WiseTech joins a growing list of tech companies restructuring around AI. The difference: they are stating it directly rather than hiding behind "organizational efficiency" language. For sales teams at logistics software companies, this signals potential shifts in how technical resources support deals. No disclosed sales leadership changes or CRO commentary. Sales headcount and structure remain unclear.

Startup Daily
7 months ago
News

Victoria takes national VC lead with $2.2B, driven by late-stage rounds

## Victoria leads 2025 VC funding, but the story is in the stage mix Victorian startups raised $2.2 billion across 134 deals in 2025, according to Cut Through Venture's latest report. That is a 2.9x year-on-year increase and the first time Victoria has topped national VC rankings. The numbers look strong, but the composition tells a different story for sales teams evaluating opportunities. ## Late-stage rebounds, early-stage cools Rounds between $20M and $50M jumped from 4 in 2024 to 17 in 2025. Deals over $50M increased from 3 to 6. Median Series A deal size hit $15M, up from $6M the year prior. Series B+ medians doubled to $40M. Early-stage activity moved the other direction. Sub-$5M rounds dropped from 87 to 66. Rounds in the $5M to $20M range fell from 29 to 17. For sales professionals: fewer seed-stage startups mean fewer SDR and early AE roles in 2026. The hiring is happening at scale-ups with proven models and established GTM motions. ## The Airwallex factor Airwallex's $498M Series G accounts for 23% of Victoria's total. The fintech was Melbourne-founded but relocated its headquarters to Hong Kong in 2018, three years after launch. It now operates from Singapore with a dual US HQ and is domiciled in the Cayman Islands. Strip out Airwallex and Victoria raised $1.7 billion, roughly matching NSW's reported $1.7 billion across 160 deals. That comparison matters when evaluating where the actual hiring concentration sits. ## Sector mix: fintech and biotech lead Fintech pulled $759M. Biotech and medtech took $526M. Climate tech and healthtech followed at $208M and $165M respectively. Notably absent from Victoria's top sectors: AI, which led national funding in 2025. Victoria's AI capital was comparatively small as a standalone category, though Cut Through Venture noted 75% of 2025-funded startups use AI in some capacity. ## What this means for sales teams LaunchVic, the state's startup agency, backs this ecosystem with $40M in annual budget allocation, $60M in venture growth funds, and support for over 3,800 startups. The state now hosts 20 unicorns and leads Australia in enterprise software (50% of national startups), healthtech (50%), and fintech (33%). For AEs and sales leaders: Victorian scale-ups are hiring, but the bar is higher. Companies raising $20M+ already have quota-carrying teams and territory structure. They are adding enterprise AEs and account managers, not figuring out go-to-market. Early-stage companies looking to build first sales teams: that is happening elsewhere or waiting for the funding market to shift back toward seed.

Startup Daily
7 months ago
News

Heidi Health acquires UK's Automedica, launches two AI products

## Heidi Health acquires UK's Automedica, launches two AI products Melbourne-based Heidi Health acquired UK clinical AI startup Automedica and launched two new products, marking its first acquisition since raising $125 million in 2024. Terms were not disclosed. The deal adds Automedica's evidence-led AI framework and UK regulatory access (including MHRA AI Airlock sandbox) to Heidi's platform. **Two new products shipped:** - Heidi Evidence: Real-time clinical research during consultations, built on Anthropic's Claude models - Heidi Comms: Patient communication and care plan coordination for healthcare teams Heidi now supports 370,000 clinicians globally, processing 10 million consults monthly across 100+ countries. The company leads global AI scribe adoption and is the top player in Canada by market share. **What this means for sales teams:** Heidi is moving upmarket. The acquisition and product expansion signal a push into enterprise healthcare beyond individual GP subscriptions. Expect hiring across enterprise sales, implementation, and customer success to support the broader product suite. The company's existing model: free individual clinician access subsidised by enterprise contracts. Customer retention sits at 100% repurchase intent (KLAS Research). Main sales friction: long enterprise cycles with risk-averse hospital buyers and AI output validation concerns. Heidi raised $98 million Series B in October 2024 at $703 million valuation (Point72 Private Investments, Blackbird, Headline) plus a $27 million Series A top-up earlier that year. Total funding: $96.6 million USD. **CEO Dr Thomas Kelly** positioned the Evidence product as ad-free and clinically independent, contrasting with ad-supported AI models from OpenAI and others. The pitch: commercial-influence-free clinical decision support. No headcount or sales team details disclosed. Company integrates with Epic and major ANZ practice management systems (Gentu, MedicalDirector). Compliance: ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, Australian Privacy Principles. Heidi competes in ambient AI scribing but specific competitors were not named. The Automedica deal is its first M&A move since founding in 2019 (originally as Oscer for clinical training, rebranded 2021).

Startup Daily
7 months ago
News

Victoria raises $2.2B in VC, NSW loses crown, early-stage deals drop 24%

Victoria startups raised $2.2 billion across 134 deals in 2025, taking the national crown from NSW for the first time, according to Cut Through Venture's latest report. The 2.9x jump from 2024 looks strong until you check the deal mix. Rounds between $20M and $50M increased from 4 to 17. Rounds above $50M doubled from 3 to 6. Meanwhile, sub-$5M deals dropped from 87 to 66, a 24% decline in early-stage activity. Median deal sizes climbed across every stage. Pre-seed rounds hit $925k, up from $675k. Seed rounds reached $3.2M. Series A median jumped to $15M from $6M, and Series B+ hit $40M from $17M. Those numbers suggest stronger pricing for companies that made it through, but a higher bar to clear. NSW still led on deal count despite losing on total capital. Victoria's $2.2B came from fewer rounds than NSW closed, pointing to concentration in later-stage bets rather than broad ecosystem activity. Breakthrough Victoria, the state's $2B government fund, has backed 88% of early-stage and 76% of venture-stage deals in Victoria since launch. The fund recently committed to five VC funds, each with a 25% mandate to invest in Victorian companies. That mandate effect likely contributed to the capital surge, though the fund itself is under government review. National context: Australian startup funding hit $5.4B in 2025, up 31% from 2024. Victoria captured 34% of deals versus NSW's 41%. AI, biotech, and fintech drove most activity. For sales professionals, the pattern matters more than the headline. Fewer early-stage rounds means fewer new sales orgs forming in 2026. More late-stage capital means expansion hires at funded companies, typically enterprise AEs and account managers rather than SDRs. If you are looking at Victorian startups, check their round size and stage. A $40M Series B means different hiring than a $3M seed.

SmartCompany
7 months ago
News

AI agents hit 4.3% of sales tool calls, engineering leads at 49.7%

Anthropic published deployment data from nearly 1 million production AI agent tool calls. Software engineering accounts for 49.7% of activity. Sales and CRM sits at 4.3%. Finance at 4.0%. Legal at 0.9%. The numbers look like engineering won and sales barely registered. That is the wrong read. Engineering got agents first because the use case is simpler: defined tasks, clear success metrics, deterministic outputs. Code either runs or it does not. Sales is messier: context shifts by prospect, success depends on timing and relationship dynamics, outcomes take weeks to measure. The 4.3% figure tells you where agents are today, not where they cap out. Anthropic's 2026 State of AI Agents Report shows 57% enterprise adoption of multi-step agents, with 46% expecting ROI gains in sales and marketing. That expectation drives the next deployment wave. Current agent use cases in sales skew tactical: lead enrichment, CRM data entry, meeting prep, follow-up sequencing. The low percentage reflects caution, not technical limits. Sales leaders are testing before scaling. Worth noting: Anthropic's data shows 77% of API calls are pure automation versus consumer use, which means enterprise buyers are already committed to agents in production. Anthropic itself scaled from 500 to 1,000 employees in 2024, raised over $18 billion including a $4 billion Series E, and hit a $60 billion valuation by late 2025. Their sales org supports enterprise deals across software engineering (49.7% of tool calls), sales/CRM (4.3%), and finance (4.0%). No disclosed CRO or VP Sales hires, CEO Dario Amodei runs strategy. The pattern: engineering leads adoption, sales follows once the ROI case solidifies. That 4.3% is not the ceiling, it is the starting line. Agents handle the repetitive work (list building, data hygiene, research) so AEs focus on closing. The quota stays the same, the workload shifts. For sales teams evaluating AI agents: test on low-risk workflows first, measure time saved versus accuracy trade-offs, and track whether reps actually close more deals or just move faster on admin tasks. The hype is real, but so is the learning curve.

SaaStr
7 months ago
News

Canva acquires two startups, adds chief algorithms officer

## Canva acquires two startups, adds chief algorithms officer Sydney-based Canva acquired US marketing algorithm startup MangoAI and UK animation platform Cavalry, bringing total acquisitions to six in two years. MangoAI, a 10-month-old San Francisco startup, was still in stealth mode. Co-founders Nirmal Govind (former Netflix VP of data science, ex-Fable CTO) and Vinith Misra (former Roblox and Netflix ML scientist) built machine learning tools to optimize video ad performance. The platform will integrate into Canva Grow's marketing intelligence suite. Govind joins Canva as chief algorithms officer. Misra becomes reinforcement learning lead at Canva's Research Lab. Worth noting: this is Canva's first C-suite addition focused specifically on algorithms and data science. Cavalry, a UK-based 2D animation platform, counts Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Nike as subscribers. Co-founders Chris Hardcastle, Ian Waters, and Adam Jenns are joining Canva. The acquisition expands Canva's professional design suite, particularly for motion designers. ## What this means for sales Canva is at $4 billion in annualized revenue, up 36% year-over-year, with 31 million paid subscribers. The company has completed six acquisitions since 2024: Affinity, Leonardo.Ai, MagicBrief, and now MangoAI and Cavalry. Previous deal was Leonardo (2024, reportedly worth at least $320 million based on team size and tech stack). The acquisition pattern is focused: AI-driven marketing tools (MangoAI, MagicBrief) and creative capabilities (Leonardo, Cavalry, Affinity). This signals Canva is building out enterprise marketing and creative workflows, which typically means expansion of their B2B sales org. Canva's ANZ headquarters is in Sydney. The company has scaled from design tool to Visual Suite for marketing teams, though specific sales team size and recent hiring numbers are not public. Affinity alone hit 4 million downloads post-acquisition in 2024. Seven of Canva's acquisitions have been Europe-based companies (including Flourish, Kaleido, Smartmockups, Pexels, Pixabay). Geographic expansion usually precedes sales team expansion in those markets. No comp details disclosed for incoming execs. Standard for acquisitions at this stage: retention packages tied to integration milestones, not public OTE structures.

Startup Daily
8 months ago
News

Canva hits $4B ARR, growing 35%. Worth $44B or $20B?

## The Numbers Canva reported $4B in annual recurring revenue, up 35% year-over-year. That is $23M in 2018 to $4B in 2025: 173x in seven years. The enterprise segment (25+ seats) hit $500M ARR, growing at 100%. That is 12.5% of total revenue, doubling while the overall business grows at 35%. Two engines: one healthy, one on fire. 265 million monthly active users. 31 million paid users. A 12% conversion rate from MAU to paid. Most PLG companies would kill for that number. ## What It Is Worth Canva's last secondary valuation was $42B in August 2025. Is that right? Two public comps tell the story: Figma and Adobe. **Figma**: IPO'd at $33 in July 2025, hit $142, now trades around $24. Market cap roughly $11B to $12B on approximately $1B ARR growing at 40%. That is 11x to 12x ARR. The market re-rated it hard. Apply that multiple to Canva's $4B ARR and you get $44B to $48B. The secondary valuation of $42B looks conservative, not aggressive. Canva at 35% growth is nearly on par with Figma at 40%. **Adobe**: $107B market cap on roughly $24B revenue, growing at 10%. That is 4.5x revenue. The market has decided AI is a structural threat to seat-based design platforms. Adobe's stock is down 44% over the past year. If the market decides Canva faces the same AI disruption risk, the valuation drops to 5x to 6x ARR: $20B to $24B. That is the bear case. ## The Range **Bear case (5x to 6x ARR)**: $20B to $24B. Requires believing AI disrupts design platforms broadly and 35% growth stalls. **Base case (11x to 12x ARR)**: $44B to $48B. The honest comp is Figma at similar growth rates. This lands above the $42B secondary. **Bull case (15x to 18x ARR)**: $60B to $72B. Requires believing the B2B segment re-rates the entire business and Canva IPOs into momentum. ## What It Means for Sales Teams Canva's enterprise motion is working. $500M in B2B ARR doubling year-over-year means they have figured out how to sell into companies at scale. If you are selling design or productivity tools into enterprise, this is the comp your prospects are using. The AI risk is real. Adobe's valuation collapse shows the market is pricing in disruption to seat-based models. If your product is seat-based and faces generative AI pressure, expect valuation compression. IPO timing matters. Canva's COO said they will go public within a "couple of years." At 35% growth with 8 years of profitability, they can choose their timing. Most companies do not have that luxury.

SaaStr
8 months ago
News

AI vendors hit $100M ARR in 12 months while legacy SaaS NRR collapses

## The Numbers That Matter ElevenLabs closed a $500M Series D at $11B valuation this week. Founded in 2021, they hit that valuation in under five years. For context: that is the pace that used to take a decade of grinding through quota, burning through $100M+ in sales and marketing spend, and building 200-person AE teams. They are not alone. AI-native B2B companies are hitting $100M ARR in 12 months, not 4-5 years. When that happens, they do not just take market share. They take budget. CFOs want to spend on tools that show immediate ROI. That means dollars are moving away from legacy vendors. ## What Changed for Sales Teams The old B2B playbook was predictable: lock up a category by $20M ARR, outspend competitors to $100M, then ride 130% NRR on seat expansion and module upsells. Product updates were quarterly at best. Customers renewed because switching costs were brutal. That model is broken. Here is what replaced it: **Expansion revenue is collapsing.** Customers who used to automatically add seats are now asking why they would buy more from a vendor that has not shipped real innovation in two years. A new AI-native tool can replace $500K in headcount for $50K/year. Every CFO knows this. Your renewal is no longer automatic. **AI-native competitors are architecturally superior.** They are not bolting AI features onto a 2015 codebase. They are building agentic-first products that do the work, not just assist with it. When your competitor's product closes the loop and your product still requires manual input, your AI chatbot does not matter. **The category lock-up window is gone.** A technical founder with Claude can build in a weekend what used to take a 10-person eng team a quarter. That means hundreds of new entrants in every category. The oxygen does not run out at $20M ARR anymore. ## What This Means for ANZ Sales ElevenLabs has no reported ANZ presence: no Sydney office, no Melbourne headcount, no local sales team. That is the pattern with AI-native vendors. They scale through product-led growth and land enterprise deals without the traditional territory-based AE model. If you are carrying a bag for a legacy B2B vendor, watch your comp plan. When NRR drops from 130% to 100%, your expansion commission disappears. When budget shifts to AI-native tools, your pipeline shrinks. When product velocity matters and your vendor ships once a quarter, you lose deals. The market is still growing. Enterprise software spend is accelerating in 2026. But the dollars are moving to vendors who ship real capability improvements weekly, not quarterly bug fixes dressed up as features. Your quota did not change. The game did.

SaaStr
8 months ago
News

EatClub raises $27m Series B, valuation hits $200m

# EatClub raises $27m Series B, valuation hits $200m Melbourne-founded restaurant booking platform EatClub closed a $27 million Series B, less than a year after its $18.2 million Series A in May 2025. Marbruck led the round, with participation from existing investors EVP and CoAct. Valuation is now north of $200 million, up from the $75-100 million range at Series A. ## What EatClub does Founded in 2017 by Pan Koutlakis, EatClub allows restaurants to offer time-based discounts up to 50% through its app. Dynamic pricing fills empty tables during off-peak periods. Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White is an early investor. He brings credibility but no operational role is specified. ## UK traction Since launching in London nine months ago, EatClub signed over 1,000 UK restaurants. The platform now has 5,000+ venues globally. Order volumes tripled over the past nine months. Manchester is the next UK city launch. ## What the money funds Expansion into more UK cities and the EatClub Earn loyalty programme. Customers accumulate dining credits through participating retailers and redeem them at restaurants on the platform. ## What we don't know No disclosure on: sales team size, recent hires, revenue, ANZ headcount, or whether UK expansion means new ANZ-based sales roles. The company maintains a low public profile outside funding announcements. For a Series B with aggressive UK expansion, the lack of team growth details is notable. Most B2B platforms scaling internationally hire account executives and partnership managers in volume. Whether EatClub is hiring for those roles, and where, remains unclear. Worth noting: moving from $18.2m to $27m in nine months with a 2-3x valuation jump suggests strong unit economics or competitive tension in the round.

SmartCompany
8 months ago
News

Canberra putting $500m into defence tech fund, wants VCs to match it

The federal government wants venture capital firms to help deploy $1 billion into Australian defence tech startups. Defence opened a Request for Expressions of Interest on AusTender for private investors to establish and manage the Advanced Capabilities Investment Fund. The structure: up to $500m government co-investment, seeking equal private capital match. Target companies are SMEs and startups building capabilities in cyber, AI and autonomy, electronic warfare, quantum technologies, undersea warfare, and what Defence calls "kinetic and kinetic-enhancing capabilities." That is missiles, bombs, artillery, armoured vehicles. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy pitched it as a way to catalyse sovereign industry growth and export potential. The REOI closes April 30. No fund manager selected yet. ## What this means for sales If you are selling into defence tech or considering it, watch which VCs land this mandate. Those firms will have pipeline visibility into which startups are scaling, where the procurement dollars are flowing, and which capabilities Defence actually wants to buy versus fund as R&D. Defence tech sales cycles are long, compliance is heavy, and buyers move slowly. But when they buy, contracts are large and multi-year. Companies landing ACIF money will likely add sales headcount, especially if they have export ambitions beyond ADF procurement. Worth noting: this is venture funding, not procurement. Startups getting ACIF capital still need to navigate Defence's buying process. The fund aims to bridge the gap between VC-stage companies and procurement-ready capabilities, particularly for AUKUS Pillar Two tech sharing with US and UK. Australia is pushing for 80% domestic defence spending and sovereign capabilities. The 2025-26 defence budget is $59 billion, rising to 2.3% of GDP by 2032-33. If ACIF works, expect more sales roles in defence tech over the next 24 months, particularly for companies building dual-use tech with export potential. Startups already in the space include Advanced Navigation, which has US Defence contracts for GPS-jamming countermeasures. The fund targets similar companies pre-scale.

Startup Daily
8 months ago
News

SaaStr replaced human sales team with AI agents, went from -80% to +132% growth

## The Numbers SaaStr AI 2026 is tracking 132% of last year's performance at this point. Tickets up, sponsors up, May 12-14 in San Francisco. But founder Jason Lemkin says without rebuilding their entire sales motion around AI agents, they would have cratered: -80% sponsor revenue, -50% attendees, roughly -46% overall. The delta between +132% and -46% is the story. ## What Changed SaaStr went from 20+ humans in 2020 to 3 humans plus 20 AI agents by 2025. Planning 5 humans and 30-35 AI agents in 2026. The AI sales stack: SDRs sending 15,000+ messages at 5-7% response rates. BDRs booking meetings autonomously. AI syncing calls to Salesforce, handling community chats, managing sponsor outreach. No traditional sales team structure disclosed. No separate CRO or VP Sales. AI manages most of the go-to-market pipeline. ## The Buyer Shift Lemkin's blunt on what happened: "We basically lost 100% of our non-AI sponsors from the 2018-2023 era. Almost all of them." Traditional B2B software vendors cut event budgets to nothing as growth slowed 2023-2025. The sponsors still writing checks are AI-first companies: Google Cloud, Artisan, Monaco, Replit. Attendees are up, but fewer from older B2B companies. Growth is coming from AI-native startups, developers building on AI infrastructure, operators trying to survive the transition. ## The Budget Hunt SaaStr had to find the "AI budget" at sponsor companies. That meant: - Different buyer: Chief AI Officer, transformation team, sometimes CEO directly. Not the marketing or events budget holder. - Different value prop: Reaching people building and deploying AI in B2B, not reaching SaaS buyers. - Different qualification: Is this company flush with venture capital? Do they have a dedicated AI transformation budget? Lemkin's take for sales teams: "We didn't just sell harder. We sold differently, to different people, for different reasons, against different budgets." ## What It Means If your traditional B2B buyer pool is shrinking and your 2023 playbook is not working, the answer might not be hiring more AEs. It might be rebuilding your entire motion around where budget actually lives now. SaaStr's eight-figure annual revenue now runs on conferences, content, and tools like SaaStr.ai (500K users in 45 days). Tripled content output to 12-15 pieces per week with the AI team. No ANZ presence or headcount disclosed. Focus remains US and Europe markets. SaaStr Annual 2026 expects 10,000+ attendees, 68% VP+ executives, 800+ VCs. Different crowd than 2022. Should be.

SaaStr
8 months ago
News

Gartner down 71%, Forrester worth $105M: enterprise budgets are frozen

## The Numbers **Gartner (NYSE: IT)** reported Q4 revenue of $1.8B, up just 2.2%. Full year $6.5B, decelerating from 9.6% annualized growth over five years. Consulting revenue: $134M, down 12.8% year on year. Stock down roughly 71% from November 2024 peak of $552 to around $155. Market cap dropped from $45B to $12B. **Forrester (NASDAQ: FORR)** posted Q4 revenue of $101.1M, down 6%. Full year $396.9M, down 8% from $432.5M in 2024. Market cap sits at $105M for a company doing $400M in revenue. They cut 8% of staff in February, exited strategy consulting entirely, and posted a $119M GAAP net loss including goodwill impairment. These are not random software vendors. These are the companies that enterprise VPs pay to advise on technology and marketing spend. When they get crushed, it means their customers stopped buying advice, which means those customers froze budgets. ## What This Means for Sales **Deal cycles are longer.** Gartner CEO Gene Hall said executives are "slowing and deferring everything possible." More stakeholders, more scrutiny, more approval layers. If your enterprise deal closed in 90 days last year, plan for 120-150 now. **Consulting revenue is the real signal.** Gartner consulting down 12.8%. Forrester consulting down 16% in Q4, exiting the business entirely after bookings dropped 50%. When companies cut consulting, they are not doing new initiatives. They are executing on what they have. If your sale requires a "transformation project" or "strategic initiative," your deal just got harder. **ANZ context:** No specific ANZ data disclosed, but Gartner operates globally and Forrester has been pulling back internationally. Enterprise budgets in Australia and New Zealand follow the same patterns: longer cycles, higher scrutiny, fewer new projects. **AI is compressing value.** Both firms produced thousands of AI research pieces, but clients now have access to LLMs that compete with subscription research. Forrester launched AI Access, a self-service product that shortened sales cycles by 50%, which tells you the old model was bloated. If research firms are getting commoditised by AI, so is your product. **One bright spot:** Gartner conferences grew 13.9% with 51% margins. People still show up in person. Forrester's events collapsed 29% because they ran multi-day conferences nobody wanted. Format matters. ## The Bottom Line When the companies selling into enterprise budgets report numbers like this, that is your market signal. Budgets are frozen. Deal cycles are extended. Consulting is dead. Plan your pipeline accordingly.

SaaStr
8 months ago
News

Eucalyptus exits for $1.6B: Hims acquisition brings US sales playbook to ANZ

## The Deal Hims & Hers Health is acquiring Sydney-based Eucalyptus for US$1.15 billion ($1.6 billion AUD), with $240 million upfront and the rest tied to performance milestones. That is 3x the $560 million valuation Eucalyptus hit in April 2023. Founded in 2019, Eucalyptus operates five telehealth brands: Pilot (men's health), Juniper (weight management), Software (dermatology), Kin (reproductive health), and Compound (preventative health). The company posted $120.9 million revenue in FY24, with 60% from international markets including UK, Germany, Japan, and Canada. ## What This Means for Sales Teams Hims runs a different sales model than most ANZ healthtech companies. They hire aggressively in the US, pay above-market comp for top performers, and run a high-velocity inside sales operation alongside digital acquisition. Eucalyptus has been building out its own sales function across five markets. Post-acquisition, expect: **Headcount changes.** US acquirers typically consolidate or restructure within 6-12 months. Sales leadership often gets replaced or reports into US-based CROs. **Comp structure shifts.** Hims pays competitively in US markets. Whether that translates to ANZ rates or gets benchmarked to local standards will determine retention. **Process integration.** Different CRM stacks, different sales methodologies, different quota-setting approaches. The ramp period just got longer. Worth noting: Eucalyptus raised $148 million across four rounds from Blackbird, Airtree, Woolworths VC fund W23, OneVentures, and Mary Meeker's BOND Capital. Those investors just made strong returns. The sales team that helped build that valuation now waits to see what their comp looks like under new ownership. Deal closes mid-year. If you are on the Eucalyptus sales team, start asking questions about territory assignments, quota relief during integration, and whether your OTE changes.

SmartCompany
8 months ago
News

Breaker raises $9m seed, hiring for defence AI platform

## Breaker raises $9m seed, hiring for defence AI platform Sydney-founded defence startup Breaker closed $9 million in seed funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with Australian VC Main Sequence following on from their pre-seed lead 12 months prior. The company builds AI voice-control software that lets military operators coordinate up to 100 autonomous systems (drones, ground vehicles, maritime platforms) using natural language commands. The platform runs entirely onboard each robot, no cloud dependency, designed for comms-denied environments. **What this means for sales teams:** Defence tech deals move slowly, but when they close, they are large. Breaker has demonstrated technology with Rheinmetall Defence Australia, US Special Operations Command, and Singapore's Defence Science and Technology Agency. That customer list suggests enterprise motion with long sales cycles and deep technical validation. The company originated in Sydney (UNSW Founders Defence 10X program, 2023) but relocated US headquarters to Austin in 2025. Founders Matthew Buffa, Michael Irwin, and Vanja Videnovic came from Anduril, Droneshield, and Hargrave Technologies. **The hiring angle:** No specific sales roles announced, but $9 million seed in defence tech typically funds 12-18 month runway. Engineering team includes ex-Anduril and Droneshield staff. Worth watching: defence software companies at this stage usually hire technical account managers or solutions engineers before traditional AEs. Government sales requires security clearances and deep product knowledge. **Comp context:** Defence tech sales roles in ANZ typically sit 10-20% below equivalent SaaS enterprise positions, but quota cycles are longer (18-24 months for major contracts) and deal sizes are larger. US defence tech AEs at seed stage companies typically see $140-180k OTE, ANZ equivalent would be $120-150k OTE. Main Sequence's follow-on investment indicates continued Australian market engagement despite US headquarters shift. No revenue figures disclosed, typical for defence startups pre-revenue or under NDA with government customers.

Startup Daily
8 months ago
News

Eucalyptus sells for $1.6B: What the Doximity rival deal means for ANZ healthcare sales

## The Deal Eucalyptus, the Sydney-based telehealth startup, is being acquired by NYSE-listed Hims & Hers Health for US$1.15 billion ($1.6B AUD). That is a 3x return on its April 2023 valuation of $520 million. **Deal structure:** $340M cash at close, deferred payments over 18 months (cash or stock), plus earnouts tied to financial targets through early 2029. Founder Tim Doyle stays on to run the business. ## The Numbers Eucalyptus runs at $640M ARR (US$450M) and posted triple-digit year-on-year ARR growth in 2025. The company is not yet profitable: it reported a $15.2M after-tax loss in FY2024. Revenue growth at this scale matters more than profitability for acquirers chasing market share. Founded in 2019, Eucalyptus raised $142M total across four rounds: $8M Series A (2020), $30M Series B (2021), $60M Series C (2022), and $50M (2023). Investors include Blackbird, Airtree, Woolworths' W23, OneVentures, Athletic Ventures, and BOND Capital. ## What It Means for Sales Teams Eucalyptus operates five DTC brands: Pilot (men's health), Juniper (weight loss and menopause), Kin (fertility), Software (skincare), and Normal (sexual health). The multi-brand model works: over 500,000 consultations since 2019. For healthcare sales professionals, this acquisition validates the DTC telehealth playbook in ANZ. US acquirers are paying premium multiples (roughly 2.5x ARR) for proven growth in regulated markets. If you are selling into healthcare tech, these are the metrics buyers care about: ARR growth rate, customer acquisition cost, retention, and verticalized brand strategy. Doximity, the US medical network platform, has been active in healthcare M&A and sales hiring. While this deal involves Hims & Hers, the broader trend is clear: US healthcare platforms are acquiring ANZ growth engines. That creates opportunities for sales teams in Sydney and Melbourne who understand both the local regulatory environment and how to scale DTC health brands. Worth noting: Eucalyptus briefly launched a premium men's health offering in 2024 before suspending it. The core portfolio proved strong enough without it. ## The Context This follows a pattern of ANZ telehealth exits. The sector saw consolidation through COVID and is now seeing strategic M&A from US public companies looking for international growth. For sales professionals in healthcare tech: the comp is there, the roles are growing, and US acquirers are willing to pay for ANZ market expertise.

Startup Daily
8 months ago
News

24 Australian startups raised $91 million this week, Fluent Commerce takes $46m

## The Numbers 24 Australian startups raised $91 million this week. Fluent Commerce took half of it: $46 million led by Bain Capital for its AI-powered retail order management platform. The rest came from a mix of early-stage rounds, including 19 companies in Startmate's latest cohort, plus deals in legal tech and defence tech. ## What Fluent Commerce Does The Sydney company helps retailers like JD Sports, L'Oréal, and LVMH track inventory and deliveries. Enterprise clients, global names, seven-year gap since their last raise in 2019. That gap matters: it signals they were not burning cash to hit vanity metrics. Bain Capital led the round. Arrowroot Capital led their $33 million Series B back in 2019. ## Sales Implications Fluent Commerce sells to enterprise retail. That means long sales cycles, complex implementations, and likely a small but experienced AE team focused on strategic accounts. AI-powered order management is not a quick close. The $46 million will fund scaling, which typically means hiring. For enterprise SaaS in Sydney, expect AE comp in the $140k-$180k OTE range, possibly higher for senior enterprise roles with retail vertical experience. ## The Broader Context This week fits the 2024-2025 funding trend: Australian startups raised $5.4 billion across 810+ companies in 2024, up 68% year-over-year. Seed rounds average $2.8 million, Series A sits at $18 million. Sydney and Melbourne take 75% of total funding. B2B dominates. AI takes 24% of deals, fintech 28%, healthtech 18%. The top 10 deals took 70% of Q3 2025's $1 billion. Capital is concentrating in proven execution, not spray-and-pray. ## What This Means for Sales Professionals Funding activity signals hiring. When 24 companies raise in one week, that translates to SDR, BDR, and AE roles over the next 6-12 months. Fluent Commerce alone will likely add enterprise AEs and possibly a VP Sales if they are scaling into new regions. For quota carriers: track which verticals are getting funded. Retail tech, legal tech, defence tech all raised this week. Those sectors will be hiring, and early hires at well-funded startups often get better equity and faster promotion paths than later joiners. ANZ startup funding is up, but comp still lags US by 20-30% for equivalent roles. Know your worth, check Glassdoor, and negotiate.

SmartCompany
8 months ago
News

Appetise raises $7M selling grocery behaviour data to FMCG brands

## The Deal Appetise closed a $7 million Series A led by Icehouse Ventures, 18 months after making a bet that killed $400k in consumer revenue. The Christchurch-based company ditched its $4/week meal planning subscription, made the app free, and started selling the behavioural data to FMCG brands instead. The math worked. Revenue hit $3.5 million, up from $1.2 million six months prior. Australia now drives 70% of growth, with 70 brands signed including Kraft Heinz and Lee Kum Kee. ## What They Actually Sell Appetise runs two platforms. Consumers get a free meal planning app with 2,000+ recipes and supermarket-integrated shopping lists. Brands get Appetise Insights: behavioural data showing how 110,000 households actually plan meals and buy groceries, not what they report in surveys. Co-founder Toby Hilliam calls it "the largest food and beverage behavioural research panel in Australia" compared to traditional 18,000-person survey panels. The pitch: observed behaviour beats reported behaviour. ## The Sales Angle This is the B2B consumer data play in action. Free product builds the user base. User base becomes the dataset. Dataset becomes the revenue engine. For sales teams selling into FMCG or retail, Appetise is now a competitor to traditional market research firms, but with real-time purchase intent data. Worth noting: 70 brands in 12 months suggests strong product-market fit in Australia, but also indicates they are still in land-grab mode. Series A capital likely funds AE headcount to scale that 70 into enterprise accounts. For anyone tracking the ANZ B2B data and insights space, this validates the consumer-to-enterprise data model. The short-term revenue sacrifice was real. The 3x growth in six months suggests they timed the pivot right. ## The Context Appetise originally launched as MenuAid in 2021. The 2024 rebrand and business model pivot followed $4 million in earlier funding. This Series A brings total raised to $11 million. The company operates across Australia and New Zealand, with COO Elise Hilliam co-founding alongside Toby.

SmartCompany
8 months ago
News

SaaStr cuts sales team 10 to 1.2 humans, adds 20 AI agents

# SaaStr cuts sales team 10 to 1.2 humans, adds 20 AI agents Jason Lemkin just posted the ratio that should worry every sales leader: his company spent $500,000 on AI agents last year versus $10,000 on Salesforce. That is 50x more on agents than CRM. The SaaStr founder went from 10+ humans in sales to 1.2 humans and 20+ AI agents. Same net productivity. He is not predicting what 2026 sales teams will look like, he is running one. The shift is not theoretical anymore. Lemkin's advice to sales leaders: deploy an AI agent yourself. Not through an agency. Not by delegating to your team. Do it yourself so you understand what changes. For junior sales and GTM roles, his message is clear: embrace it or get left behind. Be the person who knows how to run agents, not the one replaced by them. The question is not whether AI replaces sales roles. It is which ones, and how fast. Lemkin breaks it down role by role in his full post, separating what AI can handle today from what still requires human judgement. If you are still running a 2021 sales org structure in 2026, you are already behind. The companies figuring out the human-plus-agent model now are the ones that will scale efficiently. The ones waiting for clarity will be playing catch-up with worse unit economics. Worth noting: this is not about eliminating salespeople entirely. It is about fundamentally rethinking which tasks justify headcount versus agent spend. The best sales leaders are already making that calculation. **Related:** Sales automation trends 2026, AI predictions for sales teams, how AI changes sales jobs, future of sales teams with AI.

SaaStr
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