Victoria's startup agency LaunchVic is gone, folded into Breakthrough Victoria to form Innovation Victoria. The move comes as the state government cuts $4 billion from public spending. LaunchVic completed over 190 investments since 2017, focusing on early-stage and women-led startups.
Elias Torres walked away from Drift's $1.2B acquisition calling it a failure. The product got shut down, the team was let go, and the mission died. Now he is building Agency, an AI company targeting $1B revenue with fewer than 100 employees, 80% engineers, and no traditional sales org.
Four Australian tech startups closed $80 million this week, led by aerospace company MAKO with $28 million Series A and Southern Launch with $25 million. This sits within Australia's $5.48 billion funding year, up 31% from 2024. Worth noting: hiring details were not disclosed in any of the rounds.
Brisbane robotics startup Emesent closed $25m: $10m venture debt from NRFC (its first deal), $15m SAFE note from Main Sequence and others. Fourth raise since 2018 CSIRO spinout. They map mines with drones, sell to Rio Tinto and BHP. Funding goes to product dev and manufacturing scale at Wacol facility.
Brisbane drone mapping company Emesent closed $15M in equity from Main Sequence, Orion Resource Partners, QIC, NGS and Hostplus, plus $10M venture debt from the National Reconstruction Fund. First institutional round since $32M Series A in 2022. Headcount at 109, adding 21 roles for Wacol manufacturing facility and Cortex AI development.
Sydney-founded AI data center builder Firmus locked a $43B Nvidia partnership for Indonesia compute infrastructure, but postponed its ASX listing from June to September after investor pushback on valuation. The deal spans 170,000 AI chips through 2028.
Adelaide VC Eastend Ventures secured $5 million from government-backed Funds SA, bringing total raised to $25 million for Fund 1. The firm targets early-stage B2B tech in SA, WA, and QLD, deliberately avoiding Sydney and Melbourne. Worth noting: this is SA's first registered ESVCLP, offering tax-free returns for investors.
Mako Aerospace closed a $28 million Series A led by Virescent Ventures. The Sydney-based drag reduction startup previously raised $700k in pre-seed (May 2022), meaning this round represents a 40x jump. Worth noting: Mako rebranded from MicroTau and has manufacturing partnerships in Australia, but headcount and sales team details remain undisclosed.
Melbourne-founded fintech closes $460M Series H at $16B valuation, doubling from $8B eight months ago. Revenue hit $1.3B ARR (up 74% YoY) as the company pushes AI-driven finance tools. Worth noting: AUSTRAC is still investigating AML/CTF compliance.
Chetan Puttagunta breaks down Benchmark's AI investment thesis and what changed in GTM. The firm's seeing legal AI startups hit $100M ARR in 18 months while taking longer to find product-market fit. Direct sales is back, PLG is not the default, and the moat moved from code to distribution.
DeepMind alumni Adam Liska and Devang Agrawal closed $20M Series A for Airspeed, their AI sales execution platform. DN Capital led the round. The company hit 200 customers across 20 countries two years post-launch, automating CRM updates, follow-ups, and risk flagging for GTM teams.
Former NASA deputy administrator and Space Shuttle commander Pam Melroy joins Gilmour Space's board. The Queensland rocket builder hit unicorn status in January after a $217M Series E led by government fund NRFC and Hostplus. Worth noting: this is governance hire, not go-to-market.