Australia's largest startup co-working hub appointed KPMG administrators this week after failing to resolve rental debt at the government-backed Sydney Startup Hub. The not-for-profit supported 35,000 entrepreneurs and 621 startups over its 15-year run. KPMG will pursue a sale while keeping operations live.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will raise the R&D tax incentive cap from $150m to $250m in next week's budget. But startup founders say proposed CGT changes could cancel out the benefit, particularly for equity-heavy comp structures and founder exits.
Gabby and Hezi Leibovich acquired Click Frenzy's digital assets weeks after the flash sales platform collapsed into liquidation. The Catch co-founders say the sales event model still works, with adjustments. No word yet on team size or hiring plans.
AI code editor Cursor scaled from $4M to $2B ARR faster than any B2B company in history, using pure product-led growth. No SDRs, no AEs, no outbound until late 2025. Enterprise went from 25% to 60% of revenue without traditional sales motions. Here is how they did it.
Brendan Humphreys, employee 13 at Canva, is stepping down as CTO after 12 years. The company is not replacing the CTO role directly. Instead, Simon Newton (ex-Google, ex-Uber) becomes head of technology. This comes as Canva pushes towards IPO with $3 billion ARR and 95% Fortune 500 penetration.
Jack Zhang launches Latitude 37, annual program giving 10 Australian AI founders $100k equity-free plus access to Airwallex's global network. Program includes immersion tours in San Francisco and Singapore. Zhang wants founders to keep early-stage equity instead of selling cheap to overseas investors.
Canberra's Liquid Instruments secured $70M Series C, bringing manufacturing back to Australia. The round included $28M from the National Reconstruction Fund and was co-led by US firm Keysight Technologies. Marloo, Aigentsphere, and Manifest raised the remaining $20M combined.
VentureCrowd Pty Ltd is in administration with creditors chasing $7.3 million. The equity crowdfunding platform's operating subsidiaries continue trading, but the parent company that raised $3.9 million in 2022 now faces liquidation. Worth noting: this follows a $2.4 million court judgment last year.
Q1 2026 funding rebounded hard, but 60% went to just 10 deals. Early-stage and late-stage rounds are getting done. Mid-stage startups ($1-10M revenue) are stuck in the gap, which means fewer expansion hires and territory builds.
Andreessen Horowitz carved out $1.7 billion from its $15 billion raise specifically for AI infrastructure investments. General Partner Jennifer Li is leading the bet, with portfolio companies including ElevenLabs (valued at $11 billion), OpenAI, and Cursor. The firm is rebuilding the entire tech stack: storage, compute, orchestration, and memory built for AI workloads, not cloud legacy.
Thoma Bravo's $6.4B Medallia acquisition just became a total loss. Lenders including Blackstone, KKR, and Apollo took control after the company could not service $3B in debt against $200M earnings. This is the second major PE-backed SaaS equity wipeout in 18 months, and the list of similar deals at risk is long.
Enterprise software grabbed 52% of all VC funding in 2025, up from 29% average over the prior decade. Total enterprise software VC hit $263B, a 64% jump year-on-year. The top 20 deals claimed 41% of all funding, with 14 rounds over $1B, including OpenAI's $110B round.