Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
Sydney's $42B design unicorn cut its 2026 growth forecast from 30% to 20%. The real story: customers are churning without switching to a competitor. AI agents are building creative workflows that never consider Canva at all. Worth noting for anyone selling product-led SaaS in the AI era.
New Zealand's venture-backed tech sector hit NZ$133 billion enterprise value across 400+ companies, including eight unicorns. The problem: founders relocate, investors are offshore, and the local market struggles to retain the economic upside it creates. For sales professionals, that means fewer local enterprise roles and comp that lags trans-Tasman benchmarks.
Commerce platforms tied to restaurants, logistics, and retail are growing 2-3x faster than seat-based SaaS. Shopify hit $3.6B revenue (+34% YoY), Toast added 9,500 locations in one quarter, Samsara crossed $2B ARR at +30%. AI is squeezing seat-licensed software, but transaction-based models in the physical world are holding up.
New York City's minimum pay rules for app-based delivery workers hit $22.13 per hour in 2026, up from $21.44 in 2025. Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, Instacart, and Shipt face direct unit economics pressure in NYC. The regulatory model offers a preview of gig-economy labor rules that could reshape platform pricing in ANZ markets.
Brisbane unicorn SafetyCulture is now Mitti, pushing AI-driven workplace operations and insurance alongside its core safety platform. The rebrand follows the 2023 buyout of QBE's 50% stake in their insurance JV. Worth noting: 26,000 businesses worldwide already use the platform, but the company has not disclosed sales headcount or go-to-market structure for the expanded product suite.
Five years after Intuit paid $12B for a business doing $1B ARR, Mailchimp is now shrinking. Intuit reports growth twice: once with Mailchimp, once without. The May earnings call confirmed year-over-year revenue decline and a 17% workforce reduction. Mailchimp went from 20% growth to a liability Intuit strips out of its numbers.
Sydney's Canva slashed its 2026 growth target from 30% to 20% after AI task costs ballooned. CEO Melanie Perkins said they were relying too heavily on frontier models like OpenAI. The company has since cut AI serving costs by 90% but it slowed product rollout and hit near-term growth.
Palantir posted revenue growth that breaks every mental model about B2B software at scale: 93% YoY to $1.9B, 157% NRR, Rule of 40 at 155%. U.S. commercial grew 149% YoY. The company raised full-year guidance by $500M mid-year. For sales teams, this is the new benchmark for what enterprise AI motion can deliver.
Sydney-founded Canva pulled 10.5 billion visits in 12 months, behind only ChatGPT (64.7 billion) and ahead of Gemini, Claude, and Grok. The traffic data reflects Canva's embedded AI features in design workflows, not pure chatbot usage. Context for sales teams: this is about where your buyers are spending time, not which AI agent closes deals.
Victorian Premier Ben Carroll is reportedly considering carve-outs for small businesses in the state's work-from-home legislation, which would give eligible employees the right to work remotely two days a week. Business groups have pushed back on compliance costs and liability exposure, particularly for the 1.3 million Victorians employed by SMEs.
The construction software incumbent spent $845 million cash on drone tech, more than double its own valuation multiple. Meanwhile, sales and marketing spend grew just 3% while revenue jumped 16%. First GAAP profit in company history, new CEO six months in.
Brussels hit Google with its first Digital Markets Act penalty: €890 million for favoring its own services in Search results and blocking app developers from steering users to cheaper payment options outside Play. The fine underscores EU enforcement on platform gatekeepers, relevant to ANZ app developers and digital advertisers navigating Google's ecosystem.