Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
Richard White-backed Vinyl Group (ASX:VNL) closed Time Out Australia for nominal consideration, 24 hours after picking up Pedestrian.TV from Nine. Raised $2.4m at $0.054 per share to fund integration. Time Out Australia is profitable, expected to be earnings accretive in FY27.
Most 20-year-old software companies coast on installed base. Shopify just posted 34% growth, its fastest in four years, on $3.17B quarterly revenue. The model: payments and merchant solutions now drive 76% of revenue, subscriptions just 24%. Worth noting for B2B sales teams: success-based revenue is growing 2x faster than recurring.
Legacy B2B vendors face brutal margin pressure: complex AI features cost $0.30 to $1.00+ per API call, while customers access the same models via Claude Pro for $20/month. That gap explains why enterprise AI features often feel thin, and why AI-native startups are winning deals on economics alone.
Australian construction fintech Earlytrade secured $14.2 million in new funding, bringing total raised to $35.5 million. The company is expanding US operations and hiring into sales roles as revenue grows sevenfold since 2024 launch. Worth noting for construction fintech sales professionals: the sector is still attracting capital.
Anthropic landed 54% of enterprise logos through self-serve. OpenAI, Replit, and other AI leaders still run sales teams, but reps are processing inbound demand, not creating it. Meanwhile, companies outside AI budgets watch growth collapse regardless of sales team quality. The gap between winners and losers is now 500% versus 15%, and that spread gets set before sales picks up the phone.
Federal government is considering exempting startups from its proposed capital gains tax overhaul after weeks of industry backlash. The change would replace the 50% CGT discount with cost-based indexation from July 2027, materially increasing founders' tax bills on exit. Ministers are working through eligibility criteria, potentially using existing startup incentive frameworks.
The federal government has axed its Startup Year program after attracting just 8 participants from a target of 2,000 annual loans. The scheme offered HECS-style funding for university students in startup accelerators. $80,000 was drawn down before the May budget killed it.
New ICONIQ benchmark of 150+ B2B companies shows AI-adopting GTM orgs are running 20 to 30% fewer FTEs while producing roughly double the net new revenue per rep. Sales-sourced pipeline now makes up 62% of total pipeline, up from marketing's 19%. Comp plans are shifting: 33% of companies now tie AE pay to net new recurring revenue, up 8 points year on year.
Three foundation models graded 120 B2B APIs and agreed: marketing automation and sales engagement platforms have no place in agent workflows. When AI can craft and send personalised emails natively, the templating layer that defined these categories becomes redundant. Here is what that means for your stack.
Canberra ag-tech startup Goterra, backed by Mike Cannon-Brookes' Grok Ventures in an $8 million Series A, has appointed administrators. The insect-waste processing company says it has working tech and contracted customers but ran out of runway chasing growth capital. Teneo is pursuing a going-concern sale.
The Victorian government has axed its Startup Year program, which burned $15.4 million over four years to attract just eight participants. The scheme offered HECS-style loans for university students joining startup accelerators. It was meant to support 2,000 students annually.
Nine Entertainment offloaded youth publisher Pedestrian to Vinyl Group for nominal consideration after spending $49M over a decade. The deal signals continued media sector contraction, with implications for digital sales teams as legacy publishers shed non-core assets. No headcount or sales org details disclosed.