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When he began managing people, Simon Baume, the head of operations at health start-up Eucalyptus, recognised there were two likely outcomes when he gave his team feedback.
Undeterred by the valuation pressures on private technology companies, a bevy of the country’s superannuation funds have invested in a $40 million raise by education resources company Edrolo.
Queensland’s corporate training tech unicorn Go1 has defied the top-end tech market crunch, banking one of the biggest venture capital raises this year and doubling its valuation to more than $US2 billion ($2.8 billion).
Aconex co-founders Leigh Jasper and Rob Phillpot have joined forces with EVP and Jelix Ventures, supporting a fresh $5 million investment in outdoor advertising tracking software start-up Veridooh.
Fresho, an online platform that lets restaurants order produce directly from suppliers, has raised $14 million, locking in capital to fuel its international expansion before an anticipated drop-off in Australian technology start-up investment.
The round attracted new and existing investors such as Melbourne venture capital firm Capital Zed, Andrew Sypkes (who was an early-stage investor in Canva, Aconex and Redbubble), Second Quarter Ventures and Salta Capital, the venture arm of Melbourne’s Tarascio family.
Australia’s first secondary venture capital fund, SecondQuarter Ventures, is close to $100 million in commitments for its second fund, as more early investors and founders look to cash in some of their chips early.
Coinciding with the raise of the second fund, Young Rich Lister and A Cloud Guru (ACG) co-founder Sam Kroonenburg is joining the SecondQuarter team as a venture partner, after he sold his company to US firm Pluralsightfor $2 billion last year.
Fast growing Melbourne-based mobile restaurant ordering and payments start-up Mr Yum has used a chunk of its recently raised capital to make its first major acquisition, buying out fellow Melbourne tech firm MyGuestlist, in a deal it said would expedite its international growth ambitions.
The country’s top venture capital investors have rejected the idea that they will have to make widespread markdowns of the valuations of their investments, despite acknowledging a public market sell-off in the tech sector will inevitably flow through to private companies.
Fast-growing Sydney-based logistics tech start-up Shippit has banked a $65 million cheque from big name US and Australian investors, tripling its valuation in less than 18 months to $300 million.
Children’s pocket money app Spriggy has extended its latest funding round, raising an extra $10 million in capital to enable it to invest in more financial products for families, without having to focus on raising funds again for years.
