January, February, March 2020
Each link below leads to the original Australian startup news article for that headline, gathered from online Australian tech news coverage across the first quarter of 2020 – the months of January, February and March of 2020.
Our quarterly Australian startup news listings provide a one-page at-a-glance listing of the startup headlines for Australia as a quick reference on the country’s early-stage startup scene and, where applicable, as coverage of Australia’s startups making waves overseas.
Startup News Asia’s quarterly summaries can also be ordered online in hardcopy, printed, bound and delivered. Our hardcopy publications feature scan-able links to connect you from print to each headline’s online news article using the Startup News Asia mobile app, or any similar app you already have on your device.
Australia’s startup news:
January 2020 | February 2020 | March 2020
Australia: January 2020
- Australia: Victoria State Gov’t rolls out map of current and planned electric vehicle charging stations across the state
- Sydney Landing Pad Cohort 2 applications close January 24 for March intake, seeking int’l companies and startup wishing to explore the Australian market
- Australia: TAGZ crypto exchange grows user base to more than 480K active users, overtaking Binance and Coinbase as largest crypto exchange by trade volume
- Australia: A look at Sprintlaw, aiming for software to take care of the majority of everyday tasks handled by lawyers
- Australia: Dep’t of Industry, Innovation and Science believes blockchain is promising in agriculture and food manufacturing, providing transparency and authentication
- Australia: Reserve Bank believes it is unclear whether there will be strong demand for global stablecoins, particularly for domestic payments
- Australia: Fishburners Sydney Pitch Nights return February 7th
- Australian IT Journalism Awards 2020 applications close January 17th
- Australia: An intro to Groupee, real-time payments app allowing groups to share the cost of a purchase, via prepaid Visa card
- Australia: Adventure Junkies startup makes finals of Sustainable tourism category in UN World Tourism Organisation Global Tourism Startup Competition
- Australia: Arc Hardware Startup Weekend set for March 6-8 in Queensland, focused on developing physical products and prototypes
- Australia: Collider Accelerator applications now open for 4th batch of 12-week program
- Australia’s Girl Geek Academy launches in Samoa to teach more women and girls ‘life-changing’ coding skills
- Australia: A video intro to Seabin, floating waste removal device removing water-borne plastic pollution
- Australia: Antler early-stage VC and tech startup generator launches second Australia program in Sydney with intake of 81 founders
- Australia: Banxa digital banking infrastructure provider raises $2M Series A
- Australia: Women in Tech Australia Melbourne launch event set for February 6th
- Australia: QODE Innovation Festival set for March 24-25 in Brisbane, bringing together business, entrepreneurs, government, startups and more
- Australia: CrowdFilm startup partnered by Appetiser web and mobile app development firm for mobile multi-camera video capture
- Australia: Reverse Pitch Night with Sydney accelerators and incubators set for April 3rd in Sydney – find out the difference and which best fits your startup’s needs
- Australia: Raiz micro-investment startup preps to bring Bitcoin fund options to its user base of over 210K investors
- South Australia’s health department to remove all closed-circuit television cameras made by China’s Hikvision due to security concerns
- Australia: Fintech startups Afterpay, Raiz, Brighte and 86 400 on the issues and obstacles facing the country’s fintechs
- Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has suggested better accommodations for digital wallets, payment services and other stored-value facilities
- Australia: An intro to Elbaite, P2P exchange platform combining fiat escrow with blockchain verifications and support for multiple blockchains
- Australia: Liven dining rewards and digital payments app lands Apple Pay partnership with in-store invisible payment integration
- Australia: Mumbrella Automotive Marketing Summit Melbourne event set for March 17th, with key sessions from DiDi ANZ marketing and AWS digital innovation leads
- Australia: Melbourne’s first Sextech Hackathon set for February 14th
- Australia: Springboard Enterprises Tech Program applications close February 10th for female-led startups
- Australia: Startup Weekend NextGen set for March 13-15, hosted by Queensland University of Technology
- Australia: Dep’t of Foreign Affairs and Trade opens submissions for project proposals for Cyber Cooperation Program focusing on Indo-Pacific region
- Australia: Hitachi Collaborative Creation Hackathon for Digital Mobility set for February 8-9 in Sydney
- Australia: Envirotech Alliance formed by TechSydney advocacy body, startups and environmental businesses
- Australia: Loop+ medtech startup secures $3M with health tracker, allowing wheelchair users to take control of their wellbeing and monitor health risks
- Australia: “A new digital ID system will gather piles of personal information in one place – and you won’t have full control over who has access”
- Australia: A look at FLAIM Systems, using a VR training simulator to prepare firefighters
- Australia: Tetramed medicinal cannabis producer takes equity crowdfunding route in search of $1M funding
- Australia: AustCyber adds Tasmania to National Network of Cyber Security Innovation Nodes with Launceston launch
- Australia: A brief look at the debate around ‘screen scraping’ in fintech
- Japan: “…open banking would put Japan in the company of the UK and Australia, which are freeing up data access to spur competition and create innovative financial solutions”
Australia: February 2020
- Australia: Art and Emerging Technology Forum set for March 3rd in Melbourne, at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
- Connecting Australia-India Startups and Innovation Ecosystems event set for February 6th in Melbourne
- Australia: Commonwealth Bank hopes to get the edge on rivals by launching 25 new fintech businesses over the next 5 years
- Australia: QUT CEA Collider Accelerator applications are now open for early-stage creative tech businesses
- Australia: An intro to Immediation, aiming to make the legal industry easier to use, more cost-effective and more accessible, moving disputes from court to online
- Australia: Commonwealth Bank launches X15 Ventures incubator to create and nurture digital businesses to add to core business, partnering Microsoft and KPMG
- Australia: QUT Fashion360 Grow scale-up program applications close February 12th, aiming to lift existing fashion businesses into commercial, sustainable enterprises
- Australia: Perth Mint partners Security Matters for blockchain-based gold supply chain traceability project
- Australia: Openpay to launch Openpay for Business portal to enable companies to manage trade accounts end-to-end, with Woolworths partnership in place
- University of South Australia Innovation & Collaboration Centre opens applications for 2020 Venture Catalyst Space program
- Australia: FlashFomo, firm connecting social influencers to quality manufacturers, selected as one of 50 companies for Startup Grind 2020 Accelerate Program
- A look at the Australian and New Zealand publishers who have grown readership revenue through the Facebook Accelerator, part of the FB Journalism Project
- Australia: National strategy for Australia’s use of blockchain technologies to be launched today, focusing on opportunities to industries from finance to wine
- Australia: Swinburne University Blockchain Innovation Lab partners Asta Solutions software firm to develop blockchain-based supply chain management
- Australia: The National Blockchain Roadmap – Progressing towards a blockchain-empowered future (pdf)
- Australia: The National Blockchain Roadmap – a 2-pager outlining 12 key focus areas (pdf)
- Australia’s Cohort Go, edtech helping students with living arrangements abroad, partnered by international student-focused North Loop, a US challenger bank
- Australia’s Power Ledger P2P energy trading firm lands contract with Alperia SpA, one of Italy’s largest renewable electricity utilities, following innovation competition win
- Australia: NurtureCloud proptech startup gains $3M backing from country’s largest real estate agency
- Australian Urban Observatory launches, an online platform mapping health and liveability of cities for use by gov’t and industry
- Australia: Clipchamp in-browser video editing startup raises $9M, preps to open office in Seattle
- Australia: Prospection raises $10M to use predictive analytics and machine learning to speed treatments for prostate cancer and hepatitis C
- Standard Chartered JV’s with Australia’s Assembly Payments to offer payment solutions to the global ecommerce industry from Singapore base
- Australia: AirSeed Technologies in early stage talks with government, industry organisations around trials of tree-planting drones in bushfire-devastated areas
- Australia: SocietyOne peer-to-peer lender secures $15M, establishes a $100M funding warehouse facility with Nat’l Australia Bank, and preps for IPO
- Australia: Okra Solar wins local heat of Chivas Venture 2020, preps to represent the country at $1M Global Final
- Australia: Blockchain For Social Good event set for February 17th in Sydney, from Women in Blockchain and Blockchain Australia Young Professionals
- Australia: Resolve Disputes Online takes first prize at Legaltech Venture Day at UNSW Sydney
- Australia: Victorian Gov’t to bring together startups, universities, businesses and the investment community to form innovation taskforce
- Australia: Startmate accelerator launches women-only Startmate Fellowship program to run twice-yearly for 3 months in Sydney and Melbourne
- Australia: An intro to Perth’s Appollo, virtual queuing platform allowing users to dodge long queues to enter their favourite venues
- Australia: FifthDomain gains $1.19M from gov’t AustCyber program to address cybersecurity skills shortage with cybersec education and training programs
- Australia: An intro to Hireup, platform allowing people with disabilities to find, hire and manage their own support workers
- Australia: Dovetail raises $4M in seed funding with customer research and data-backed insights platform
- Australia: St George Bank Kick Start program offers up to $40K in grants to help a startup or small business launch or boost early-stage growth
- Australia: Woolworths trials AI-enabled scales using system from Tiliter startup that automatically recognises type of fruit or vegetable being weighed
- National Stock Exchange of Australia to partner iSignthis financial institution to develop DLT platform to compete with the ASX for digital securities trading
- Australia: “In the blockchain space, ICOs are a mechanism for funding the creation of technology platforms and development of blockchain businesses”
- Australia: 6clicks regulatory-tech firm partnered by Startupbootcamp to help SBC’s predominantly B2B portfolio scale faster
- Australia: An intro to 6 startups that presented at the recent Pause Fest Startup Pitch Competition in Melbourne
- Australia: ResApp gains $5M backing with smartphone apps for diagnosis and management of respiratory diseases, aiming for Europe-focused commercialisation
- Australia: Vibewire youth-led coworking community startup scholarships available for up to 5 young female entrepreneurs in Sydney
- Australia: GGWP Academy launches e-learning platform for gamers who want to build a career in content creation and esports, partnered by Logitech G
- Australia: An intro to NoahFace, time and attendance logging platform enabling organisations to accurately comply with Fair Work Act Award changes
- Australia: Melbourne Accelerator Program Info Night set for March 4th
- Australia: An intro to Cheq app, launched to provide an on-demand alternative to payday loans
- Australia: Perth Mint Gold Token, world’s first sovereign gold digital token, commences trading on KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange
- Australia: Digital Transformation Conference set for March 26th in Sydney
- Australia: Victoria gov’t is uploading driver license data to federal gov’t National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution; license-holders cannot opt out
- Australian Red Cross faces new bushfire-related challenge – hundreds of bot-generated submissions for bushfire relief grants
- Australia Clean Energy Accelerator Program preps for launch in April, focusing on efficiency, optimisation and emission challenges for industrial applications
- Hong Kong: 5 winners unveiled from the recent Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund/HSBC Jumpstarter 2020 pitch competition
- India’s T-Hub startup incubator partners Australia’s inQ Innovation to provide Indian growth-stage tech startups with market insights and entry opportunities
- Finalists for SXSW Pitch 2020 event include Australia’s AgUnity and Wriveted, South Korea’s Looxid Labs, and India’s NeelAgil
- A brief intro to 12 of Asia’s legal-tech startup founders and their businesses
Australia: March 2020
- Australia: An intro to Morsl, self-service food and drink market being installed in the offices of some of Australia’s biggest corporates
- Australia: The Block Ledger one of 5 winners of the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund/HSBC JUMPSTARTER 2020 Global Pitch Competition
- Australia: An intro to GoMicro, app identifying pests, leaf disease, mineral deficiencies and food quality levels using AI
- Australia: Seabin ocean-cleaning startup hits minimum equity crowdfunding target of $1M in just four days
- Australia: A brief video intro to FlashFomo, marketplace for Asia-focused social influencers and key opinion leaders to create and sell personalised products via flash sales
- Australia: Federal Police and forces in Queensland, Victoria and SA found to have dozens of accounts with facial recognition firm Clearview AI
- Australia: A brief intro to the 14 advisory committee members of the recently-established Digital Technology Taskforce
- Australia: The KPMG Pulse of Fintech H2 2019 biannual report now available
- Australia: Startup Weekend Sunshine Coast, Sustainable Development Goals edition, set for April 3-5
- Australia: Former SA senator Xenophon should sign on foreign influence register due to legal work for China’s Huawei, says Intelligence and Security Committee chair
- Australia: “The reason we don’t just use [open banking] instead of screen scraping is…largely because big financial incumbents have dragged their feet.”
- Australia: We Are Social and Hootsuite’s report on internet, social media, mobile and e-commerce usage in Australia in 2019
- Australia: Startup Gippsland info session set for Bairnsdale, April 2nd, introducing incubator program and the 6 local government areas involved
- Australia: Startup Weekend NextGen set for QUT Gardens Point campus in Brisbane, March 13-15
- A brief intro to the 4 Australian women on the Innovate Finance Global Top 200 Women in Fintech Powerlist
- Australia: A look at HackHunter, hard- and software startup using IoT to protect organisations from info theft by malicious Wi-Fi
- Australia: Zookal edtech platform gains Au$15M with services including textbook sales and rental
- Australia: ITS Asia Pacific Forum seeks 5 startups working in intelligent transport, mobility solutions or smart cities for free booths at Brisbane event in May
- Australia: The Studio’s combined open day, demo day and 2nd birthday celebration set for March 13th at Sydney Startup Hub
- Australia: Future Minds Accelerator applications open, a Rio Tinto, BlueChilli accelerator and AWS partnership to prepare students for a digital future by fast-tracking skills
- Australia: Cellr develops bottle lid to combat counterfeit wine, using NFC and RFID to let consumers confirm provenance, verify producers, and access promotions
- Australia: Hunter Innovation Festival set for May 6-22, centered around Newcastle, NSW
- Australia: National Electronic Warfare Centre to be established in partnership with Flinders University in $5M initiative to grow Electronic Warfare defence workforce
- Australia: CyberCX cybersecurity firm launches scholarship fund and unveils partnerships, aiming to boost female presence in cybersec
- Australia: Judith Neilson Institute Freelance Grant for Asian Journalism applications open to aid Australian freelance journalists to produce a significant work
- Australia: Another look at Cellr, connected ‘smart cap’ platform aiming to help wine producers protect bottles from counterfeiting using RFID and NFC
- Australia: Guardhouse closes Au$1M funding round with workforce management platform and app focused on HR in the security industry
- Australia: Boosting Female Founders Initiative Round 1 applications open to April 14th to help female startup founders launch and scale domestically and globally
- Australia: Suncorp Digital Incubator Program applications open until April 17th, seeking fintech and insurtech startups
- Australia: A look at recently-launched X15 Ventures startup incubator, created by Commonwealth Bank in partnership with KPMG and Microsoft
- Australia: Blinker launches electric vehicle subscription service aiming for try-before-you-buy intro to EV ownership
- Australia: A podcast interview with deep tech incubator Cicada Innovations CEO, Sally-Ann Williams
- Australia’s Xinja mobile-first neobank to gain $433M over 2 years from Dubai’s World Investments, with plans for home loans and personal loans market entry
- Australia: CogniVocal tech startup makes complete Pirate Island ‘voice game’ for Alexa smart speakers free, to help players stuck at home
- Australia: PetSure pet insurance administrator partners Vetchat for veterinary telehealth services with registered vets via text or video
- Australia: A brief intro to Coverhero, insure-tech startup providing freelancers and contractors with fast-response income insurance
- Singapore-Australia Digital Economy Agreement unveiled, focusing on international rules, interoperability between systems and frontier issues from emerging tech
