January, February & March 2021
Australia’s startup news
Our Q1 2021 startup news summary gathers Australian tech news headlines from across January, February and March 2021.
Australia’s first quarter 2021 tech news headlines highlighted items including the use of blockchain and cryptocurrency in travel bookings, Fintech Australia’s Finnies awards, online mentoring for agritech entrepreneurs and many more.
Headlines are bullet-pointed and linked, providing both an at-a-glance overview of Australia’s startup news in Q1 2021 and instant access to each Australian startup news article behind the headline.
January 2021 | February 2021 | March 2021
Australia’s tech news: March 2021
- A round-up of some of the country’s tech, startup and funding news headlines from the month past, February 2021
- “Collapse of crypto platform a cautionary tale” – ACX banned for life by peak industry body, while AUSTRAC has revoked platform’s digital currency license
- Australia’s Giant Leap Fund launches first run at open source database of the world’s impact venture capital funds
- Northern Territory Gov’t trials custom-made medical drones for delivery of potentially life-saving medicines, with a flying range of 250km
- PropTech Awards 2021 applications close March 19th
- An overview of Australia’s seaweed-farming startups, and the recent growth they’ve experienced
- Sea Forest gains $1M federal gov’t commercialisation grant to fast-track seaweed additive for livestock feed, drastically reducing methane emissions
- “Small, independent and niche publishers do not have the means or the avenues to negotiate with Facebook or Google in the same way as…the bigger media players…”
- Sonnant gains early-stage backing from Southern Cross Austereo broadcaster with AI-driven content discovery for the spoken word
- Antler Australia to open Melbourne office mid-2021, moving forward from a year of online programs to larger physical presence
- Dep’t of Defence to host Gameathon, aiming to generate ideas around use of AI in wargaming – applications open March 15th
- Australian Competition & Consumer Commission seeks public feedback on choice and competition in internet search and web browsers, in part looking at pre-installations
- PayPal to launch its interest-free ‘Pay in 4’ service in Australia in June, stepping into the country’s ‘buy now, pay later’ market
- Litt social media platform secures $1.5M via equity crowdfunding on Birchal platform, breaking records with speed of funding
- GGWP esports education and creator marketplace raises over $350K in initial funding, focusing on gaming influencers
- Au$6.9M allocated to Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources to explore feasibility of blockchain use, specifically in regulation
- Adelaide to gain from launch of 42, French firm delivering college-level, non-profit, free programming school with peer-to-peer learning
- $10M Alice Anderson Fund launched by LaunchVic, a ‘sidecar’ fund co-investing in women-led early-stage startups set to operate over 3 years
- NewsFarm launches, with sights on establishing mastheads in 100+ regional news ‘deserts’, create over 450 jobs, and publish 5K local stories weekly
- Vietnam-Australia partnerships gain boost via Innovation Partnership Grants, helping scale tested activities in any sector of Vietnam’s innovation ecosystem
- 2021 AWS Summit Online Australia & New Zealand set for May 18-19, providing the cloud community with educational sessions, hands-on labs and more
- Startup Adelaide relaunches, outlining 12-month strategic plan to help the city’s innovators with advice, resources and connections for growth
- Investible seed-stage investment firm to raise 2nd early-stage fund, targeting Au$50M and looking at startups across SE Asia as well as in Australia
- SecondQuarter Ventures closes $51M for the country’s first ‘secondary fund’
- Startup Onramp Regional NSW Program applications close April 9th, a program supported by NSW Gov’t and Sydney Startup Hub
- TechReady Women’s Female Founder Program 2021 applications close April 5th
- Linktree raises $45M Series B, aiming to add tools to make social commerce easier for users
- A look at Soil Carbon Co, specialising in microbe-mediated carbon sequestration, removing carbon from the atmosphere via microbial fungi and bacteria
- SwingVision lands 2-year agreement with Tennis Australia around video analysis app that uses a smartphone camera to track ball and player movement
- “In Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Cook Islands and elsewhere, Facebook is…most frequently used social media platform and…the first port of call for news.”
- Australia’s OneQode launches world-first gaming hub on island of Guam, aiming to connect hundreds of millions of gamers across Asia-Pacific
- Victorian government invests additional $1.8M into Startmate, in part delivering a local accelerator program for 30 Victorian startups across 3 years
- Australia’s Webjet airline takes 51% rights stake in LockTrip blockchain startup, in part allowing customers to pay for bookings using the LOC token
- Afterpay BNPL firm launches virtual payments card for in-store use, created in-app, stored in a smartphone digital wallet and accessible via Apple Watch
- An intro to the nine tech startups selected for the Venture Catalyst Space program
- ICYMI: Australia’s Splend ride-hailing rental startup to transition half of 1500-strong Australian car fleet to electric by end of 2022
Australian tech news: February 2021
- Australia: uSpark Destination Start-up Partner Program opens, seeking proposals for great products that need help with technology – applications close February 28th
- Australia: StartMate Autumn21 Fellowship applications now open for women-focused 9-week program, set to run from March 29th
- ICYMI: Google launches News Showcase platform featuring paid-for content from 7 domestic news outlets in bid to show proposed legislation enforcing payments is unnecessary
- Australia: $26.5M Cyber Security Skills Partnership Innovation Fund to provide industry and education with funding to improve quality or availability of cyber security professionals
- Australia: Barayamal Accelerator Demo Day set for March 19th, showcasing Indigenous entrepreneurs and their businesses
- Australia: FourthRev edtech startup closes Au$4.16M seed round to connect universities with industry to design pathways to employment
- Australia: An intro to PainChek, health-tech startup developing an app to help people with dementia assess and score their pain levels
- Australia: HyperOne to deploy $1.5BN, 20,000km backbone across Australia, a private country-wide fibre backbone with interconnection points for subsea cables
- Australia’s Swysh expands to New Zealand, allowing fans to purchase personalised video messages from favourite athletes whilst supporting local children’s charities
- Australia: AustCyber to merge with Stone and Chalk in bid to boost Australia’s domestic industrial capability in critical and emerging technologies
- Australia: An intro to Academic Entrepreneur, aiming to help academics translate their skills into work in the private sector, at another university, or into self-employment
- Australia: Fintech Australia’s Finnies Awards now open for applications across 20 categories
- Australia’s AgriWebb continues growth, closing £17M investment to digitise global livestock farming
- Australia: An intro to TradeSquare, B2B marketplace providing SMEs with a platform to source products from Australian distributors at wholesale prices
- Australia: Boab AI scale-up accelerator launches, with first cohort and $1.5M in investments announced from Artesian-backed $100M Boab Global AI Fund
- Australia: Applications for the NSW Gov’t Global Ag-Tech Ecosystem program close February 28th
- Australia: “Facebook blocking news in the middle of a pandemic…tells you all you need know about how much Zuckerberg cares about Australian society…”
- Webinar: TikTok & WeChat, where to now? From the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, set for February 24th
- Australia’s Selz, startup that helps small businesses sell products online, acquired by Amazon with system managing orders, payments processing and customer relations
- Australia: Recently-announced Boab AI program to grow 32 AI-focused companies over 4 years, each receiving $300K in funding and up to $5M follow-on funding
- Australia: Country’s first waste-to-hydrogen plant awarded Au$200K by Queensland Gov’t to convert waste from landfill for domestic use and in fuel cells
- “…it may leave Facebook operating much more like…WeChat, where news is ruled by platform-specific content houses cranking out huge volumes of low-quality articles”
- Australia: Startup Adelaide relaunch event set for March 16th at The Innovation Factory
- Australia’s GreaseBoss selected for Y Combinator program with lubrication management system preventing equipment failure and reducing maintenance costs
- ICYMI: Google launches Asia Pacific-focused Startup School initiative, offering a series of free, hands-on virtual courses for startup founders and their teams
- Seamless Australia 2021 online event set for May 4-5 – more than 80 banking, payments and e-commerce figures in panel debates, presentations and unconference sessions
- Australia: A round-up of the past month’s tech, startup and funding news headlines, each linked to their online articles
Australia’s tech news: January 2021
- Pause Fest set for March 1-12, festival combining leading talents in real world business innovation with creative, authentic programming
- A brief 2-page snapshot of the country’s recent tech, startup and funding headlines, linked to the online articles behind each headine and QR coded for reading from print
- Vow gains US$6M seed funding with cell-based cultured meats including kangaroo, chicken and pork substitutes
- China’s Huawei shifts focus from 5G market exclusion to calls on government to discuss 6G
- Supplier of one of Northern Territory Government’s cloud-based IT systems hit by ransomware attack, forcing the system offline for 3 weeks
- Download: Australia’s International Cyber Engagement Strategy, covering digital trade, cybercrime, human rights, democracy and more
- Australia’s Pause Fest 2021 unveils program tracks and speakers lined up for March 1-12
- Australia’s SensaWeb selected as one of 10 startups for the Aerospace Technology Institute & Boeing Accelerator programme with radiation and x-ray monitoring and regulation
- Digital Harvest training program applications close January 28th, aiming to help farmers and producers develop and boost e-commerce skills
- ICYMI: Google trialled removal of Australian media including the ABC, Nine, Guardian and others from search results, in test move responding to possible legislation
- Flinders University scientists develop alternative proteins from marine microalgae, producing products like caviar, patties, plant-based meats and more
- Agriwebb secures $30M with cloud-based SaaS livestock management platform, already managing 14M animals worldwide
- Available to download: Australian Payments Network’s Australian Payment Fraud 2020 report (pdf)
- UNIHACK 2021 set for March 5-7, running online – Australia’s largest student hackathon
- LuminaX health-tech accelerator launches 14-week program for 10 startups
- Nominations open for AusFAC, Australian arm of international Future Agro Challenge competition, seeking agriculture technology innovators for pitch event
- Applications for Remarkable Accelerator close January 28th for early-stage tech-focused startups making an impact on life for people with disability
- Cicada Growlab and evokeAG partner for Grassroots Series, online mentoring program focused on Australia’s future agrifood tech entrepreneurs
- Google may remove search engine, Facebook may remove news from its feed if proposed legislation forces payments to news media companies
- Purchase of Digicel mobile phone networks across Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa may be financed by Australia in response to possible China Mobile bid
- A video look at artist Refik Anadol’s ‘Quantum Memories’, created using machine-learning algorithms drawing on over 200M nature-related internet images
- Bodd Technology gains Bosch partnership with 3D scanners and mannequin printers focused on custom clothing manufacturers
- Australian Securities and Investment Commission server compromised due to use of same software that recently exposed NZ’s central bank
- A brief overview of the recently-completed Victoria India Smart Energy Exchange and the tech startups that took part
- NSW Cyber Security Standards Harmonisation Taskforce releases report and recommendations, urging Australia-wide adoption of global standards
- 86 400 neobank to be acquired by National Australia Bank
- Linga Network rolls out remote electric vehicle charging stations as part of program aiming for 100 free EV chargers across NSW serving regional locations
- Startup India International Summit’s Australia Startup Ecosystem Outreach online event set for January 13th, aiming to develop connections and explore synergies
- Australia’s Vygo education-tech startup opens Sri Lanka offices, aiming to gain from the country’s software engineering talent pool
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