Australia’s tech news: Q1 2025
March 2025 ● February 2025 ● January 2025
- Australian population (2023): 26 million
- Australia’s online population: 25.3 million / 97.6%
- Australia’s median age: 38.1 years
Australian Government: Australia in the World – 2025 snapshot
Australia’s tech News: March 2025
- Feasibility licenses have been awarded for 3.2GW offshore wind energy projects off the coasts of New South Wales and Victoria, set to power millions of homes / full item
- Esper secures Au$5M to identify and map critical minerals, and more, from space / full item
- Australia’s Fleet Space satellite exploration firm partners US’ hydrogen company, Koloma, to speed discovery and development of natural hydrogen, globally / full item
- Hackers claim to have published a trove of sensitive data belonging to IVF patients after a 940GB hack on Genea, one of Australia’s largest fertility providers / full item
- Tendl secures Au$2M pre-seed with AI-driven platform to streamline tendering process for government suppliers, making it easier to write, submit and complete tenders / full item
- Zeller rolls out ‘Zeller for Startups, aiming to address and simplify the unique financial management challenges faced by Australia’s tech startups / full item
- An intro to Mindflight7, using virtual reality to upgrade the way students learn / full item
- Cortical Labs unveils world-first commercial biological computer, combining lab-cultivated neurons from human stem cells with silicon / full item
- Australia’s Optera Solutions fabless semiconductor firm has been selected to join the Thales Space Business Catalyst Program in France, with ‘event-based’ optical sensors / full item
- A brief intro to 6 Australian startups that between them raised Au$56.7M in the week to March 7th, working in marketing tech, satellites, AI services and more / full item
- The [Australian Electoral Commission] will use Starlink services as a backup telecommunications platform as part of our contract with Telstra for fixed line internet services… / full item
- BetterX secures Au$2.3M pre-A with B2B platform enabling financial advisers to securely access, trade, and manage digital assets on behalf of their clients / full item
- Year 11 & 12 students – “International Relations – Australia and the Indo-Pacific” microcredential course is available from Perth USAsia Centre at UWA / full item
- Startup to Scaleup Summit 2025 is set for August 20th & 21st at The Sydney Startup Hub, a 2-day celebration of entrepreneurship, scaleups, and SMEs / full item
- FinTech Australia Finnies 2025 Awards Gals Night is set for June 26th / full item
- “The [Australian Electoral Commission] will use Starlink services as a backup telecommunications platform as part of our contract with Telstra for fixed line internet services…” / full item
- AUKUS security grouping looks to Japan for possible joint research on artificial intelligence-backed drones for use in surveillance, information collection and more / full item
- Singapore-Australian PHNXX raised $1.13M seed funding with containerised energy solutions providing modular, scalable energy systems for remote and rural industrial communities / full item
- Papua New Guinea: UN Office for Projects Services opens tender for solar and battery storage mini-grid in PNG, with application deadline set for March 24th / full item
Indo-Pacific 5×5: Daily geopolitics newsletters & downloads
Australian tech: February 2025
- Video: An intro to HullBot, using robotics to clean vessel hulls in Sydney Harbour, speeding water transport and removing the need for marine-toxic hull paint in the process / full item
- Brightwater Care Group launches Tech Innovate Challenge, a hackathon focused on tech solutions for reducing social isolation among older Australians / full item
- Asia Pacific: Proofpoint cybersecurity report finds 88% of Forbes Global 2000 firms have not implemented highest level of email authentication, leaving stakeholders at risk of fraud / full item
- Fleet Space and Koloma natural hydrogen company partner to identify hydrogen-forming geological formations using real-time 3D subsurface imaging from space / full item
- Dept of Home Affairs directs government entities to prevent installation of Kaspersky products and services, citing concerns over Russian government influence and possible control / full item
- Gilmour Space targets mid-March for maiden flight of Eris rocket, potentially to be the first Australia-built rocket to reach orbit, and the first orbital launch from Australia since 1971 / full item
- ATech cloud hosting and web dev firm opens new round of Boost Incubator Program, seeking 3 tech startups with high growth potential / full item
- 2025 Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index finds 32.5% of Australians currently own or have previously owned crypto / full item
- CDC data centers major commences construction a 150MW data campus outside Melbourne, projecting a $2.7BN local economy boost and creation of thousands of jobs / full item
- Goodman Group property and logistics major to raise Au$2.54 billion to fund data centre growth, with plans to issue 119.42 million shares / full item
- Extraterrestrial Power unveils mass-manufacturable solar cell it estimates to be ten times more affordable than current space-application solar cells / full item
- Commonwealth Bank venture-scaling arm, x15ventures, selects Gable, a US-based data change management platform, as winner of annual Xccelerate program / full item
- A quick intro to 7 Australian and New Zealand startups that between them raised Au$42.8M in the week to February 21st / full item
- An intro to the 11 scale-ups selected for the LaunchVic 30X30 program, working on solutions in healthcare, documentation, construction, data security and more / full item
- Gilmour Space Technologies preps for first orbital launch with final approvals received for its maiden test flight of a 3-stage rocket / full item
- Victoria state government confirms 400MW / 1800MWh Baranduda battery energy storage project, and 40 MW Brewster Wind Farm project, are in the planning fast lane / full item
- US, UK and Australia rolled out sanctions on zServers, a Russian ‘bulletproof’ crime-focused hosting service, and on individuals allegedly operating it, with Dutch police taking 127 servers offline / full item
- Allegro Energy lands government award of Au$1.85M to scale water-based redox flow battery energy storage solutions, using no scarce materials and recyclable components / full item
- Melbourne Airport is to house one of the world’s largest vertical farms, with Stacked Farm preparing a Au$150M facility for the airport, and adding to Gold Coast footprint / full item
- Government imposes additional sanctions on Russian individuals and organizations involved in 2022 cyberattack against Medibank Private / full item
- Rise of cryptocurrency loans in Australia spark concerns about financial ‘contagion’ / full item
- TPG, owner of Vodafone and iiNet, bans workers from using DeepSeek, going as far as to recommend staff not use the application at home / full item
- The State of Australian Startup Funding 2024 Report is now available – hit the link: / full item
- More than half of Australian VCs said a startup they invested in failed in 2024′ / full item
- The Australian Space Summit & Exhibition 2025 is set for 27 & 28 May in Sydney, with nominations now open for the Australian Space Awards / full item
- Beaten Zone Venture Partners, a specialist defence-tech VC firm, has secured over $10M in commitments, with sights on $60M close inside 18 months / full item
- An intro to 10 of the highest funding rounds for female-led startups in Australia in 2024 / full item
- ICYMI: Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot app is soon to be available for Android users, with pre-registration for testing available in Australia, Canada, India, The Philippines, and Saudi Arabia / full item
- The Australian Electoral Commission has relaunched its ‘Stop and Consider’ campaign, aiming to educate around the risks of misinformation and AI-driven manipulation / full item
- Cell Bauhaus gains Gates Foundation grant of Au$3M to further develop ‘digital twins’ tech to to investigate how genetic changes alter cellular behavior / full item
- 5 Australian startups secured $3.6M collectively from NASA’s ‘Moon to Mars’ supply chain capability grants program / full item
- NSW EdTech Summit is set for 11-12 June in Sydney / full item
- Westpac invests Au$10Min Lawpath to offer customers affordable legal services / full item
- DeepSeek is to be banned from all federal government devices over concerns around national security / full item
- Victoria state startup agency, LaunchVic, is offering grants up to Au$300K to VC funds and angel groups to set up in Victoria and back local startups / full item
- MyGigsters fintech raises Au$1.1M with focus on helping gig economy workers track income and spending to provide hyper-personalised, actionable insights / full item
- India-Australia Space collaboration is set to grow with the PRISM 2 initiative, building on a range of similar space-focused partnerships / full item
USSC: Polishing the Diamond – Opportunities for the Quad
Australian tech news: January 2025
- HarrisonAI gains Au$32M equity investment from Nat’l Reconstruction Fund Corp with AI-based radiology and pathology diagnostics, reading X-rays and CT scans / full item
- 97MW Hawkesdale Wind Farm, backed by Amazon, enters commercial operation in Victoria, expecting to generate power equivalent to that needed by 67,000 homes annually / full item
- An intro to Rainstick, agri-tech startup blending Indigenous practices with cutting-edge electrokinetic tech similar to lightning to boost crop growth / full item
- Spoony raised Au$1M pre-seed funding with social app to help neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled individuals, building on graduation from Antler programme / full item
- Critical Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Centre gains $6.4M in government funding for establishment of new Health Cyber Sharing Network / full item
- An intro to Earth AI following $20M Series B funding, using geophysical survey data, remote sensing and satellite data, and more, to identify critical mineral deposits / full item
- Powerhouse has installed a 60 kVA off-grid solar array in the Pilbara region to power a remote EV charger, part of a 7000km network / full item
- Convergence Medical secures Au$5M Series A with world-first arthroscopic surgical robot, V01, designed to enhance operative precision and dexterity / full item
- CSIRO opens applications for latest ‘Innovate to Grow’ program, focusing on SMEs working on recycling and circular economy solutions / full item
- Here’s a quick intro to 5 First Nations startups working in winemaking, business services, sunscreen and more / full item
- KPMG Nature Positive Challenge selects Levur for top honours with Levur’s focus on replacing unsustainable plant and animal oils with sustainable alternatives / full item
- Geopolitics And Business Sprint with the University of Sydney is set for March 20th to April 3rd – strategies and tools for navigating geopolitical risk, international politics and the global economy / full item
- ICYMI: FundComb’s listing of venture capital Funds headquartered in Australia / full item
- Fire experts around Australia outline some of the latest technologies being trialled or already deployed in the ongoing battle against bushfires / full item
- The Australian Open (AO) has rolled out facial recognition technology for all visitors under a new addition to its conditions of entry’ / full item
- Royal Automobile Club of Victoria adds ‘virtual power plant’ services to membership offerings, a network of solar batteries connected to operate as a single energy source / full item
- Utility-scale ‘big battery’ deployment surges past solar and wind but remains far short of requirements / full item
- Electralith raises $27.5M Series A to further develop sustainable, environmentally-friendly lithium extraction technology / full item
- CES is one of the biggest technology shows in the world, showcasing startups from across the globe. But Australia didn’t have a big presence and that’s a problem. / full item
- Quantum Brilliance, Australian-German firm, raised $20M Series A for portable quantum accelerators, aiming to boost computational power across data centres, robots, satellites and more / full item
- An introduction to 5 of Australia’s high-performance space firms, and the people behind them / full item
- National Broadband Network project gains an additional Au$3BN, aiming to make the network all-fiber by the end of the decade / full item
- Telstra becomes the latest telco to make a major AI play with a global JV with Accenture, committing Au$100M annually over 7 years / full item
- Australian Space Summit & Exhibition 2025 – Aus Space 25 – is set for May 27-28 in Sydney / full item
- VAWT-X Energy preps for trials of vertical wind turbine, claiming greater efficiency and lower maintenance than traditional turbines / full item
- AO Ventures, Tennis Australia’s sports-focused VC fund, makes first close at $49M, looking to back around 20 startups / full item
- A very brief snapshot of the country’s role in SpaceX Starship launches and recoveries / full item
- Kongsberg-Starsite partnership preps to build a 20-meter antenna in Western Australia, delivering a critical component in Moon mission support / full item
- Telstra partners SpaceX’s Starlink for sat-to-mobile text messaging, particularly for connectivity in remote and regional areas / full item
- Australian Flow Batteries have demonstrated its diesel replacement system, a mobile, rapidly deployable hybrid power solution featuring a 123m retractable solar array / full item
- HEX edtech startup partners Toyota Community Trust for ‘Highway to STEM’, offering free career training to 1000 female and non-binary students across Australia / full item
- INTIX is selected for the Australian Open’s AO StartUps program with its all-in-one sports ticketing management and solutions platform / full item
- …beyond the capabilities of Google Earth, the Soar platform draws on spatial data from… climatic patterns, historical photos and more – and puts it all in one free, open-access and searchable place / full item
- A look at Kapture, collecting carbon emissions from exhaust fumes and embedding them in concrete, a sustainability win for the emissions-heavy cement industry / full item
- WearOptimo raises Au$8M with sensor-driven wearable health-tech to monitor hydration levels / full item
- New Zealand’s Road Ninja looks to launch driver employment platform and app into the Australian market, connecting pre-vetted, ready-to-work skilled drivers with businesses / full item
- Singapore: Government reportedly is looking into minimum-age laws for social media use, and is in talks with counterparts in Australia / full item
- Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan to trial an Australia plantation of non-edible oilseed to assess potential as feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel / full item
- PepsiCo opens applications for 3rd edition of AsiaPac-focused Greenhouse Accelerator Program / full item
Blue Security: Subsea cables and Maritime Security in Southeast Asia
