Startup · $16m raised
Australian National University
Canberra, ACT
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round ANU raised.
| Investor | Rounds | Invested |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Renewable Energy Agency | Grant · Grant · Grant | $16,000,000 |
Companies ANU acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Professor Luke Connal | Professor (former) | Forbes Australia, SmartCompany |
| Professor Lachlan Blackhall | Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation) | Startup Daily |
| Prof Brian Schmidt | Vice-Chancellor | Startup Daily |
| Paul Wigley | Physicist | SmartCompany |
| Miranda Forsyth | Professor | SmartCompany |
| Michael Cardew-Hall | Pro Vice-Chancellor of Innovation (former) | Startup Daily, Business News Australia |
| Kyle Hardman | Physicist | SmartCompany |
| Dr Jekaterina Viktorova | PhD Student | SmartCompany |
| Christian Freier | Physicist | SmartCompany |
| Anthea Roberts | Professor | SmartCompany |
Stories naming ANU. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Main Sequence sets out its investment thesis for physical AI, describing portfolio companies across robotics, vision, connectivity, compute and simulation, and recalling over $100 million invested since inception.
ARENA has announced $105.6 million in grants for twenty solar research projects, mostly at Australian universities, plus two companies, targeting cheaper cells, modules and solar farm operations.
Also Fintech News Australia·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy·Dealroom
A directory of fifteen Canberra investors backing deep tech, noting ACTivate Capital's fund first close, several government-backed company raises, an incubator's alumni, and one portfolio acquisition.
Syenta, an ANU spinout in Sydney, has secured $36 million in Series A funding to commercialise its chip packaging technology; Playground Global and the National Reconstruction Fund led, and Pat Gelsinger joins the board.
Rampersand's April newsletter: an essay on AI services startups, model releases from Anthropic and Meta, Firmus Technologies' $505 million raise, Dexibit's sale to accesso, plus portfolio jobs, events and market commentary.
Also Dealroom
The ACT Government has launched the ACTivate Capital venture fund, with an initial $23 million close and capacity for $50 million, to back Canberra startups and commercialise local research, led by fund manager Ken Kroeger.
Propeller Aero's chief executive Rory San Miguel has won the Pearcey Foundation's 2025 NSW entrepreneur award; the profile traces his path from UNSW clubs and Flirtey to the drone surveying company.
ANU spin-out Syenta has secured $8.8 million to commercialise its chip-packaging technology, with Investible leading; the piece recalls its 2022 seed round and selection for Applied Materials' ASTRA accelerator.
Also Forbes Australia·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
BetaShares has acquired investing podcast Equity Mates for a reported $8.5 million; founders Bryce Leske and Alec Renehan will keep running it, with past backing from Matt Leibowitz, Larry Diamond and Magellan.
ETF Shares, a Macquarie University incubator fintech with ETFS Capital backing, launches three US-focused ETFs for Australian investors via Cboe Australia, led by David Tuckwell (CIO) and Cliff Man (CEO).
Blackbird's note describes its new lead investment in Springboards, a Noosa, Queensland AI platform for advertising creatives, covering its product, early adopters, and founding team.
Also SmartCompany
Hostplus has tipped an additional A$125 million into the deep-tech fund IP Group runs, taking its overall backing to A$435 million across companies spun out of Australian universities.
Profile of Dragonfly Thinking after its win in Australia's first AI Sprint, covering its $300,000 support prize, accelerator experience and product plans, plus brief AI news including raises by TrueState and Andromeda Robotics.
Blackbird announces its investment in Atticus's $10.8 million raise and profiles the startup's founding team, product craft, and enterprise customers.
Atlassian's co-founder Scott Farquhar will vacate the co-CEO seat on August 31, staying on in governance and advisory roles, with Mike Cannon-Brookes set to lead alone from September.
Weekly agrifoodtech roundup reporting Konscious Foods' seed raise, commitments into Ocean 14 Capital's blue economy fund, LIVEKINDLY's acquisition of Alpha Foods, several grants, and a Wiliot advisor hire.
Also AgFunderNews
Weekly roundup detailing nine Australian startup funding rounds totalling $107.35 million, spanning pet e-commerce, quantum sensors, proptech, agtech, EV charging, sailing apparel, marketing tools, consumer goods and pregnancy wearables.
Also Startup Daily·Australian FinTech·SmartCompany·AgFunderNews
Quantum sensor startup Nomad Atomics, founded by three ANU physicists, has closed a Series A backed by Blackbird and Right Click Capital to commercialise miniaturised gravimeters for mining and navigation.
AfterWork Ventures investment principal Jessy Wu, previously at NAB's venture arm, has compiled a resource of interviews, articles and salary guides to help outsiders prepare for careers in venture capital.
A year-end roundup listing six recent startup raises, giving amounts, lead investors and co-investors for Tic:Toc, 5B, Syenta, Vively, Aerotruth and Potiki, plus each company's stated plans for the money.
CSIRO has revived its ON Accelerate program and named ten deep-tech startup teams, drawn from universities and its own research, joining the seventh cohort starting in early 2023.
Profile of Pearlii founder Kyle Turner, whose Melbourne AI dental-checkup app followed a 2019 Dream Ventures pitch, tracing his journey from Dubbo to Oxford and the company's pivot to dental products.
US software company NetApp is buying Canberra data platform Instaclustr in a deal reportedly exceeding $500 million, nine years after its founding, rewarding early backers including ANU Connect Ventures and Bailador.
Main Sequence recounts how personal relationships across CSIRO, Woolworths, ANU and prior ventures converged over years to found plastic-recycling startup Samsara Eco.