Company
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round Australian Army raised.
Companies Australian Army 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Mark Wotherspoon | Dentist (former) | Wholesale Investor |
| Fergus (Gus) McLachlan | Major General (former) | Defence Connect |
| Mick Ryan, AM | Major General (former) | Beaten Zone Venture Partners |
| Rick Burr | Chief of Army | @AuManufacturing |
Stories naming Australian Army. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Drone maker SYPAQ Systems has won regulator approval to self-authorise beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights across Australia; the piece also recalls its Corvo X system entering service under the Australian Army's DEF129 program.
Steve Baxter's Brisbane defence-tech venture firm Beaten Zone has wrapped its first fund at $26 million, with Baxter the largest backer at $6 million of his own money.
Arkeus' post points readers to Tectonic Defense's write-up of its A$25 million Series A, describing the hyperspectral sensing technology, its defence customers and platform partners, and coming production expansion in Queensland and America.
Retired Major General Andrew Bottrell has joined defence company Aurora Labs as a non-executive director, bringing senior military and acquisition experience; he also founded Rockpool Partners and holds an academic chair at Deakin University.
Kord Defence's RACU device, developed with the Australian Army, is used by Ukrainian forces. The company received past Defence Innovation Hub grants and signed an $11 million deal with US forces.
Arkeus has raised an oversubscribed AU$5 million round joined by Beaten Zone Ventures, Main Sequence and Salus Ventures to scale its autonomous optics and AI surveillance technology for defence.
Also Beaten Zone Venture Partners portfolio·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia
Weekly roundup: CEA Technologies lands a $272m radar contract, five startups receive federal grants, Victorian factory insolvencies climb, and GFG Alliance's Whyalla Steelworks hunts new financing.
DroneShield has appointed four seasoned national-security figures — van Haren, Osley, McLachlan and Lam-Evans — to strategy, advisory and government-relations roles as the counter-drone company scales.
Defence grants totalling over $60 million went to 21 Australian organisations, with quantum software firm Q-CTRL among the recipients of contracts under a federal emerging technologies program.
Podcast conversation marking ten years of cold-spray printer maker SPEE3D, its technology chief discussing the TitanSPEE3D printer for US defence needs, roughly 100 units shipped, and ambitions for off-world manufacturing.
AuManufacturing analysis weighing whether Defence's drone purchase shows procurement reform is working, tracing Sypaq's Corvo from 2018 concept work to selection alongside a German rival.
Australia's federal government announced plans to buy two military drone systems — Germany's Quantum-Systems Vector and Melbourne maker SYPAQ's CorvoX — for the Army and Air Force, with deliveries expected in 2025.
Defence-focused VC firm Beaten Zone Venture Partners adds two people: ex-Army general Mick Ryan as advisor, and Peta Ellis rejoining Steve Baxter's team alongside existing staff.
Sydney computer vision firm Visionary Machines won a Phase 2 Defence technology demonstration contract for its Pandion counter-drone sensor after pitching at Army Innovation Day 2023 via the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator.
A roundup of Australian defence industry items: submarine build plans reaffirmed, missile supply contracts for Kongsberg and Lockheed Martin, DroneShield purchase orders, an F-35 warehouse deal, and questions over a shipbuilding college closure.
Roundup of Australian manufacturing items: Manildra draws on CEFC money to quit coal, Ankere Therapeutics launches with seed backing, Micro-X gear reaches Ukraine, plus a vessel naming, precinct tenders, an FFI appointment and a cable rebrand.
Wholesale Investor profiles Dr Mark's HyGenie, an oral hygiene company that has raised $1.5 million in a Series A and received a $1 million Australian government commercialisation grant, and is now offering $5 million.