Black Nova Venture Capital

Pre-Seed funding in Australia dries up at the end of the year, here’s how to plan for it

Antler Australia urges founders planning a pre-seed raise to move early and close before the summer break, promoting its five-week Fast Track cheque and citing Refresh's later rounds as proof it works.

Also Startup Daily

🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #173, 9th August 2026

Weekly roundup: Firmus completes its $2.85b round; Procore acquires DroneDeploy; Atlassian rebounds while Canva cuts guidance; plus fresh raises for Zabidou, BioScout, Vexev, Enrola, Spacetalk and others.

Also Dealroom·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy

Four Aussie startups that raised $2.86 billion this week (sort of)

Roundup of four Australian raises: Firmus Technologies' US$2 billion round at a $15 billion valuation, Eudaemon's $3.75 million, Zabidou's $3.5 million seed round, and Rampart's $2.3 million.

Also This Week in Australian Startups

His self-driving car startup hit $300m before crashing. Now he's back for round two.

Deep tech founder Cibby Pulikkaseril has banked a $3.5m seed for Zabidou, whose lasers inspect factory output, with Black Nova, Main Sequence and Antler backing; his earlier LiDAR venture Baraja folded.

Also SmartCompany

Cheque-in: 10 ANZ startups raised nearly $193 million this week

Weekly roundup of ten Australian and New Zealand startup raises totalling nearly $194 million, topped by Neara's $90 million round at a $1.1 billion valuation, with Splose, Operata, HAMR Energy and Adora also covered.

Call centre monitoring startup Operata dials in $11 million Series A

Operata, which watches over call centre performance, has banked a Series A of $11 million at a valuation topping $100 million, with Tidal Ventures at the helm and funds earmarked for AI-era integrations.

Operata raises $11 million Series A as AI reshapes contact centres

A Melbourne software firm monitoring AI-driven customer service operations has closed a Series A round led by Tidal Ventures, valuing it at $100 million, with proceeds earmarked for platform integrations and international growth.

Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily

AI cybersecurity agent Nullify re-Seeds with $17.8 million

Australian-founded AI vulnerability platform Nullify, now San Francisco-based, has closed a second seed round led by SYN Ventures with returning backer Black Nova; SYN's Glenn Chisholm joins its board.

Also Startup Daily

Cheque-in: four ANZ startups raised $307.1 million in mid-January

Roundup of four ANZ raises: a Queensland rocket company's nine-figure Series E, a New Zealand legal-AI firm's Series B, a seed round for AI code-security, and a Melbourne construction-software raise.

Four ANZ startups that raised $307.1 million this week

Roundup of four ANZ raises totalling over $307m: Gilmour Space's Series E, Ivo's Series B, Dam Secure's seed round and SPEC Toolbox's pre-Series A, plus a board appointment at Dam Secure.

Construction tech startup builds $3 million pre-Series A after rebrand

Melbourne construction software firm SPEC Toolbox, once CLT Toolbox, has banked a fresh $3 million round with Black Nova and Investible co-leading, its third raise after earlier seed and bridge funding.

Also SmartCompany

Construction site safety proptech bags rival amid $4.5 million raise

1Breadcrumb has acquired Canberra rival SignOnSite and raised a $4.5 million SAFE note from Five V Capital, Tribe Global Ventures and a US family office, creating a merged construction-safety technology provider.

Also SmartCompany

Seven Aussie startups that raised $155.5 million this week

Weekly roundup covering seven Australian companies' fresh capital: EV charging, satellite IoT, sovereign cloud, wearables, workplace messaging, plus two crowdfunding raises on Birchal.

Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing

Destined for growth: Healthtech startup Kismet adds $20 million to close $32.5 million seed round

Kismet has raised a further $20 million to complete a two-part seed round totalling $32.5 million, with new backer MassMutual Ventures joining Prosus and Airtree; the healthtech startup plans international expansion.

Also SmartCompany

Antler Investor Memo Series: Factory AI is solving one of manufacturing’s biggest problems: unplanned downtime

Partner-content memo in Antler's investor series profiles pre-seed startup Factory AI, whose AI platform predicts manufacturing equipment failures; covers founders, Antler's backing, customers like Bega, and revenue targets.

Four Aussie startups that raised $29 million this week

Roundup of four Australian startups that each announced fresh capital this week: a caregiver healthcare app, a green ammonia producer, a clean energy project modelling platform, and a wellness advice marketplace.

Also SmartCompany

Eleven Aussie startups that raised $61.5 million this week

Weekly roundup of funding rounds at eleven Australian startups, including a $28 million Series B, a $14 million raise paired with an acquisition, and a neural-implant company appointing a new chief executive.

Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily

Three Aussie entrepreneurs to watch

Profiles three founders: Kismet's Mark Woodland ($4m pre-seed for disability-services software), Forage's Tom Brumskill and Pasha Rayan (job-simulation platform, Series A and B), and Diolog's Amy Benson (self-funded investor-communications startup planning a seed round).

Also Startup Daily

Antler-backed shares-for-shopping fintech Upstreet is winding down

Sydney app Upstreet, which gave shoppers fractional shares for their spending, is closing; the founders gave no reason, 18 months after a Wattle Hill-led seed round and a lifetime raise near $5 million.

Also Startup Daily

Black Nova believes ‘boring is better’ as it prepares a new $35 million fund

The venture firm is out raising a second vehicle targeting $35m for unglamorous business software, after its first vehicle gathered over $22m; it recalls backing Pathzero and GovConnex and supporting Arlula's earlier raise.

Also Startup News (WA)

Spacetech data startup takes off with $2.2 million Seed round

Sydney Earth-observation analytics firm Arlula has banked a $2.2 million seed injection, led by Main Sequence with backing from Black Nova, adding to earlier accelerator support, a pre-seed raise and a state government grant.

Seven startups that raised $77.2 million this week (kind of)

Weekly roundup of seven Australian and New Zealand startup raises, headlined by a previously unreported $32 million seed for banking software venture Constantinople, plus new rounds for six other companies.

Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Techboard·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·AgFunderNews·Startup News (WA)·Forbes Australia·AgFunderNews

Three Australian startups that have already raised millions this year

Early-2023 roundup of startup raises: a solar software company closed a Series B, an adventure-tech firm landed Series A money, and an angel investing platform raised seed capital.

Emissions startup Pathzero refills Series A, 14 months on, with another $8.6 million

Pathzero has topped up its Series A with $8.6 million led again by Carthona Capital, lifting that round to $15.6 million. The piece also recalls earlier raises and notes funding by Arvani and Greener.

Also SmartCompany

Nine Aussie startups that raised more than $104 million this week

Weekly roundup reporting nine Australian startups that together secured roughly $104 million across sports tech, semiconductors, regtech, legal automation, SaaS, edtech, agtech and biotech, with Vald's $36 million the largest.

Also Techboard

Edtech Saasguru wants to fix the cloud talent shortage at scale

Saasguru, an edtech platform for cloud skills training, raised a $4 million AUD seed round led by Square Peg Capital; founders previously sold SaaSfocus to Cognizant.

Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany

This female-founded startup wants to build better managers – and raised $6.8 million in Seed funding to do it

Manager-training platform The Mintable, founded by Lauren Humphrey and Melissa Miller, has raised a $6.8 million seed round led by Blackbird, after previously securing $1.3 million in pre-seed backing.

Also Startup Daily

Vyro raises $1 million Seed round to create a virtual EV dealership

Six-month-old EV sales startup Vyro has raised a million-dollar seed round led by Ellerston Capital and Antler Australia, with several angels, to launch a digital electric vehicle dealership.

Construction tech startup Varicon nails $2.25 million Seed round

Tasmanian construction cost-management software firm Varicon raised a $2.25 million seed round led by Black Nova with several industry angels, following a smaller raise a year earlier, to support national expansion.

Also Startup Daily

Sydney-based startup Upflowy raises $4M to optimize web experiences with its no-code solution

Upflowy, an Australian no-code platform for optimising signup flows, raised $4 million led by Counterpart Ventures with returning backers, and plans to grow headcount and expand into the US.

Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily

Athlete mental health startup championed by Grand Slam winning tennis coach Darren Cahill bags $2.5 million seed round

Also SmartCompany·Women's Agenda·Startup Daily

Startup Daily's most read stories of 2021

A year-in-review of Startup Daily's most-read 2021 stories, recalling major Australian tech exits including A Cloud Guru, Afterpay and Sweat, Canva's soaring valuation across three raises, Zero Co's crowdfunding record, and new VC funds.

Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Fintech News Australia·Business News Australia·Crunchbase News·LaunchVic

BNPL QuickaPay sells to legal payments venture RapidPay in Antler’s first exit

Payments startup QuickaPay has been bought by legal payments platform RapidPay, marking the first exit for accelerator Antler Australia, which provided the company's pre-seed funding in 2019.

Also Techboard·SmartCompany

Functionly secures US $2.7m (AU$3.6m) in seed round funding to disrupt the organisational design industry with simple software for leaders

Org-design software maker Functionly announced a AU$3.6m seed round with Black Nova Venture Capital leading and several funds plus angels taking part, bringing its overall funding to AU$5.9m alongside an earlier A$598k government grant.