Droneshield

🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #180, 4th October 2026

Weekly roundup reporting Australian startup funding rounds and government grants, a venture fund close, agreed acquisitions, an IPO pricing, a collapse, plus executive hires and AI policy developments.

🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #179, 26th September 2026

Weekly roundup recording a dozen raises and acquisitions, Firmus's scheduled float, a new $50m venture fund, a founder share sale, grant winners, an accelerator intake, and an AI agent's government breach.

Also Dynamic Business·AFR Technology·AFR Technology·DealStreetAsia·This Week in Australian Startups·iTnews·Dealroom·ABC News Technology

DroneShield announces official opening of Adelaide research and development facility

Counter-drone technology firm DroneShield has opened an Adelaide R&D hub, growing its national engineering footprint; South Australia's defence industries minister marked the occasion.

Former MYOB executive appointed DroneShield CFO as full-year committed revenue tops $250m

DroneShield names Rebecca Lowde, previously at MYOB and Afterpay, as finance chief, succeeding Carla Balanco, while revealing a $251 million full-year order book and an initial sale of its RfRecon detection device.

🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #176, 30th August 2026

Weekly roundup: Blackbird confirms a record fund close and Galileo reaches a first close, Genesis merges with Proudi, IREN secures massive debt, and several startups report raises, grants and program wins.

Topic | Managed funds | Australian Financial Review

An AFR managed-funds topic page: a star small-caps deputy goes solo with a new Sydney firm, Gigacomm buys rival DGtek, Google plans a multibillion-dollar domestic bond, plus fund manager and market stories.

Beaten Zone Venture Partners Backs Seitec in turning a passive, all-weather sensing modality into a new class of defence capability – detecting the threats conventional sensors cannot and reshaping the military and security landscape.

Beaten Zone Venture Partners announces Fund 1 joined Activate Capital and UNSW in a seed round for Seitec, a Canberra defence startup whose seismic sensors find unexploded ordnance and hidden drones.

Also Dealroom·Business News Australia·Defence Connect·Startup Daily

Rear Admiral (Ret'd) Lee Goddard announced as independent non-executive director of DroneShield

Counter-drone maker DroneShield has appointed retired Rear Admiral Lee Goddard as an independent non-executive director, citing his decades of defence leadership and board experience.

DroneShield announces first European-made counter-drone technology

Counter-drone firm DroneShield has begun European production of its systems, a milestone unveiled at a Paris defence showcase, as the company also maintains Australian manufacturing and a new Amsterdam regional hub.

🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #163, 31st May 2026

Weekly roundup tallies five completed raises totalling $26.6m, plus Airwallex releasing a billing product, HEO approaching a Series B, Tanda hunting a private-equity backer, Firmus's ASX listing timeline slipping, and a DroneShield shareholder protest.

🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #157, 19th April 2026

Fortnightly digest of local startup news: funding totalling $89.9m, acquisitions by SafetyCulture, Canva and CleanPeak Energy, CEO changes at Droneshield and Swyftx, and Zeller's move into the UK.

Oleg Vornik steps down as DroneShield CEO

DroneShield's long-serving chief executive Oleg Vornik is departing, with technology chief Angus Bean promoted to lead; chairman Peter James is retiring and Hamish McLennan arrives as incoming chair from May.

Anguses in tech leadership team reshuffle at DroneShield

DroneShield has promoted Angus Harris to chief technology officer, with Angus Bean becoming chief product officer, as the defence-tech company scales; it also flagged a new Adelaide R&D facility.

Our investment in Breaker: Physical AI that Supercharges Teams and Missions

Main Sequence's blog post announces it led robotics software startup Breaker's pre-seed round, citing the founders' defence and robotics backgrounds and plans to expand the team and US presence.

DroneShield achieves a spot on the ASX200

Counter-drone maker DroneShield will enter the S&P/ASX 200 index on 22 September. The piece also recalls its 2016 ASX listing, record first-half revenue, and a $13 million expansion of its Alexandria production site.

Also @AuManufacturing

DroneShield pitches subscription-based CUAS system at civilian market

DroneShield has rolled out a new software-subscription counter-drone product, SentryCiv, aimed at non-military sites such as airports, utilities and prisons, offering passive airspace monitoring with no upfront hardware cost.

Commonwealth awards $16.9 million in contracts for counter-drone tech

Lt Col Michael J Twining appointed to leadership role with counter-UAS developer DroneShield

DroneShield, a Sydney maker of counter-drone technology, has hired a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel to lead its sales to that service; the Dutch ambassador also recently visited the company.

DroneShield announces strategic expansion into Latin America

DroneShield plans to expand into Latin America and has appointed Carlos Gutierrez, previously at SES Satellites and Starlink, as regional director to lead the push.

DroneShield makes high-profile appointments of defence, government strategists

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.

How the moon motivates additive manufacturer SPEE3D

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.

Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

A news roundup covering a government-backed hydrogen project for Telstra, a climate tech fund's first close, new appointments at a South Australian agency and a feed company, plus export approvals and science prizes.

Also @AuManufacturing

DroneShield hits back at critics, raises $120 million

DroneShield has completed a roughly $120m underwritten share placement to fund R&D, AI products and acquisitions, after a $75m raise in April; its ASX-listed shares fell 16 percent on the news.

DroneShield triples capacity with new site

DroneShield has opened a larger Sydney headquarters, tripling its research and production space, supported by its recent $115 million capital raise, with plans to grow headcount and counter-drone output.

Eight grants to develop priority defence capabilities

Eight Australian defence businesses will share $3.47 million in federal grants to buy manufacturing equipment and build facilities; QPE Advanced Manufacturing and Hexion Australia receive $1 million each.

Also Defence Connect

Manufacturing news briefs — stories you might have missed

Roundup of manufacturing briefs: Latrobe Magnesium's share placement, DroneShield and Cyclopharm results, Graphene Manufacturing Group's US OTCQX listing, an Electro Optic Systems dispute settlement, HEO London recruitment, and a green steel partnership.

Defence manufacturers receive $3.4m in grants

Ten Australian defence manufacturers, including DroneShield and Advanced Navigation, have received federal matching grants totalling $3.4 million under two Defence capability programs, as announced by Minister Pat Conroy.

Ukraine war propels DroneShield to new records

DroneShield's 2023 results hit record revenue and a first profit as war-driven demand for its counter-drone equipment surged, with strong cash receipts, a growing order backlog and expanded production planned in Sydney and Adelaide.

Manufacturing news briefs — stories you might have missed

Briefs roundup: Main Sequence adds Alison Deans as venture partner; Starpharma hands the CEO role to Cheryl Maley; DroneShield lands a $2.2 million repeat order; Q-CTRL will deliver quantum training with QUIN.

Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

Roundup of Australian manufacturing items: DroneShield's Ukraine orders, CEO appointments at Bridgewest Perth Pharma and Sentinel Boats, SPC's community capital raise, LBT's underwritten raising, a university defence consortium, wine grants and new facilities.

DroneShield counter drone system integrated into energy weapon

DroneShield and Epirus have combined DroneShield's DroneSentry detection system with Epirus's Leonidas microwave weapon. The piece also recalls Epirus's earlier investment in DroneShield and recent DroneShield order wins.

Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

Roundup of Australian manufacturing items: NeuRizer secures $1.5 million against a tax rebate, Matrix wins a riser contract, DroneShield scales production, Anteris reports valve trial results, Carbonix gains certification, Port Kembla berths approved for upgrade.

Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

Manufacturing roundup covering Nufarm's half-year profit rise, a $6.5m federal grant for Australian Strategic Materials, SciDev's $9.5m contract win, DroneShield's final order payment, and new government industry strategy and technology list updates.

Manufacturing news briefs — stories you might have missed

Roundup of Australian manufacturing news: ARM Hub's anniversary, DroneShield orders, EMVision's milestone grant, SciDev results, a SEA Electric hire, ATSE's policy submission, and spaceport funding for Koonibba.

Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

Manufacturing roundup: Memphasys IVF birth and Japanese orders, FIAL chair change, DroneShield's DroneGun Mk4, Austeng's hydrogen burner grant, UNSW recycling hub launch, Symbio laboratory, apprentice award, and MathWorks joining Universal Robots' ecosystem.

Six Aussie startups that raised $114.5 million this week

Weekly roundup of six Australian startups that together raised $114.5 million, spanning payments, drone defence, carbon accounting, medical AI and health tech, across rounds from pre-seed to Series D.

Also SmartCompany·@AuManufacturing

Holiday defence industry news briefs – stories you might have missed

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.

Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

News roundup: EMVision receives a $2.5 million NSW medical devices grant, ADDE appoints a liquidator, DroneShield wins an order, SciDev and Q-CTRL name executives, and ReNu Energy signs a non-binding term sheet with HESTA.

Also @AuManufacturing

$10 million to build defence AI technologies

Canberra announces ten Defence Innovation Hub contracts worth $10 million for companies building artificial intelligence for defence, including Lumination, Droneshield and Real Response, each receiving an individual grant for a specific technology project.