Corporate / CVC · 2 deals
Technology company operator of Firebase, referenced as comparison
Every published round Google took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted, and a place in one of its own programs is under Cohorts.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenSolar | Unnamed stage | Oct 2025 | $30m | Participant | Startup Daily, SmartCompany, RenewEconomy | |
| Kivera | Seed | 10 Aug 2023 | $5.1m | Participant | ARN (ARNnet) (14 Oct 2024), SmartCompany, Startup Daily, ARN (ARNnet) (10 Aug 2023) |
Everyone Google has named to a program in published coverage. A place in a program is not a raise: the cheque is the figure recorded with the place, which is the program's standard terms where we hold them, and a blank is one we don't.
| Member | Program | Announced | Cheque | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laronix | Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First | 11 Aug 2025 | - | @AuManufacturing (11 Aug 2025), @AuManufacturing (7 Aug 2025) |
| Laronix | Google for Startups Program | 2025 | - | Startup Daily, SmartCompany |
Companies Google has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
Fund closes reported for Google, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies Google has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Google did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio company of Google is recorded as having been acquired. | ||||
Companies Google acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Company | Kind | Announced | Price | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaggle | Acquisition | undated | - | Square Peg Capital (4 Oct 2024), Square Peg Capital (4 Oct 2024) |
Stories naming Google. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Analysis tracing Oliver Curtis from an insider trading prison term to his central role in Firmus's planned $7.2 billion Australian sharemarket listing, with Blackstone and Nvidia among its existing backers.
Canva is pushing productivity tools like Docs and Sheets to win enterprise subscribers from Microsoft and Google, while slowing its AI rollout to control costs and trimming its revenue growth forecast.
FoodNavigator interview with Bramble Intelligence's Chris Mitchell on how AI shopping agents will reshape brand loyalty, category fortunes, and what food makers must do to stay visible to algorithms and shoppers.
Australian adtech firm Veridooh adds ex-Interpublic chief executive David Bell to its advisory council; the write-up also covers his career and Veridooh's 2022 Series A raise.
Bower, an Australian startup, has closed a $2 million pre-seed round led by TEN13 with Admiralty Capital Group, Edale Capital and angel backers, funding ambient AI that captures laboratory work as structured research records.
AgFunderNews roundup of agrifood funding raises, executive appointments, shutdowns and partnerships, including Ranchbot's Series B, ClimateAi and Cultimate shutting down, and Novonesis seeking sole control of MicroBioGen.
Ten13 led Bower's A$2m pre-seed round for a voice-first AI assistant that helps scientists capture lab observations hands-free, founded by a four-person team with backgrounds at Microsoft, Google and Atlassian.
Also Startup Daily
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.
Unlockd cofounder Matt Berriman has ended his eight-year US antitrust fight against Google after the appeal failed, closing the chapter on the adtech firm that raised over $60 million before Google's 2018 ban.
Also SmartCompany
Matt Berriman has abandoned his eight-year legal action against Google after a US appeals court dismissed Unlockd's antitrust appeal, per an investor note obtained by the Financial Review.
Startmate unveils its incoming Winter '26 accelerator intake, profiling AI, aerospace, legal tech, construction and healthcare startups founded across Australian cities, with others based in San Francisco and Christchurch.
Queensland medtech Laronix has built AI that recreates patients' own voices from brief recordings; the profile recalls its 2023 seed round, earlier federal grants and a 2025 non-dilutive award.
Also Startup Daily
Square Peg reports 30% portfolio growth, US$1bn+ cumulative realisations, US$138m returned this half, closes two new funds, and outlines an AI disruption framework.
ANNA's Australian operation obtained its financial services licence and rolled out Apple Pay, Google Pay and Mastercard checkout alongside ASIC and ATO integrations, letting small firms manage payments and tax in one place.
Allens' Cyber Brief podcast hosts QuintessenceLabs founder and CEO Vikram Sharma discussing quantum computing threats to encryption, harvest-now-decrypt-later attacks, and the governance steps boards should take toward post-quantum readiness.
Ten13's post explains why it led Flyweel's pre-seed round with QIC, Antler and angel investors, backing a platform bringing real-time financial visibility and funding to advertising spend.
Analysis of Sierra's $950 million raise at a $15 billion valuation with Tiger Global and GV at the lead, weighing its revenue multiple, Fortune 50 customer lock-in, and competition from OpenAI and Anthropic's ventures.
Weekly roundup covering seven raises across the Tasman: Phonely's Series A, Pay.com.au's private placement, and rounds for Atomic Tessellator, Caruso, Deteqt, Clean Slate Clinic and Earthletica, worth roughly $72 million combined.
Also crane.vc
Markets newsletter reports Google's equity offering with a completed first tranche, SpaceX and Anthropic IPO filings, xAI's earlier merger into SpaceX, fast-food bankruptcies blamed on GLP-1 drugs, and a live tour wrap-up.
Analysis of Lightspeed Venture Partners' 2026 close of three funds totalling nine billion dollars, its backer base, AI allocation, portfolio outcomes and comparisons with other big venture firms.
DataMasque, whose platform masks customer data for AI use, has collected $5.6 million from Wavemaker Partners, OIF Ventures and Icehouse Ventures, with Wavemaker leading.
Profile of Palmer Luckey tracing his Oculus VR venture, its multibillion-dollar Facebook acquisition, his co-founding of defense tech firm Anduril Industries, and his gaming hardware venture ModRetro.
Sierra, the enterprise AI agent firm started by Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, has banked a $950 million Series E with Tiger Global and Google Ventures at the helm, plus Benchmark, Sequoia and Greenoaks.
Also TechCrunch Australia·aivy.com.au·cmswire.com·theaiworld.org·faq.com.tw·groundy.com
Turing Post interviews Hugging Face's co-founder and CEO on open-source AI, arguing open models empower a far larger builder community, discussing robotics hardware sales, cybersecurity arguments, and lobbying against open source in the US.
Canva's long-serving technology chief is leaving mid-year, his deputy taking a restructured technology leadership role, as the design platform expands its AI features and works toward a planned 2027 public listing.
Weekly roundup of three Series A raises: chipmaker Syenta (US$26m), insights platform Ideally and battery recycler Renewable Metals, detailing leads, amounts and each company's earlier funding.
Also Startup Daily
Research platform Ideally has secured a Series A round with Shearwater Capital leading, earmarked for US expansion, and unveiled a new product, Ideally Canvas.
Blackbird partner Rick Baker recalls backing Canva's founders in 2013 and argues its 2026 AI launch extends that founding purpose to a new frontier.
Canva has bought Sydney AI startup Simtheory and marketing automation firm Ortto, its fifth and sixth acquisitions in ten months, as it repositions from design tool to AI workplace platform; no prices disclosed.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·This Week in Australian Startups
Sydney AI receptionist startup Chime Labs has closed a pre-seed round led by 500 Global with angel backing, to broaden its product for trades businesses and grow headcount.
A retrospective on 2025 Australian venture activity: large raises at Firmus, Heidi Health, Airwallex and others, deep tech momentum, and Folklore's own backing of Hullbot and Sphere.
Also Square Peg Capital·Australian FinTech·Cut Through Venture·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy·Fintech News Australia
Design company Canva has bought US marketing AI startup Mango.AI and UK animation platform Cavalry, its fifth acquisition in two years, adding their founders and a chief algorithms officer to its team.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily
Advanced Navigation has hired Michelle Toscan to lead its Asia-Pacific operations, tasking her with defence and government engagement as the navigation systems maker supplies primes including Rheinmetall and Boeing.
Ten13 announces its pre-seed investment in Atrium, an AI assistant for managing professional relationships, with AirTree Ventures also taking part, and explains the market case and the founders' backgrounds.
Six Australian startups, including Bodd, Hachiko and Cor, collectively secured about $24 million in fresh backing, while seaweed peer Sea Forest floated on the ASX and jumped in early trade.
Weekly funding roundup covering raises by Bodd, Hachiko, Fremantle Seaweed, Cor, Detail Earth and Recovr, plus seaweed peer Sea Forest's ASX float at a $112 million market capitalisation.
Also Startup Daily
Rampersand's December newsletter leads with its $2m pre-seed investment in Cor, maker of the Obi AI avatar coach, plus trend retrospectives, tech news, portfolio updates, community events and a job ad.
Fishburners profiles ex-Google engineer Tomasz Mikolajewski, who quit after thirteen years to build Sydney AI startups: voice-controlled app builder Poppable and the recently launched bedtime-story app Lulululu, after his first app idea was rejected.
Roundup of six Australian and New Zealand funding rounds, headlined by Heidi Health and Octopus Deploy, also covering Nexl, OpenSolar, Lucent and PAM, with past acquisitions of Stella AI, MagicBrief and Codefresh noted.
OpenSolar, a Sydney-based solar software company, has raised US$20 million from Titanium Ventures, Google and 2150 Sustainability Fund to advance its AI tools and global reach.