This Week in Australian Startups #174, 16th August 2026
Australian startups raised funds including Alloy Robotics, Farmbot and Atmo Biosciences. Firmus Technologies acquired Benmax while Tabcorp bought BetMakers. SafetyCulture rebranded to Mitti.
Investor · 3 deals
Private equity firm backing business owners for long-term returns
Sydney, NSW
Every published round Nightingale Partners 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.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fabulate | undisclosed | 9 Aug 2026 | $4.5m | Participant | SmartCompany, Startup Daily, Mumbrella, Centerstone Capital portfolio | |
| Aerologix | Series A | 20 Nov 2023 | $2m | Lead | @AuManufacturing, Forbes Australia | |
| Zhik | Unnamed stage | Jul 2023 | $2m | Lead | SmartCompany (2 May 2024), SmartCompany (7 Jul 2023) |
Companies Nightingale Partners has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
Fund closes reported for Nightingale Partners, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies Nightingale Partners has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Nightingale Partners did.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Lindsay Phillips | Chairman & Managing Director · Founder | @AuManufacturing, Startup Daily, Nightingale Partners team page |
Stories naming Nightingale Partners. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Australian startups raised funds including Alloy Robotics, Farmbot and Atmo Biosciences. Firmus Technologies acquired Benmax while Tabcorp bought BetMakers. SafetyCulture rebranded to Mitti.
Eight Australian and New Zealand startups secured a combined $67.4 million in funding across various sectors including agtech, medtech, robotics, and fintech.
Fabulate, an Australian creator-marketing platform, has completed an oversubscribed 4.5-million-dollar raise valuing it at 84.5 million dollars post-money, largely from returning shareholders, to fund Asia-Pacific growth.
Australian neurotech company Control Bionics launched a A$10 million capital raising, with a A$9.5 million placement and shareholder plan, backed by existing shareholders Nightingale Partners and Phoenix Development Fund.
Sydney drone startup Aerologix has secured A$2m from Nightingale Partners to expand internationally, buying Brazilian geospatial firm Mappa and rolling the software out worldwide as AerologixMaps.
Also @AuManufacturing
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
Sydney drone marketplace Aerologix has raised a $4.2 million seed round led by Ellerston Capital and Nightingale Partners, funding research, commercial hiring and plans to expand overseas.
Nightingale Partners announces its completed sale of Academic Assessment Services to Janison Education Group, receiving nine million dollars upfront plus an earn-out, roughly fifteen times its capital after backing the company from 2016.
Nightingale Partners' blog records its October 2020 investment, alongside Phoenix Development Fund, in PayOK, a payments-verification venture from CreditorWatch founder Colin Porter, with Lindsay Phillips joining PayOK's board.
Nightingale Partners and Phoenix Development Fund announce an initial investment in content marketing platform Fabulate, and outline its leadership team and a new director appointment.
Nightingale Partners announces a backing of LiveWire, the new automation venture of experienced founder Peter Walsh, with Francisco Dias Costas appointed to its board.
Nightingale Partners and Phoenix Development Fund have invested in Larki, a Melbourne and Sydney 3D site-data platform for architects founded by Simon Cookes and Daniel Moore; the amount is not disclosed.
Nightingale Partners revisits Control Bionics, which it backed in 2005 and still holds a stake in, marking the assistive-tech firm's December 2020 ASX debut and sharing a chief executive interview.
Phoenix Development Fund took a minority stake in Spectainer, a container technology company, in January 2020; Lindsay Phillips came onto its board, and the piece profiles founder Nicholas Press and the COLLAPSECON product.
Nightingale's post recalls its August 2018 investment in AccountAbility, an Australian-founded cloud ERP provider for advertising agencies, noting US expansion and a partnership with Freewheel Advertisers.