Ledger. Australian venture funding, tracked

Company

SpaceX

Aerospace company operating the Starlink satellite constellation and orbital launch services.

Hawthorne, OS

Coverage

Stories naming SpaceX. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.

2 deals

He's quietly invested in Australia's biggest space tech startups. Now he's moving to launch a $150m fund

Profiles space investor Will Scully-Power, whose Pine Gap firm backs Australian space startups and plans a larger US fund with partners; defence VC Beaten Zone has also wrapped up a $26 million fund.

Funding announcement

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.

Pre-seed

Investment Notes: Outlier Space

Investible's note explains its pre-seed backing of satellite startup Outlier Space alongside GD1 and others, arguing uncrewed return-capable platforms will make off-world manufacturing viable as the ISS retires.

Also Forbes Australia·SmartCompany

8 deals

Seven ANZ startups that raised $17 million this week

Weekly roundup of seven Australian and New Zealand startup raises totalling $17 million, including two startups entering Y Combinator, plus a new QuantX Labs board director and SmartrMail's earlier sale to Relay Commerce.

Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily

4 deals

Crunchbase Predicts: 15 Companies That Could Go Public In 2026 As The IPO Market Gains Momentum

Crunchbase's 2026 forecast lists fifteen late-stage companies it deems probable or very likely IPO candidates, profiling each with past raises, valuations and secondary sales; Australia's Canva makes the list.

11 deals

In The Space Of Months, AI Funding Boom Adds More Than $500B In Value To Unicorn Board And Reshuffles Top 20

Crunchbase's unicorn tracker analysis finds AI-driven valuations added over half a trillion dollars in months, reshuffling the top twenty and minting eleven new decacorns in H2 2025, including Figure, Kraken, Mistral and Sierra.

Also Crunchbase News·Crunchbase News

Unnamed stage $150m

Fleet Space on the hunt for hydrogen under mountains

Fleet Space will partner with US clean-fuel startup Koloma to find geologic hydrogen beneath mountain ranges using satellite sensing. The piece recalls Fleet's $150 million raise and Koloma's well-known investors.

3 deals

National Reconstruction Fund picks up half the tab in IoT nanosatellite maker Myriota’s $50 million raise

Adelaide IoT satellite firm Myriota has raised $50 million, led by the National Reconstruction Fund’s $25 million contribution, with Main Sequence and Inter Valley Ventures also backing; an NRFC director has resigned.

Also Business News Australia

3 deals

Space Machines Company-led project awarded $8.5 million through International Space Investment India Projects

An Australian satellite servicing firm leads an India-Australia debris management mission backed by an $8.5 million government grant; two other companies also won awards under the bilateral space program.

Also Startup Daily·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing·Defence Connect·@AuManufacturing

Funding announcement

Australian space startup Esper wants to build hyperspectral sats for cheap

TechCrunch profile of Esper, an Australian startup preparing low-cost hyperspectral satellites, recalling its $1 million pre-seed close, grants from a foundation and the federal government, and a Techstars accelerator stint.

Funding announcement

Mike Cannon-Brookes names former Macquarie banker Tan Kueh as Grok's CEO

Mike Cannon-Brookes' investment vehicle Grok Ventures has hired Tan Kueh, ex-Macquarie, UBS and BlackRock, as CEO, joining CIO Jeremy Kwong-Law, as it sharpens its strategy around climate investing.

7 deals

The Week in AgriFoodTech: Agrotoken closes Series A, John Deere & SpaceX team up, MaxAB merges with Wasoko

Weekly agrifoodtech roundup covering Agrotoken's Series A, raises by Mediterranean Food Lab, Better Juice, Burro, SeeTree and farm-ng, the MaxAB–Wasoko merger, v2food's brand acquisition, a Flashfood CEO change, and Drizly's shutdown.

10 deals

Cybersecurity Sector Leads For New Unicorns In October, With Zero From Silicon Valley

Crunchbase's October 2023 unicorn board update: nine newcomers led by two cybersecurity firms, with Sydney's Employment Hero reaching unicorn status, Shield AI revalued upward, and Convoy and Olive AI shutting down.

Also Crunchbase News

Funding announcement

World-first non-Earth imaging camera “manufactured entirely in Australia” gets launched

HEO Robotics' Holmes Imager, described as the first commercial camera for non-Earth imaging built entirely in Australia, launched on a SpaceX rocket, with several local manufacturing and research partners credited.

2 deals

Manufacturing news briefs — stories you might have missed

Roundup of Australian manufacturing news: a university metaverse partnership, a CSIRO digital appointment, electric buses in Queensland, two secured funding facilities, and several workforce and recycling initiatives.

Also @AuManufacturing

2 deals

The scoundrels and stars of Adam Schwab's 2021 Business Awards

Satirical awards column recalling 2021 business failures and wins: Hosking's Redbubble share sale, Greensill's collapse, GetSwift's downfall, Better.com's layoffs and funding, Moviepass's sale, and Digital World's Trump SPAC deal.

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