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🇦🇺 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.

💫 Ramplify: April Architect

Rampersand's April newsletter: an essay on AI services startups, model releases from Anthropic and Meta, Firmus Technologies' $505 million raise, Dexibit's sale to accesso, plus portfolio jobs, events and market commentary.

Also Dealroom

Targeting the Untouchable: The High-Stakes Race to Outsmart 'Invisible' Tumors

Profile of Percheron Therapeutics, an ASX-listed biotech led by Dr James Garner, developing HMBD-002 against the VISTA protein to treat cancers that resist PD-1 immunotherapy, with Phase 2 trials planned for 2026.

Investment Notes: Coherence Neuro

Blackbird's investment note recapping its backing of Coherence Neuro and the neural implant startup's development milestones, institutional collaborations, and path toward first-in-human glioblastoma trials.

Breakthrough Victoria invests $800,000 in Melbourne’s Diag-Nose.io to advance respiratory health

Breakthrough Victoria has put $800,000 into Diag-Nose.io Medical, a Melbourne respiratory health company whose RhinoMAP platform maps disease subtypes using a nasal biopsy device and AI; the firm began in a Stanford program.

Foundry Mentor: David Bell, Remedy Robotics

Blackbird interviews Remedy Robotics co-founder Dave Bell about his move from medicine to surgical robotics and his mentoring in its Foundry program, noting Foundry applications are open.

RIOS: Bringing Manufacturing into the 21st Century with Robotics as a Service

Main Sequence's blog post sets out why the fund led RIOS's US$28 million Series A, highlighting the robotics firm's automated workcells, usage-based pricing, and fit with Australia's manufacturing strategy.

Also @AuManufacturing·Startup Daily·@AuManufacturing