Investor · 6 deals
Australian grocery retailer using electric truck delivery fleets
Sydney, NSW
Every published round Woolworths 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvest B | Seed | 12 Sep 2025 | $5.6m | Participant | Startup Daily, SmartCompany, Breakthrough Victoria, Alberts portfolio, Investible portfolio, Mandalay Venture Partners portfolio | |
| Hola Health | Series A | 8 Apr 2025 | $6m | Lead | Startup Daily | |
| Sapia.ai | Series A | 24 Nov 2022 | $17m | Participant | Startup Daily (18 Mar 2024), SmartCompany, Startup Daily (24 Nov 2022) | |
| All G Foods | Unnamed stage | 17 Feb 2022 | - | Participant | SmartCompany, @AuManufacturing, AgFunderNews, Startup Daily | |
| All G | Unnamed stage | Feb 2022 | $25m | Participant | Startup Daily (12 Dec 2025), SmartCompany, Startup Daily (9 Dec 2025), Startup Daily (16 Feb 2022) | |
| Harvest B | Pre-seed | 30 Jul 2021 | $4.5m | Participant | @AuManufacturing (20 Nov 2023), @AuManufacturing (1 Aug 2023), @AuManufacturing (13 Dec 2022), Aura Ventures |
Companies Woolworths has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All G | Feb 2022 | 1 | 0 | |
| All G Foods | 17 Feb 2022 | 1 | 0 | |
| Harvest B | Developing plant-based meat ingredient systems for food manufacturers | 30 Jul 2021, Pre-seed | 2 | 0 |
| Hola Health | Perth-based telehealth startup offering online consultations, prescriptions, medical cert… | 8 Apr 2025, Series A | 1 | 1 |
| Sapia.ai | 24 Nov 2022, Series A | 1 | 0 |
Fund closes reported for Woolworths, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies Woolworths has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Woolworths did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio company of Woolworths is recorded as having been acquired. | ||||
Companies Woolworths acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Brad Banducci | CEO (former) | Startup Daily (27 Dec 2024), SmartCompany (20 Dec 2024), Startup Daily (9 Apr 2024), Startup Daily (25 May 2023), Forbes Australia, SmartCompany (25 May 2023) |
| Jim Fader | General Manager (former) | AgFunderNews |
| Keri Foti | Head of Advisory and Talent Acquisitions Services | Startup Daily |
Stories naming Woolworths. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Plant-based food maker OMG Group has locked in a $1.5 million placement, with beverage manufacturer Slades Beverages taking a cornerstone stake and becoming its oat milk production partner as sales grow.
Melbourne behavioural-intelligence startup Flowing Bee hires Jonny Hanratty from The Lab to lead applied research and strategy amid rapid growth; named backers include Archangel Ventures, Antler and LaunchVic's Alice Anderson Fund.
MLA profiles Chief Nutrition, a maker of beef-based snack bars and supplements built from leftover meat cuts, now sold across 12 overseas markets; co-founder and CEO Brock Hatton credits consumer trust in Australian beef.
Global consultancy Sia has acquired Seven Consulting, an Australian business transformation firm, roughly quadrupling Sia's local headcount and adding major banking, government and retail clients.
French consulting group Sia has bought Australian business transformation firm Seven Consulting, adding roughly 130 consultants and East Coast offices. The deal follows Sia's earlier acquisitions and Blackstone's minority investment earmarked for expansion.
Also consultancy.com.au
Consulting group Sia has bought Seven Consulting, an Australian transformation consultancy, adding Sydney and Melbourne offices, a Perth presence and major clients across banking, government and retail.
Also Dealroom·Dealroom·sevenconsulting.com·briefglance.com·melbourne-insider.au·cfotech.com.au·consultancy.com.au
Creditors have voted to wind up Canberra insect-protein startup Goterra after sale and recapitalisation efforts failed, with administrators reporting mounting losses and recoveries likely confined to their fees.
CEFC insight piece on growing electric truck use in Australia, outlining its financing for Team Global Express, Zenobē and Volvo Group, from fleet finance to charging and resale-value support.
Insect farming company Goterra has entered voluntary administration in Australia; its administrator is seeking a buyer while founder Olympia Yarger blames sector contagion and underfunding for the collapse.
Ten13's post sets out its reasons for backing Appetise's A$7 million Series A with OIF, Icehouse, NZVC and K1W1, highlighting the grocery platform's shopper dataset and growth.
Roundup of six Australian funding deals: AutoGrab, Applied EV, Checkbox, Hometime, Factory and On the House, with amounts, investors, and Hometime's past acquisitions and raise history detailed.
Also Startup Daily
Australian legaltech firm Checkbox has raised a $35 million Series A led by Touring Capital to grow its AI platform for corporate legal teams, with four institutional backers joining.
Also Startup Daily·Forbes Australia·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
Menulog, the Sydney-founded food delivery pioneer, shuts down this month under owner Just Eat Takeaway, recently acquired by Prosus; the article recalls its 2015 merger and sale and a string of failed delivery rivals.
Also Startup Daily
Rampersand's newsletter announces it led Keeyu's $2.3 million pre-seed round, alongside portfolio updates from Quantum Brilliance, Cuttable, Hatch and Goterra, plus job listings and reflections on domain founders and Australian venture capital.
Also Rampersand·quantumwire.com·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·semiconductorindustrymonthly.com
Harvest B, a Sydney-based protein maker, raised a $3.5 million pre-Series A with Mandalay Venture Partners leading and Breakthrough Victoria contributing $2 million, alongside a $2.2 million federal grant and a 2021 seed round.
Breakthrough Victoria is putting $2 million into protein technology company Harvest B, joining a $5.6 million pre-Series A round with Mandalay VC leading and several other backers.
Profile of Provenir, which slaughters cattle on-farm with a mobile unit and sells meat direct to consumers; recaps its evolution, pricing, rules and expansion plans, recalling backing from SproutX and Meat and Livestock Australia.
Samsara Eco has struck a decade-long supply deal with Lululemon for enzyme-recycled fabrics; the piece recalls its Temasek-led raise and flags a new NSW plant.
Weekly roundup tallying three Australian raises: legal tech firm Plexus ($6m), cattle-probiotics startup Bovotica ($3.4m seed), and beauty group York St Brands ($2m Series C plus a $4m NAB credit line).
A legal automation software company has raised more than six million dollars from existing shareholders and a Seattle-based non-dilutive lender, its first institutional backing, to fund international growth and AI product development.
York Street Brands raised $2 million from iPartners and took a $4 million NAB trade facility to launch its third brand Bouf, having formed through the 2023 merger of tbh Skincare and Boost Lab.
Also SmartCompany
Legal AI platform Plexus has raised more than $6 million, led by existing shareholders alongside Seattle lender Lighter Capital, its first institutional backer, to speed international growth, AI product delivery and hiring.
Tim Doyle, cofounder of health startup Eucalyptus, tells a Blackbird Sunrise audience that solving his warehouse of returned sex toys is the route to a job, and offers blunt views on local venture capital.
Woolworths, via its Healthylife arm, led telehealth firm Hola Health's $6m Series A at a $70m valuation, with M8 Ventures and FundWA backing; the Perth company raised $4.5m a year earlier.
Frozen citrus maker Naked Rivals has been bought by Entyce Food Ingredients; the piece covers the founders' planned exit, fast supermarket rollout, an earlier $3m raise, and a coming insurance venture.
Weekly roundup of seven Australian and New Zealand raises totalling $42.8 million, spanning property-investment AI, workforce credentialing, allied-health practice software, conversation analytics, maths learning games, copper processing and holiday-park bookings.
Blackbird's note explains its decision to lead Clutch's $2 million pre-seed round, citing the fashion-glue brand's organic social growth, strong Priceline sales, and upcoming United States retail launch.
Weekly roundup covering seven Australian companies' fresh capital: EV charging, satellite IoT, sovereign cloud, wearables, workplace messaging, plus two crowdfunding raises on Birchal.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing
Roundup of three trans-Tasman raises: crime-intelligence software maker Auror's $72.6m Series C, underground mining-robot firm ADR's $2m round, and mentorship platform Matched's angel backing below $500,000.
SmartCompany's Smart50 Awards 2024 profile ranks agtech Goterra ninth. The Canberra business turns food waste into animal feed using robot-managed maggots, with customers including Woolworths and the City of Sydney.
Cashrewards has bought Little Birdie, the deals startup backed by Commonwealth Bank that went quiet in May; the piece also recalls Cashrewards' 2017 Smart50 nod, 2020 ASX float, and later takeover by 1835i Ventures.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily
Weekly roundup of three Australian raises: adtech firm Cuttable's seed round, Fundabl's equity round and SeenCulture's funding, naming investors, plus new Cuttable co-CEOs and a board appointment.
AI ad startup Cuttable, co-founded by Sam Kroonenburg, Jack White and Ed Ring, raised $5.5m in a seed round led by Square Peg with Rampersand aboard; Kroonenburg earlier sold A Cloud Guru to Pluralsight.
Weekly roundup of four Australian raises: HammerTech $105m led by Riverwood Capital, JigSpace $13m led by Breakthrough Victoria, ExoFlare's $5.3m seed, and Go Locum's $350,000 seed led by Paspalis.
ExoFlare, cofounded by ex-Data61 chief Adrian Turner, has banked $5.3 million in seed funding led by Salus Ventures to help food producers manage biosecurity risks.
Also SmartCompany
Australian plastics recycler Samsara Eco secured a Temasek-led Series A+ of $100 million to scale enzyme-based infinite recycling, with Southeast Asian facilities planned, adding to its 2022 Series A.
Also TechCrunch Australia·SmartCompany·@AuManufacturing·Techboard·SmartCompany·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing
Australian enzymatic plastics recycler Samsara Eco raised a large all-equity round led jointly by Temasek and Main Sequence, with Lululemon among other backers, funding new recycling facilities and team growth.
Also SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Forbes Australia·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·@AuManufacturing·Forbes Australia·@AuManufacturing·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia
Roundup of nine local startups that together banked a combined $38m-plus this week, spanning precision instruments, proptech, adtech, robotics, food, energy storage and AI, with several earlier raises recalled.
Also Australian FinTech·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·AgFunderNews