G’day and welcome to your weekly edition of Overnight Success - your download on all the important things that have happened in the Aussie startup ecosystem. 🚀
Some exciting news! We’ve partnered with Matchbox to bring you Australia’s first VC-backed start-ups job board that highlights some of the country’s most exciting early-stage opportunities. You can sort by stage, location, job function, and whether the company gives equity. There are over 3,500 roles for you to check out. I’ve cherry-picked three roles from high signal startups further down the newsletter.
About Matchbox: Currently in the Startmate W25 accelerator cohort, Matchbox is building an AI hiring co-pilot to help start-ups de-risk and fill roles faster. To join their early access alpha, sign up here
Sponsor shoutout:
Stripe joins us for the first time with an exceptional report on how rapidly AI startups are turning demand into revenue. The median number of months to hit $1M in annualised revenue has shrunk to just 5 months. This report breaks down exactly what those startups are using AI for and why that revenue milestone has been compressed.
Vanta is also proudly powering this newsletter. This week, they’ve shared a conversation between Christina Cacioppo (CEO & Co-founder of Vanta) and Mario Gabriele (The Generalist) to break down the ingredients of a breakout startup. Learn more about Vanta below and get $1000 off Vanta here!
👀 Headlines 👀
🪓 NAB’s startups are on the chopping block just as much as their staff restructuring as the new CEO makes changes. The big four banks exit Airwallex and turn the lights off at Cashrewards. (Startup Daily)
ANZ’s corporate VC fund, 1835i, exits its investment in Airwallex by selling its ~1% stake to founders/executives for A$67m in a secondary sale.
Even though the sale was fairly recent, the big bank took a discount with the price pegged to 2022 Series E levels; Airwallex raised A$232m Series F in May 2025. 1835i first invested in 2020 Series D and topped up in 2021–22 Series E rounds.
Bigger things are happening at ANZ with the bank to cut 3,500 jobs under new CEO Nuno Matos. Cashrewards (another 1835i bet), a platform that offers shoppers cashback rewards of 1-15%, will also be shuttered. (Startup Daily)
This speaks to a wider trend of corporate VC being out of favour lately. Telstra's split of its fund, Titanium. Westpac’s Reinventure fund has been wound down. Capital Brief has more.
🤖 Another Australian sovereign AI enters the chat: Australia AI firm launches ‘Australis’ (AFR)
The home-grown foundation model will be trained on Australian data in Australian-owned centres.
The founders, Simon Kriss & Dr Troy Neilson, believe they can build the AI for under $100m and are seeking more Australian-aligned investors.
The compute is ordered with 256 Nvidia Blackwell B200 GPUs to be hosted at NEXTDC (Melbourne) via Sharon AI.
The Australis project joins Maincode’s Matilda, which is backed by Stake.com billionaire founder Ed Craven.
💽 The federal government $1B bet on PsiQuantum is looking pretty good as PsiQuantum doubles in value to over A$10B. (SMH)
In April 2024, it secured A$940 million in loans and equity from the Australian federal and Queensland governments to build a quantum computer next door to Brisbane airport by 2027.
When the investment was made, former industry minister Ed Husic was criticised for an “opaque” process; the opposition even sought an auditor-general probe. But now the federal government finds itself on the cap table with elite company alongside NVIDIA, Macquarie, Blackbird and global sovereign funds, with a considerable mark-up.
Of course, the valuation is all on paper at this stage, so let's call this early validation, not victory! Full fundraising write-up below.
💸 Scale Investors announce $26M first close with debut VC fund targeting $100M for female founders as Twiggy Forrest (Minderoo) and Zampatti families invest as anchors (AFR)
Scale has shifted from an angel syndicate to an institutional venture fund following a 2023 management buy-out by partners Samar Mcheileh, Roo Harris and Chelsea Newell.
The fund will invest up to $1.2 million per deal and requires at least one woman founder with equal equity and a C-suite role.
The thesis is that women founders are overlooked yet outperforming, and the funding gap in Australia and New Zealand remains pronounced.
Recent disclosures from Blackbird and Airtree show that all-women teams received roughly 2% of FY25 capital, with less than 20% going to mixed-gender teams.
Founder to Founder: The Guide to Building a Breakout Startup in the AI Age
Christina Cacioppo (CEO & Co-founder of Vanta) and Mario Gabriele (CEO & Founder of The Generalist) come together for a tactical deep-dive into what it truly takes to build a breakout startup. In a market evolving at breakneck speed, they share sharp insights and real-world strategies for staying ahead of the curve.
⚡ Startup Retro ⚡
PsiQuantum raises US$1B Series E to build and grow fault-tolerant quantum computers
Founders: Jeremy O’Brien, Terry Rudolph, Mark Thompson and Pete Shadbolt
PsiQuantum has been valued at A$10.5B following the close of a US$1 billion Series E that more than doubles its 2021 valuation to US$7 billion and cements its bid to build the first ‘useful’ quantum computer.
Founded in 2015 by Australian academics Jeremy O’Brien, Terry Rudolph, Mark Thompson and Pete Shadbolt, the Palo Alto startup bets on photons, rather than electrons, to achieve fault-tolerant, million-qubit machines.
The round was led by existing backers BlackRock, Baillie Gifford and Temasek, with new money from Macquarie Capital, NVIDIA’s NVentures, Qatar Investment Authority and Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global. Blackbird, an early investor, also participated.
PsiQuantum’s path is public-sector backed: in April 2024, it secured A$940 million in loans and equity from the Australian federal and Queensland governments to build a quantum computer next door to Brisbane airport by 2027. It later won US$500 million in incentives to develop a site in Chicago by 2028.
Fresh capital funds for site buildouts, large-scale prototype systems and performance improvements to its quantum photonic chips and architecture. The company has integrated barium titanate (BTO) into its manufacturing flow for ultra-high-performance optical switches, technology it says could also benefit next-gen AI supercomputers. The company’s headcount now tops 500 with a 12,000 m² Bay Area facility to support mass production and GPU-QPU work with NVIDIA.
Due Diligence: Startup Daily, Innovation Aus, AFR
Andromeda lands $23M Series A for “emotionally intelligent” companion robot for old folks homes
Founders: Grace Brown
Andromeda, a Melbourne robotics startup tackling loneliness with an “emotionally intelligent” companion robot, has raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures, valuing the company at $100 million. It’s Australia’s largest woman-led Series A this year. The round features a cohort of female investors, Forerunner’s Eurie Kim, Main Sequence’s Alezeia Brown, Rethink Impact’s Heidi Patel, and Artesian’s Ananya Sinha, alongside Rethink Impact, Artesian, Main Sequence, Visible Ventures and Trampoline. Existing backers, Purpose Ventures and Startmate, also re-upped.
The funding coincides with the launch of “Genesis Abi,” a fully autonomous version of Andromeda’s humanoid companion, Abi, designed for aged care. Care teams can set schedules while Abi navigates facilities independently, runs group activities, spends one-on-one time with residents, and converses in their preferred language. Abi will apparently augment, not replace, staff. The first Genesis Abi deployment lands this month at a mecwacare aged care home in Australia.
Australia’s care economy is tracking to a six-figure shortfall of staffing. Recent modelling Jobs and Skills Australia points to a ~100k gap by 2027–28 and ~212k by 2050, making it hard (and costly) for homes to meet new rostering obligations without productivity aids. Andromeda is positioning Abi as something that can assist.
Andromeda will use the capital to expand into the United States (starting with aged care) and scale its Australian operations. The company is currently hiring across the board, with engineering and customer success locally, with creative and animation robotics roles in the U.S. CEO.
Due Diligence: Overnight Success, AFR
Starboard Maritime Intelligence sails away with $20.7M Series A for AI-powered maritime intelligence platform
CEO: Trent Fulcher
Starboard Maritime Intelligence (SMI), a Wellington-based ocean security startup, has raised NZ$23 million (A$20.7m) in Series A funding to take its AI-powered maritime intelligence platform global. The company was founded in 2019, and previously banked a $4.6 million Seed round in April 2024.
The round was co-led by early backer Altered Capital alongside new investors OIF Ventures and King River Capital, with support from Co:Act Capital, Icehouse Ventures and the Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation. King River’s Jonty Kelt, a former Palantir executive, and OIF’s Vu Tran, cofounder of Go1, will join the board.
SMI ingests more than a billion maritime data points each day, shipping signals, satellite imagery, radar, oceanographic feeds and autonomous sensors, to spot anomalous behaviour and trigger real-time alerts. Its software is used by governments, defence agencies and commercial operators in 30+ countries, protecting subsea infrastructure (including 840,000km of cables), monitoring a significant share of the global commercial fleet and helping operators harden supply chains.
CEO Trent Fulcher says the cash will accelerate expansion across North America, Europe and the Indo-Pacific, deepen capabilities for classified and commercial environments, and scale product development and hiring as real-time threat prevention becomes a must-have. “Our mission is to give nations and operators the intelligence edge,” he said.
Due Diligence: Company Announcement, AFR
Freckle lands $6.1M Seed round to make CRM AI enrichment easier
Founders: Nathan Merzvinskis
Freckle, a RevOps platform that automates CRM data enrichment with natural-language prompts and “agentic AI”, has banked a US$6.1 million seed led by Google’s Gradient Ventures and 1984 Ventures, with Mintaka (doubling down on its 2024 pre-seed), Liquid2 and CoVentures joining. The Melbourne-founded startup is led by second-time founder Nathan Merzvinskis, who previously co-founded Everproof (acquired by Go1 in 2019).
Freckle’s platform looks like a simple spreadsheet but can also plug into CRMs like HubSpot and Attio. It uses 40+ data sources and AI to enrich the spreadsheet. Users type what they need, emails, phone numbers, buying signals, and Freckle finds, verifies and backfills records. Since December 2024, it’s grown from closed beta to 2,500+ company users, including Kinde, Mindset Health, DOSS and Buildpass.
Positioning itself as the “second mover” but with better UX, Freckle is taking aim at incumbents like Clay, which it calls “notoriously difficult to use”. The pitch: most teams don’t want to hire a dedicated “GTM Engineer”; they want enrichment that works out of the box. Pricing aligns with that promise; credits are charged only for successful results.
New capital will accelerate a roadmap featuring scheduled re-enrichment runs, saved templates, “bring your own” API keys, expanded CRM integrations (Salesforce, Attio, Pipedrive) and data clean-up tools for deduping, merging and record association. New users can sign up for 1,000 free credits; the company is also hiring.
Due Diligence: Overnight Success
Wable raises $1.5m to take neurodivergent social and dating app global
Founders: Holly Fowler
Wable, a social and dating app built for neurodivergent people, has raised A$1.5 million to accelerate expansion in the US and UK. The round was led by Taurus Capital’s Paul Sharbanee. Founded in 2024 by Holly Fowler, after being inspired by ABC’s Love on the Spectrum, Wable targets a largely overlooked audience that can represent up to one in five people, aiming to make it easier and safer to build friendships, date, find jobs, and access support.
The product leans hard into neuro-inclusive design: customisable colour schemes for sensory preferences; a Chat Wheel for conversation prompts; and guardrails including an 18+ gate, AI selfie verification, no direct photo/video messaging or link sharing, and two-factor authentication.
A built-in Toolbox offers counsellor-led videos on dating and social skills, plus a jobs board and a directory of sensory-friendly venues.
Wable says thousands of users in Australia and New Zealand have joined since launch, with the app rolling out to the US and UK last month. New capital will fund hiring, marketing and feature development. Actor Michael Theo (from Love on the Spectrum) serves as ambassador alongside TV personality Aesha Scott. The app is free on iOS and Android, with revenue coming from a premium subscription upsell.
Due Diligence: Startup Daily
Marloo raises $4.2M pre-seed to bring AI co-pilots to the financial adviser industry
Founders: Shakeel (Shak) Lala, Hardy Michel and Ben Robertson
Auckland-based fintech Marloo has banked $4.2 million pre-seed to automate the back-office grind that bloats the cost of financial advice. Blackbird led the round, joined by CoVentures, Brand Fund and a slate of angels including Xero cofounder Philip Fierlinger, Stake’s Matt Leibowitz, Halter’s Craig Piggott, Heidi Health’s Tom Kelly, Revolut CLO Tom Hambrett and Sharesies’ Leighton Roberts.
Founded in June 2024 by Shakeel (Shak) Lala, Hardy Michel and Ben Robertson in Auckland, Marloo targets the admin and compliance burden that can swallow up to 60% of advice delivery. The AI assistant turns client meetings into advice documents, review letters and client communications in the adviser’s own tone.
An “Ask Marloo” feature lets advisers query everything, meeting transcripts, uploaded documents and notes, to surface details from years ago, track evolving goals or summarise a client’s full journey, effectively converting a firm’s archive into a searchable knowledge base.
Marloo says it now serves wealth, planning, insurance and mortgage firms across Australia, the UK and New Zealand, growing 45% month-on-month. The fresh capital will fuel rapid feature rollout driven by customer feedback.
Due Diligence: The Australian, Capital Brief
X-Hemp raises $3.4m seed to scale hempcrete manufacturing in Tasmania
Founders: Andi Lucas
Tasmanian materials startup X-Hemp has closed a $3.4 million seed round, capped by a final A$1 million from strategic partner Danehill Group. Founded in 2020 by Andi Lucas and based in Cressy. The business advertises itself as being majority female-owned and 100% women-operated.
X-Hemp processes industrial hemp into “hempcrete”. This is a mix of hemp fibre, lime and water and can be used as a low-carbon alternative to concrete. The material is non-combustible, termite-proof and mould-resistant, with build costs comparable to double-brick. Unlike cement, hempcrete sequesters carbon. The product is touted as a route to lower-emissions and healthier homes.
With supply chains in place, X-Hemp is supplying residential projects and commercial builds, including the University of Tasmania Forestry Building. The company wants to mirror Europe and North America’s hempcrete markets, which it pegs at being around $3.5 billion in size.
Danehill Group, which made the strategic investment, will support acceleration and commercial partnerships. They say their investment will help X-Hemp meet demand for sustainable building and industrial fibre products, create regional jobs and bring more Tasmanian farmers into the value chain, while helping tackle Australia’s housing shortfall and the construction sector’s carbon footprint. With the fresh capital, X-Help will invest in critical infrastructure, R&D and new hires for its eight-person, all-female team.
Due Diligence: Startup Daily, Cannabiz
Harvest B raises $5.6M pre-Series A to scale alternative protein platform
Founders: Kristi Riordan and Alfred Lo
Sydney-based hybrid protein maker Harvest B has raised $5.6 million in pre-Series A funding, with Breakthrough Victoria tipping in $2 million. Other investors include Mandalay Venture Partners, Alberts Impact Ventures, Investible and a grant from the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Program.
Founded in 2020 by CEO Kristi Riordan and COO Alfred Lo, the company bills itself as Australia’s first plant-based protein ingredient manufacturer, giving food brands a local alternative to imported components. Harvest B’s textured proteins are made from wheat and soy today, with a federally backed $2.2 million Industry Growth Program grant powering development of a gluten-free faba bean protein — tapping a Victorian strength to build an allergen-free, sustainable range.
The capital will scale production in Western Sydney and deepen work with Victorian pulse producers and Agriculture Victoria Research. Lo called Breakthrough Victoria’s stake “pivotal” for expanding food-processing capacity and strengthening local supply chains.
Harvest B already supplies B2B customers across foodservice and manufacturing. The raise positions it to swap imported ingredients for home-grown proteins at scale, and prove that complementary proteins can compete on nutrition, price and reliability.
Due Diligence: AuManufacturing, Innovation Aus
The AI economy’s global sprint: AI companies reach $5M in revenue 3x faster.
The world’s fastest-growing companies are AI startups, and they’re rewriting the rules of scale. Stripe’s new report, Indexing the AI economy, reveals how new AI companies are reaching $5M in revenue 3x faster.
AI companies are global-first businesses from Day 1, selling into twice as many countries as previous tech waves while pioneering flexible, usage-based billing that scales with customer success.
In this report, you’ll see data and insights revealing how the world’s fastest-scaling AI companies are building for the future.
💸 Accelerator News💸
🚀 Techstars announces its next cohort of 12 startups that will be entering its three-month program. A third of the teams are led by female CEOs, five feature founders from diverse backgrounds, and all of them are integrating AI into their startups.
CorFin.AI: An AI native platform for finance teams to control, process, and analyse every expense in one place.
Crystal aOS: Simplified crypto legal, risk and compliance management so crypto innovation can thrive.
Juxtabyte: A new way for large enterprises to compliantly manage their data, and improve data discoverability internally.
MuseAI: AI assistant for organising musicians' notes and audio clips.
OncoRevive: Rapid, affordable, and precise cancer diagnostics with a new liquid biopsy testing method.
Onsite: Helps run buildings. It's an all-in-one platform for building management with real-time issue tracking.
Our Leg Up: Creating a new investment product for homeowners to get a return on their built-up equity, and using those funds to help banks lend to new homeowners who don't have a 20% deposit.
Slice: The first platform that guides home buyers through the process with integrated financial and legal services.
Briefcase: Legal tech creating the digital courts and tribunals of the future.
SurfLab: Personalised surfing coaching platform with AI-powered coaching, community, and commerce to guide surfers through every stage of their journey.
VetNotes: Automatic clinical note-taking for veterinarians
Zipline AI: Empowering brands to co-design new products and content with their customers using AI.
Featured startup jobs
💵 Marloo: The AI-native platform helping financial advisers deliver modern, efficient client experiences across the UK, Australia, and New Zealand has just raised $4.2M in pre-seed funding from Blackbird Ventures, alongside prominent investors including the CEO of Revolut and the COO of Tilt. They are now building a team across Ops, Engineering and Sales. If you’re a problem-solving generalist, the Founders Associate role could be perfect for you
🧑⚕ Lyngo AI: Healthcare admin is broken, and Lyngo AI is on a mission to fix it. Fresh off its pre-seed round with Antler, Lyngo is building an AI “receptionist” that handles scheduling, triage, and patient comms, freeing doctors and nurses to spend more time with patients. Check out the AI Engineer role to develop the core engine for real-time voice AI.
🐶 Fetch: Fetch has been gaining momentum as one of Australia’s most exciting pet health startups, raising ~$3.2M at the seed stage and now gearing up for a Series A. Their platform combines prevention, insights, rewards, and protection into one seamless app for pet parents, reimagining what pet health insurance can look like. Have you taken a product from zero to scale and thrive on rapid testing and iteration? Check out the Growth Product Lead role.
Explore these roles and more on the new Matchbox x Overnight Success Job Board, the one place to discover Australia’s most promising early-stage startup jobs.
📆 Notice Board 📆
👭 Our friends at One Roof are bringing a national conference for women founders and business owners across Australia! Brought to you with Tech Ready Women, Scalare Partners and Tank Stream Labs, each city will see a one-day event designed to empower women with the tools, community, and inspiration to truly own their entrepreneurial journeys. Get your tickets here and use code ONEROOF10 for 10% off. Key dates below!
📅 Adelaide - 18 September
📅 Brisbane - 24 October
📅 Sydney - 28 October
📅 Melbourne - 30 October
💥 Hungry for inspiration? HEXPO 2025 is cooking up a full day of bold ideas, big flavours, and high-energy networking. Overnight Success is a proud community partner!
Join Melbourne’s boldest thinkers at HEXPO 2025, on the 19th of September, for the Feastival of ideas that’ll leave you fired up and full of flavour. Use code OSHEXPO20 for 20% off tickets. Grab a ticket here.
🏅 The Australian Growth Company Awards are open to companies trading for more than two years that have shown real momentum through revenue growth, team expansion, market share or impact.
The awards are supported by the likes of the ASX, Hamilton Loke, J.P. Morgan and Ansarada. They’re looking for startups, scale-ups and stand-out businesses across sectors, including: business services, consumer goods, financial services, health and life sciences, industry and manufacturing, new energy, technology, and transport and logistics.
There are also categories recognising outstanding leaders, emerging businesses to watch, and organisations making a significant social impact. Get your nominations in here; they close on the 22nd of September.
🤝 The Business Show is landing in Sydney this November 5–6 at the ICC for its inaugural expo and tickets are free!
The show promises to deliver networking opportunities, masterclasses, and a showcase of 250 leading business solutions so you can see how others in the market get things done! Grab your free ticket here.
The best place to find upcoming events to attend and promote any events you’re hosting is the ANZ Startup Events Calendar.
Would you like to promote an event or an opportunity? Enquire about a Notice Board promotion here.
🧠 KaaS (Knowledge as a Service)
Will’s Pick 💁 Indexing the AI economy by Stripe
This report by Stripe is well worth checking out. One, it’ll hype you up to start an AI company or invest in one. And two, it shows that AI companies can and should be global from day one.
The data shows that previously, startups expanded internationally in stages. They’d scale locally from their HQ and then pick a country to scale into next. The Stripe data shows that the new generation of AI companies has sales roughly 2 times those of the previous generation of SaaS companies. I think that’s such an opportunity for Australian founders, who are already hardwired to think that way.
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👔 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Overnight Success, Will
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‘Til next time,
👋 Will