G’day, and welcome to this week’s edition of Overnight Success! Your weekly download on all the important things that happened in the Aussie startup ecosystem. 🚀

An extra special welcome to the 15 new subscribers who’ve joined us since the last edition!

🔥 Fresh off the OS Press 🔥 

Did you hear - we’re launching a podcast! 🎉 As our loyal readers, we wanted to give you the first look at the trailer for our new show, The Startup Retro. (Listen on Apple Podcasts // Spotify). First official episode drops 1st July.

Don’t miss our deep dive into SpatialGPT, a startup that raised $5.1M a few weeks ago who are combining Generative AI and wearable AR. (Thanks to Holly Brooks for this write up! 🙏 ).

Gemma is off to Tropical Innovation Festival in Cairns next week. Here’s a sneak peek of what she’ll be getting up to & our top picks from this year’s program. (WARNING ⚠️ May induce major FOMO). 🌴

👀 Headlines 👀 

🛑 ASIC has issued its first interim stop order against a crowdsourced funding (CSF) campaign, targeting Hirehood’s offer on VentureCrowd

• Hirehood is a rental platform for items on holiday, like surfboards, e-bikes and baby equipment.

• The stop order aims to protect retail investors due to Hirehood's use of an indirect share structure.

  • Hirehood's nominee arrangement would not allow investors to directly acquire ordinary shares, instead offering an equitable interest.

  • Compliance Issues: Hirehood's offer document did not meet the minimum content requirements set by the Corporations Act and Corporations Regulations 2001.

• Hirehood had $10,500 in commitments towards a $100,000 target before the CSF offer document was taken down.

 ⚡️ Startup Retro ⚡️

Bridgit lands $14.6M of equity and $125M of debt to offer bridging loans to home buyers

Founders: Aaron Bassin and Nick Jacobs

Sydney-based startup Bridgit, founded by Aaron Bassin and Nick Jacobs, has secured $14.6 million in equity and a $125 million debt facility to expand its short-term loan services. Established in 2021, Bridgit targets the growing downsizer market, driven by new tax incentives encouraging older Australians to move into smaller homes.

Bridgit was founded to address the challenges faced by those who are asset-rich but cash-poor and is capitalising on the aging boomer market looking to downsize. This is amplified by the Federal Government's changes in the 2022 budget, allowing a $300,000 non-concessional superannuation contribution from home sale proceeds.

The startup, formerly Techlend, has achieved a milestone of $600 million in annual short-term lending. On average, loans of $1 million are processed within 30-40 minutes, and they are held for 4 months.

The growing team of 26 people will use the fresh funds to develop its tech stack and broaden its services. The company is positioned to compete with other fintechs in the downsizing market, including Downsizer, which raised $3.75 million last year. With an estimated $4.9 trillion in assets set to transfer from ageing baby boomers, Bridgit's innovative lending approach aims to democratise access to equity for Australian homeowners.

Due Diligence: The Australian, Business News Australia

Farmbot finds $4.6M to grow IoT water monitoring products for agriculture in the US

Founder: Andrew Coppin

Farmbot Monitoring Solutions, an AgTech scale-up specialising in IoT technology that monitors water, has raised $4.6 million in an oversubscribed round. This capital injection, led by existing investors like Telstra and Macdoch Ventures, aims to boost Farmbot's US expansion efforts.

Telstra, which has been involved since Farmbot's muru-D Accelerator days, has made this its fourth investment in the company. Farmbot's US subsidiary, Ranchbot, established last year, targets a market significantly larger than Australia's. The company operates a manufacturing plant in Dallas, Texas, and has its US headquarters in Fort Worth.

The MyFarmbot IoT platform provides real-time monitoring of water and other agricultural inputs and offers predictive analytics to optimise farm management. This technology helps reduce labour and fuel costs, improve sustainability, and enhance animal welfare by enabling remote infrastructure control.

Farmbot has 70 employees and operates over 3,500 farms, maintaining a 100% year-on-year growth rate.

Due Diligence: Startup Daily

iion raises Seed round for end-to-end game advertising that embeds ads into gaming environments

Founders: Sanjaya Molligoda, Giuseppe Martoriello and Wout van Damme

Unified game advertising platform iion has secured Seed capital to fuel its global expansion. Founded in 2019, iion centralises game inventory for advertisers, addressing industry challenges like fragmentation and scalability. Its flagship product, immersiion, is a self-serve platform for creating, launching, and managing ad campaigns. The funding round was led by TEN13, with co-investors Archangel and PixCapital.

The Seed round follows five years of bootstrapped growth and the development of the immersion platform. The platform provides a central self-serve 'control centre' for brands and agencies, combining campaign management, contextual and audience targeting, creative builder, superior reporting, and measurement tools all in one platform.

iion collaborates with premium brands (advertisers) like Lego, KFC, and L'Oreal and partners with both major and independent media agencies. The company aims to simplify gaming campaign activation, which a lack of unified solutions has hindered despite the global gaming audience exceeding 3.4 billion. Check out the examples here.

Thecapital will expand iion's team, accelerate market penetration in the US and EU, and enhance efforts in China.

Due Diligence: Campaign Brief

Switchboard secures $1.5M to bring AI to the paper-based supply chain industry

Founders: Hugh Dixson

Sydney-based supply chain integration platform Switchboard has raised $1.5 million from investors, including Archangel, AfterWork, Investible, Skalata, Startmate, TEN13, and 'The Fund'. Switchboard aims to modernise a historically manual industry and push it into the AI era.

Despite the pandemic accelerating digitisation in many sectors, supply chains have lagged, with an average digitisation level of just 43%. However, the AI logistics market is expected to grow from $1.7 billion in 2018 to $12 billion by 2027.

Switchboard targets the inefficiencies caused by outdated systems and manual processes in supply chains. Switchboard addresses these issues by connecting IT systems such as ERPs, TMS, and WMS, automating communication between customers, suppliers, logistics providers, and trading partners. This integration reduces errors, cuts staff costs, and optimises operations, leading to significant cost savings.

Switchboard is designed for businesses of all sizes, helping them optimise truckloads, reduce consignment costs, and forecast demand accurately. The platform has gained rapid traction across manufacturing, retail, and food & beverage sectors. Dixson's vision is to make Switchboard the "system of record" for global supply chains, leveraging its proprietary data to develop new products.

Product Explainer: Blog Post

Due Diligence: Startup Daily

Investment Notes: Afterwork, Skalata

Atticus lands $10.8M to grow lawyer tools following profitable growth since day one

Founders: Saul Wakerman, Mitchell Brunton and Misha Wakerman

Melbourne-based tech firm Atticus has secured $10.8 million in its first-ever funding round, attracting investors Blackbird and Skip Capital. This investment values the company between $80 and $90 million.

Founded in 2017, Atticus uses smart software and large language models (LLMs) to help lawyers and professionals fact-check critical documents like IPO prospectuses, public announcements, and annual reports.

Atticus boasts an impressive client list, including BHP, Commonwealth Bank, and 90% of the Australian corporate legal market. Atticus has integrated LLMs with specialised software, addressing the limitations and risks of generative AI, such as hallucinations and fabrications.

Investors were excited about the highly engaged clientele; a key reason for their investment. Atticus has been profitable since its inception, doubling its revenue annually since 2021 and expanding internationally, securing 30% of the top 30 UK law firms as clients.

The funding will fuel further UK growth and global market penetration. Atticus aims to become a vital player in managing regulatory, compliance, and ESG governance challenges. CEO Thom Mackey emphasised the strategic value of their investors, aiming to leverage these relationships for future opportunities and to accelerate growth.

Due Diligence: AFR

The Leaf Protein Co grows with $850K pre-Seed to develop sustainable plant protein

Founders: Fern Ho and Connor Balfany

Melbourne based The Leaf Protein Co has secured $850,000 in a pre-Seed round to advance its sustainable plant protein technology. Led by Breakthrough Victoria-backed University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund, Big Idea Ventures, and LaunchVic’s Hugh Victor McKay Fund, this fresh capital will enable the company to staff up its pilot plant and begin commercial production.

Launched 2020, co-founder Fern Ho has nearly two decades of experience in product management and marketing. Ho's interest in food provenance and health impacts grew from personal food intolerances.

The Leaf Protein Co has successfully extracted proteins from over 13 plant materials, including waste leafy vegetables and regeneration plants like saltbush. Their unique process retains plant nutrition and generates no waste, with by-products repurposed as food ingredients, animal feed, and packaging materials. The tech can potentially provide farmers with additional revenue streams as they navigate the impacts of climate change. The company's focus on nutrition sets it apart from others creating faux meat.

Due Diligence: Business News Australia, Startup Daily, Smart Company

Extra Reading: More on Leaf Protein

*iion (Men-only team) raise amount was undisclosed, so this figure is understated.

Want to learn more about why we’re reporting these figures? Read about the ‘Funding the Balance’ initiative here.

🤑 Aussie Raisins 🤑 

Sydney-based AI startup Harrison.ai, known for developing medical tools, is gearing up for a $100 million-plus Series C round.

• Co-founded by CEO Aengus Tran, the company has already secured commitments from Ramsay Health Care and Sonic Healthcare.

• Notable funds on the cap table include Blackbird Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Skip Capital and I-MED including a $29 million round in 2019 and $129 million in 2021.

• Founded by brothers Aengus and Dimitry Tran, Harrison.ai aims to combine human intelligence with artificial intelligence by embedding AI into partnerships with companies with deep networks in specific healthcare areas.

🥳️ Wins 🥳

ThincHer strikes up a new partnership with global fitness influencer Kayla Itsines’ app, Sweat (LinkedIn Announcement).

• ThincHer is an initiative of The University of Adelaide and ThincLab focused on supporting female-founded ventures.

• The new partnership will offer ThincHer participants a free 6-month subscription to the app, as well as the opportunity to attend a masterclass run by a SWEAT representative. Fun fact: It may surprise some to know that Itsines is originally from Adelaide and the city continues to be Sweat’s HQ to this day.

🤑 New Funds, Who’s This? 🤑 

Disability tech accelerator, Remarkable, is backing startups with VC.

• Remarkable's new investment initiative, Scaler, will now invest in Seed and Series A rounds in Disability Tech ventures.

• They’ve already made three such global investments since December last year ($200k-$500k cheque size), with the goal to help raise the profile of the Disability Tech market as a US$13 trillion annual disposable income opportunity, and one with tremendous positive impact.

The University of Adelaide’s ThincSeed Accelerator is offering pre-Seed investments to participants.

• Across the sixteen start-ups selected for the 2024 ThincSeed Accelerator program, participating companies have the opportunity to receive pre-Seed investment of up to a total of $40,000 per company from the ThincSeed Fund.

• Learn more and apply before the 14th of July to be part of the next cohort.

📌 Notice Board 📌 

🎤 Pitch Opps | 🚀 Accelerator | 🏆️ Competition/Award | 💰Grant | 📅 Event | 🎓️ Course

💰 Australia’s $15b National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRF) is now accepting funding proposals📍Australia

• Companies in the 7 priority areas include: renewables and low emissions technologies, medtech, transport, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, value-add in resources; defence capabilities and enabling capabilities

• Thank you to Priyanka for the write-up on LinkedIn.

🎓️ HEX Career Accelerator - EOFY Sale

• Innovation education platform, HEX, has launched its biggest ever sale for founders, offering a massive 50% discount on the HEX Career Accelerator; a 6-week online program for rising professionals looking to up-skill themselves and develop their professional portfolio.

•  Head to the HEX website to learn more and use the code DOIT50 to claim the offer.

🎓️ Community Collective Cohort #5 - EOFY Sale

• Want to level-up your knowledge and skills as a community builder this year? The Community Collective is the GOAT of connecting with fellow community builders learning how to perfect their craft, especially in the startup space.

• Time is running out to get in at FY 23/24 pricing for CC’s next 8 week cohort-based course, which will increase by $500-$1,000 after 30 June, so apply before Tues 25 June @ 12pm AEST!

🧠 KaaS (Knowledge as a Service)

Gem’s Pick 💁‍♂️ VC Crash Course (Part 1), by Claire Bristow

• “When I first started in VC, I truly had little idea wtf I was doing 🤷‍♀️” - if you resonate with this sentiment from Claire (Senior Investment Associate @ Skalata), whether as an aspiring or junior investor, or a founder trying to navigate the weird and wonderful world of VC, then this course is for you! (And did I mention it’s FREE!?).

• Check out Claire’s original LinkedIn post to learn more about how she came to create this awesome resource. She intends to release a Part 2 and 3 to this course, so keep your eyes peeled for future announcements! 👀 

• Tip: Fill out this form, and you’ll receive access to the resource immediately.

Will’s Pick 💁‍♂️ Canva’s SEO strategy is elite by Ryan Kaufman

• Found this after listening to Cameron Adams's interview on Lenny’s podcast, which recapped the journey so far and dropped some product knowledge.

  • I found this article useful on my journey to understand SEO as I put it into practice with the Startup Speakers website. Thankfully, I’ve been in good hands with the Findable team.

• My main takeaways. Focus on goals and solution-related searches on your pages and create blogs that are directly or indirectly related to your topic.

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‘Til next time,

👋 Will & Gem