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. 🚀
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👀 Headlines 👀
Globally, the market for startup shares is getting even weirder as SPVs surge in popularity and the tokenisation of startup equity emerges. (The Economist)
VC secondaries transactions hit a record $102B in H1 2025 (+41% YoY), as investors chase access to hot private startups.
SPVs, and then “secondary SPVs” which are SPVs in SPVs, are surging, giving outsiders indirect stakes. This can cause headaches for the founders since the cap tables quickly grow into the thousands and change reporting requirements.
This boom is powered by the growth of private exchanges where users can buy into private companies with lower friction.
Blackbird & Airtree miss their own targets of investing in women founders for year 3 running (AFR, Smart Company, Startup Daily)
Currently, Women-only founders receive 2% of capital at each firm, with internal targets set since 2023 that are still unmet.
Both firms point towards a pipeline problem, only ~30% of IC pitches included a woman founder vs 40% target; both firms back ~2% of companies they see, yet say mixed-gender teams succeed at similar rates. This translates to needing to see more women founders and mixed gender teams' deals initially as they progress them through their deal process.
Blackbird's numbers show that in FY25, mixed teams got 60% of FY25 capital, and 9/25 (36%) new investments had a woman co-founder (2× last year). On the positive side, 43% of its early mentoring cohorts are women-led. (Blackbird self-reporting)
For Airtree, the majority of FY25 capital went to male-only teams.
This news hit home with the departure of Lucy Tan, who exits her role as Square Peg principal after 4 years. She’ll join portfolio company Traild (accounts payable automation & fraud prevention) in an operating role. Square Peg backed Traild’s Series A last year.
This newscycle sparked off a discussion and analysis about the lack of female funding. Elain Stead took to Startup Daily to write an op-ed about the female founder funnel myth and argued that there just aren’t enough female founders. Jessy Wu opined on LinkedIn on the lack of female leadership at the principal and partner level across Australia’s leading VCs. Both well worth a read.
📦 Rokt valuation lifts to $7.2b (+28%) after two investors mark up their holdings' valuation. (AFR)
This markup now makes Rokt, the AI-driven e-commerce platform that personalises checkout and post-purchase offers, helping merchants earn more from each transaction, the third-most valuable AU-founded private tech behind Canva ($65b) and Airwallex ($9.5b).
Rokt has raised more than $US500m from TDM, Square Peg, Tiger Global, Wellington, Whale Rock.
🧑🤝🧑 Birchal, Australia’s largest crowdfunding platform, overhauls pricing to match delivery costs and cuts 30% of leadership, marking its second reduction in ~12 months after July 2024 expense cuts amid weak volumes. (Smart Company)
The cut follows Kirstin Hunter’s 5th month as the new CEO. She joins from having previously managed TechStars and co-founded Future Super. Her arrival followed the departure of the previous CEO and co-founder, Matt Vitale.
The fixed fee rises to $7,000 (was previously $4,200), and success fees will now scale based on the amount of capital raised. Previously, the flat rate was 7.5%.
8% less than $500k
6% between $500k–$1M
5% more than $1M
The hope is that falling interest rates will help ease cost-of-living pressure and revive retail investor activity in crowdfunding.
💲💲Airwallex and Atlassian both announce M&A for expansion into new business lines
Airwallex has acquired OpenPay for an undisclosed sum in the tens of millions (cash-and-stock mix) to add recurring billing and subscription management capabilities across multiple currencies (Open Pay Announcement, AFR)
Atlassian has acquired The Browser Company for US$610m cash (~A$932m) in one of its biggest deals, acquiring the owner of AI-browsers, Arc and Dia. (Atlassian Announcement, SMH)
Both deals represent strategic expansion: Airwallex now competes directly with Stripe across the full payments stack, while Atlassian targets a billion "knowledge workers" (also known as the laptop workforce) with AI-powered browser tools for search, summarising, and drafting.
🎙 Canva’s Cliff Obrecht hints at IPO on rare podcast appearance (AFR)
On the episode of 20VC, Cliff gestures that the latest private valuation of $64 billion AUD is likely less than what they would get on the public market. (YouTube Link)
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⚡ Startup Retro ⚡
Nutromics raises $7.5M acceleration round for its biosensor-rich patch, ICU trials and the development of a manufacturing facility
Founders: Peter Vranes and Hitesh Mehta
Nutromics, a wearable diagnostics startup, has banked $7.5 million in an “acceleration round” led by an unnamed Australian life sciences investor, bringing total funding to $60 million as it pushes its “lab-on-a-patch” towards market. The platform combines DNA-based biosensors, microneedles and analytics to continuously monitor therapeutics in vivo, starting with vancomycin, a potent but notoriously hard-to-dose antibiotic, with an FDA submission targeted for 2028.
CEO and co-founder Peter Vranes says a world-first clinical study completed in 2024 delivered positive results, and the company has now moved into ICU trials — also billed as a first for this class of wearable diagnostics. In parallel, Nutromics is courting pharma to supply research-use-only patches to support drug development studies, generating the startup’s first commercial revenue while it navigates regulatory pathways.
Also on the agenda is manufacturing at scale. Nutromics is in the planning phase of a state-of-the-art facility and is weighing Australian versus offshore locations, contingent on government and investor support. Beyond vancomycin, the company is eyeing indications in sepsis, cardiology and emergency triage where real-time therapeutic monitoring could cut adverse events and length of stay.
Founded in 2017 by Vranes and COO Hitesh Mehta, Nutromics is part of a broader push to make biosensing continuous and clinically actionable.
Due Diligence: Aumanufacturing
Aether raises $3.4M Seed round to connect presentations with living data
Founders: Carsten Gruber and Ursula von Keisenberg
Aether, an Auckland–Melbourne AI startup giving PowerPoint-style decks an AI makeover, has raised NZ$3.8 million (A$3.4m) in Seed funding, backed by Icehouse Ventures with support from Brand Fund 2. Aether was spun out of venture studio New+Improved (run by the people behind Tracksuit and Ideally) and founded in 2025 by former TikTok NZ country manager Carsten Grueber and ex-Timely ANZ MD/Xero Asia sales lead Ursula von Keisenberg.
Aether turns static marketing presentations into live, data-connected documents. The platform plugs directly into a company’s data sources to auto-build brand-safe slides in minutes, keep numbers continuously up to date, and generate exec-ready commentary. Target use cases include board packs, quarterly business reviews, campaign reports, agency briefs and knowledge management.
Out of stealth, Aether has signed enterprise customers in Australia, New Zealand and the US, on track for NZ$600,000 in ARR, with more than half from Australia. Currently, Aether is working with Spark, Previously Unavailable, Hancocks Wine, Kiwi Bank and large FMCG bands, a large Aussie Telco and a global fitness brand. The Seed round will accelerate product development and hiring across ANZ.
Grueber says Aether tackles “institutional amnesia”, repetitive report production and stale decks; the company claims it can distil 150 reports across 12 languages into the 10 slides that matter, or assess new ideas against a firm’s marketing strategy.
Due Diligence: Startup Daily
Litemaps raises NZ$1.4M to build an AI-powered research platform for scientists
Founder: Andrew Preston
Litmaps, the Wellington-based building a visual, AI-powered research discovery platform, has closed an oversubscribed NZ$1.4 million round to accelerate product integration and global expansion. The seed extension was led by UK-based Scholarly Angels, founded by Publons’ Andrew Preston, with additional backing from No Brand and investors across the US, UK and Australia. The raise follows Litmaps’ acquisition of ResearchRabbit and cements a combined user base of more than two million researchers.
Positioned as an antidote to static search lists and clunky databases, Litmaps turns citation networks into interactive maps that reveal what’s been done in a field, and what hasn’t. By modelling a researcher’s existing knowledge and layering in validated AI insights, the platform surfaces relevant connections while avoiding the hallucinations that plague generic AI tools. It’s built on trusted open metadata (think Nature, The Lancet, PubMed and arXiv). It is already used by scientists at Harvard, Stanford, Imperial and Cambridge, as well as AI labs and medtech startups.
CEO Axton Pitt says the fresh capital will fund a single integrated product that unifies Litmaps and ResearchRabbit for “richer insights, faster discovery and a smoother user experience”. It’s a push he frames as giving researchers “a verified second opinion” before they step into the lab
Due Diligence: Press Release
💸 Wins💸
🚀 Seven Australian startups made Forbes Asia’s 2025 “100 to Watch”. (Forbes)
Blinq: Digital business cards used in 189 countries by 2.5m users; raised US$25m Series A in June (Touring Capital, Blackbird, Square Peg, HubSpot Ventures).
Heidi Health: An AI medical scribe that automates clinical documentation to save clinicians time.
ElectraLith: Monash Uni spin-out refining lithium without water or chemicals via DLE-R that has raised a $27.5m Series A.
Sicona Battery Technologies: Silicon-graphite anodes enabling up to 20% higher energy density and 40% faster charging.
EcoJoule Energy: Grid stability hardware (EcoSTORE, EcoVAR). Customers include Ausgrid, AusNet, and Endeavour Energy.
Neara: Physics-enabled digital twins for utilities; used by Essential Energy.
Unleash live: AI video analytics for real-time operations, such as airports and industrial sites.
♻️ Samsara Eco, the startup that utilises engineered enzymes (EosEco) to break down plastics into their monomers for reuse, has opened its new headquarters and first factory in Jerrabomberra, NSW. (AuManufacturing)
The site will allow for on-site enzyme production and an AI-powered enzyme discovery platform to handle a broader range of plastics.
Jerrabomberra serves as the runway for a 20,000-tonne nylon 6,6 commercial plant planned for Asia in 2028 (with KBR).
Samsara was spun out in partnership with Main Sequence and ANU. It raised $56m (Series A, 2022) and $100m (2024) to drive commercialisation and get to here.
🙋 People Moves 🙋
👀 Misha Saul exits EVP after leading the controversial StrongRoom AI investment, which saw EVP call the police weeks post-deal. (Capital Brief)
Saul joined Aug 2024 from private equity to run EVP’s $42m Opportunity Fund, targeting revenue-generating B2B with larger cheques than EVP’s typical $1m–$5m.
Federal Court filings (April) say EVP was “profoundly misled” during the investment process; DD included founder/employee meetings, nine customer calls, and data-room review, etc.
StrongRoom AI is now owned by Joe Zhou, who acquired the startup with a $1m EVP loan. EVP is still pursuing recovery with the next court date set for 22nd September.
The market response to this has been interesting. OS is aware of a few advisory firms that have since spun up “due diligence as a service” for VC funds, which includes deeper financial audits and thorough reviews of accounting software and payment systems to detect fraud.
🤖 Collabra.ai names Chris Ellis (ex-CEO, Finder Australia) as Co-founder & CEO to lead commercialisation after two years of deep product build.
Collabra offers back-office automation for the mid-market by building rule-following AI agents that blend RPA-grade reliability with AI, run securely inside customer networks, and deliver consistent, auditable outcomes. The platform has early traction in logistics, recruitment, IT services and property sectors.
Ellis will join CTO Alon Novy (BlueFire → Dimension Data; Immutable; ScalaMed; Kinela). The project is backed by investor Neill Miller, who is now chairman of the company. His company Zeetings was Canva’s first acquisition, while his early investments include SEEK, SafetyCulture, Envizi (sold to IBM) and Blackbird Ventures as an LP.
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📆 Notice Board 📆
🏅 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. Nominations open on the 7th of August here and 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.
🟠 Our friends at The Community Collective have launched their new Community Cohort #7 program to help businesses master community-led growth.
OS also has one scholarship available to receive 45% off the cohort. Reply to this email to claim it, and we will proceed on a first-come, first-served basis, so please act quickly!
🚀 Startmate is hosting an Alumni Demo Day with Stripe on 11th September
You’ll hear pitches from alumni like Heaps Normal, Propeller, WORK180 and Mindset Health. Plus, you’ll be with 2,000+ investors, founders and operators in the room. 👉 Free rego 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 💁 The Pricing Dilemma: Freemium, Free Trial, or Reverse Trial? by the Growth Mind Newsletter.
I’ve noticed more and more leading startups are pushing users onto reverse trials, where you get a short period of all the features of their platform, and then get bumped down to a lighter version of their product. The big benefit is that you’ve already captured their payment information, and hopefully, they’ve started using (and gotten value out of) premium features.
Anyway, I had a bit of fun reading up on the different options for product lead growth startups. Turns out a free trial isn’t always the best option.
Have we missed something? Got some feedback? We love emails, so send one over!
👔 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Overnight Success, Will
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‘Til next time,
👋 Will