G'day and welcome to Overnight Success, the best newsletter to stick with you through 2023. A warm welcome to the 11 new subscribers that have joined since the last edition! You've just joined 901 other legends learning about Aussie start-ups.

Headlines:

• 🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏼“Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill” has passed meaning Aussies employees can share pay information.

  • The bill removes bans on secrecy clauses and aims at reducing gender pay gaps in the workforce.

• ✂️ Big Tech feels the crunch

  • Salesforce laid off 7,000 (10%) after hiring ‘too many people’ in the pandemic. (Tech Crunch)

  • Amazon ‘plans to eliminate over 18,000 roles’ (Tech Crunch)

• ☀️ ARENA, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency has given SunDrive $2.78M.

  • The funding will be used to improve the commercial viability of SunDrive's perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells.

  • SunDrive raised their Series B in October 2022. Read OS’s summary here.

1. Start-up Retro: Australia's start-up raises with a smidge of context.

2. Notice Board: Signposting key events and opportunities.

3. Accredited Tweeters: Snippets from Twitter.

4. (KaaS) Knowledge as a Service: Articles to make you smarter. Or to share with co-workers to make them think you’re smart.

⚡️Start-up Retro⚡️

Advanced Manufacturing & Body Scanning

📏 Bodd secures $5M to leverage 3D body scanning to improve the clothes shopping experience

Bodd has raised $5M to expand its 3D body scanning technology for advanced manufacturing into the North American wellness, fashion retail and pharmaceutical sectors. The funding round was led by retail entrepreneurs Candice and Nick Hirons and included support from family offices and high-net-worth individuals. Bodd's 60-second scanner, made by Bosch, captures all the information required to create a data "passport" that enables companies to tailor products to customers. The capital will also support the company's expansion into the uniform sector and increased staffing. CEO Rob Fisher said the company, which has partnerships with Swinburne University of Technology and RMIT, was "well positioned to become the global standard" in body data. Bodd has also secured a solid partnership with Australian Defence Apparel, which uses the platform to reduce the time for custom uniform requirements for defence personnel.

The scan outputs are pretty incredible. Not only does Bodd spit out a 3D body model of yourself with exact lengths and girths, the system also gives a detailed analysis of health vitals. These include your bone mass, visceral fat rating, metabolic age, muscle mass and quality, plus total body water. For the complete list, head here.

Due Diligence: The Australian & Startup Daily

FinTech

🏦 AeroTruth secures $1.3M to help fintechs interface with each other

Aerotruth, a fintech software start-up that streamlines the B2B partnership process for fintechs and banks, has raised $1.3m in a Seed funding. Archangel Ventures led the round. The company launched globally in May 2022 with more than 40 financial institutions on its plug-and-play platform. The funds will accelerate Aerotruth's global expansion and expand the capabilities of the current product. The company takes the pain out of the document exchange and communications process for fintechs and banks. The platform has helped users shorten onboarding processes by several months. The round was led by Archangel Ventures with investment from Black Sheep Capital, Change Com, Cut Through Angels, Spring Captial and Unlock Capital.

Due Diligence: Startup Daily

Block Chain / Metaverse / Golf

🏌️‍♀️ The blockchain golfing app, Play Today, has secured a $1.2M Seed round

Play Today has raised $1.2m in Seed funding to develop a blockchain-based golfing app. The company aims to create an international brand that supports and enhances the experience of playing golf in the real world, as well as providing a virtual clubhouse where golfers can trade stories and watch live coverage of events. Most of the funding will develop a digital scoring app with a crypto wallet, enabling golfers to record their rounds and compete against others. Play Today's scoring app and wallet is based on the Flow blockchain, and the company has set a target of 100,000 mobile app users by the end of 2023. The funding has come from Clive Mayhew, the current Chair of Fishburners. As with all old-school deals, the founders apparently met Clive on the golf course.

Due Diligence: AFR

If you're a founder or investor who has just closed a round, please reach out!

Notice Board

• Looking for a fresh start in 2023? 

  • My startup gig has 2,178 jobs currently open across 571 companies. Check them out here.

• Innovation Bay’s first Investor Day event in the Sunshine State is on the 20th of February.

  • Apply to pitch your startup here. Applications close on the 20th January.

• _SOUTHSTART Odyssey tickets are now on sale.

  • After a successful Startup Week program in November _SOUTHSTART has launched tickets to their flagship annual event in March 2023. Learn more & get tickets 

Accredited Tweeters

(KaaS) Knowledge as a Service

• How VC’s Value Early Stage Start-ups by Talia Goldberg. 

  • This post focuses on a scenario analysis that uses probability's and time to calculate the success of a start-up and therefore a valuation.  

• How to introduce yourself by the Harvard Business Review.  

  • A short blog post on a playbook for the next time you're in a meeting and someone says let's do a quick whip around and introduce ourselves.  

• Microsoft's future with ChatGTP creator, Open AI by Dan Primack and Ina Fried.

  • The pros and cons to why Microsoft may take a larger stake in the OpenAI business following its valuation at $29B.

What is the best thing you read or published this week? Reply to this email to be featured.

Have I missed something? We love emails, so send one over!

• 🦤 Find me on Twitter

• 👔 Holler on Linkedin

• 💌 Email

• 🚀 Sponsorship Opportunities with Overnight Success