More than half of the capital came from global institutional investors, including Harvard Management Company, University of Wisconsin, MetLife Investment Management, and Adams Street Partners.

Airtree deliberately avoided raising a “mega-fund,” citing the risk of diluting returns; the fund will be split into $250M for early-stage and $400M for growth investments over 2–3 years.

The new fund highlights a surge in international LP interest, with Australian and NZ VC now the third-largest contributor to global liquid tech returns after the US and China.

I’ve broken down more on the fund in new fund, who’s this section below. 

The new FAST Group combines Sendle with ACI Logistix and e-commerce delivery specialist FastMile, with HQ in California.

ACI Logistix CEO Keith Sommers will lead FAST Group; James Chin Moody remains CEO of Sendle, which will continue operating under its own brand.

Founded in 2014, Sendle disrupted Australia Post with lower-cost, convenient parcel delivery for SMEs, and entered the US market in 2019.

Sendle’s last major funding was a US$10M raise in 2023 from private equity firm Federation, following a $45M Series C in 2021 led by AP Ventures.

The 2023 round from Federation raised a few eyebrows as it included 8x liquidity preferences for the incoming investors. This means that in the event of an exit or sale, those investors could claim 8x their investment before anyone else could receive a return on their investment.

However, it seems to have worked out… Sendle has quadrupled its net revenue in the past year and doubled in size; the three companies saw complementary strengths in solving similar logistics challenges.

All existing investors, including early backers, supported the deal, which Moody says will significantly enhance operational impact across all entities.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are changing how people discover brands, forcing companies to optimise for AI search rather than Google search alone.

On a practical level, Linktree is hiring a dedicated Head of AEO to ensure its brand appears in AI chatbot responses, adapting content, product and help pages for LLM-friendly formats. Airwallex is rebuilding web content with structured, machine-readable data and boosting its presence on high-authority platforms like Reddit and YouTube to influence AI outputs.

This follows startups like Hall (backed by Blackbird), which was featured last week, that help brands measure and improve AI search visibility.

Individuals are also considering how they appear in search results. To get a sense of how AI sees you, check out Encour Avatar. Disclosure: I work at Encour! 

Founded in 2015 by Quirin and Sabrina Schwaighofer, MadeComfy helps homeowners and real estate agencies manage short-term rentals across Airbnb, Booking.com and Stayz.

The company manages 1,300+ properties worth over $60M in Gross Booking Value and works with ~100 real estate agencies.

Prior funding includes $10M in 2023 (for tech upgrades, Australian expansion, and a New Zealand launch), $6M in 2018, and $1.1M in 2017.

Shareholders received a mix of cash and equity in Oyo’s parent company, Oravel Stays.

Marks the first major bank in Australia with a startup-focused division, following HSBC’s 2023 acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank UK’s assets. Australia will now become the sixth international market for HSBC Innovation Banking.

Innovation banking offers corporate banking services tailored to Series A+ companies and VCs, including treasury management, international payments, and dedicated relationship managers.

HSBC claims to be the only bank in Australia offering venture debt, with $228M committed since 2023, half already deployed. Of course, Australia has other venture debt providers like Mighty Partners and Tractor Ventures, but venture debt uptake in Australia remains low (<5% of VC funding) compared to 15–20% in the US.

Located at 63 Pirie Street, the site spans two floors with private offices, coworking areas, meeting rooms, event spaces, and premium end-of-trip facilities. The opening follows last year’s Melbourne CBD opening and five existing Sydney locations; more than 200 companies are based at Tank Stream Labs.

The opening comes ahead of a planned $5.5M acquisition by Scalare Partners announced in July.

Founded in 2022, Deeligence uses AI to automate legal due diligence in M&A, enabling lawyers to review thousands of documents in half the time while flagging risks and generating client-ready reports.

The Startup World Cup, hosted by Startup&Angels, is a multi-stage global pitch competition that starts with regional events in 50+ cities across six continents.

Year13, founded in 2012, supports over 2M students transitioning from school to work and raised $10M from Future Now Capital back in 2021; a new raise is reportedly in the works.

Student Edge, founded in 2002, serves ~1M students with discounts, career advice, study tools and entertainment.

Based at Anna’s HQ in The Rocks, the service provides a legally registered address, mail scanning, compliance alerts, and integration with Anna’s banking and bookkeeping tools.

The affordable, admin-light alternative to physical offices can help keep early-stage founders’ home addresses off ASIC records. The first 100 startups affected by the Sydney Startup Hub closure can access the service for free for 12 months.

Tracking tech is integrated into the TSA lock, allowing travellers to locate their bags via Apple Find My Phone or Google Hub without needing separate devices.

Designed by July’s René Walk, the range includes 42L carry-on ($375) and 80L checked ($425) models, plus ‘Exclusive’ editions, targeted towards Gold, Platinum, and Platinum One frequent flyer members, are available for an extra cost. There’s no word on whether there will be a chairman's lounge suitcase, though.

In a bit of funny irony, the partnership could help customers address lost luggage issues. Apparently, Qantas mishandled 4.6 bags per 1,000 passengers in mid-2024, down from 6 per 1,000 in 2022.

$250M of the fund is the Seed Fund for pre-seed and seed deals, while the remaining $400M is the Growth Fund to back breakout companies from the portfolio and beyond.

The strategy is all about early-stage conviction, which means leading early, often pre-revenue, with a concentrated portfolio, and offering deep founder support.

50%+ of capital from tier-one global investors, including major endowments, funds, insurers, and pensions across the US, Europe and Asia. Harvard University’s endowment, the University of Wisconsin Endowment, AustralianSuper and Telstra are all LPs. 

Airtree is also committed to ecosystem building, including portfolio programs, founder communities, and Open Source VC resources to accelerate scaling. 🤌

The platform is led by UNSW’s New Ventures team, operated by licensed financial services provider GXE for investor onboarding and compliance, and chaired by UNSW Pro Vice-Chancellor of Industry and Innovation Professor Stephen Rodda.

It is designed to address the funding gap in deep tech by allowing investors to back individual companies directly, rather than through pooled VC funds, making it easier to support ventures with complex science and long commercialisation timelines.

The initiative is launching with three UNSW-affiliated companies, one each in quantum computing, AI, and IVF technology, which are currently raising capital but remain unnamed for confidentiality reasons.

Companies looking for funding can find out more information here, while investors can head here.

The in-person Pitch Deck Teardown will kick off at 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm AEST, with very limited spots left (it may have sold out!). Register here. You can also apply to join Blackbird Giants here.

Your input helps guide policy, funding, and support for founders nationwide. Fill it in here.

Participants join a six-week bootcamp, receiving $12,500 equity-free funding, with two standout teams awarded an additional $25,000 to develop their prototypes. Expressions of interest close 21 August. Apply here.

OpenAI just released GPT-5 and it’s pretty epic, but Ethan has had early access, and this blog post goes into some depth to highlight what the new model is capable of. I read those benchmark reports, and apart from having stupid graphs, they don’t mean much to me. Actual examples and real-world demonstrations do, though.

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