💌 Aussie start-up & Venture Capital Retro! 13th August

G'day and welcome to Overnight Successes, the weekly newsletter that levels you up on Aussie start-ups. Welcome to the 10 new subscribers who join 218 other legends learning about Aussie start-ups.

If this was forwarded to you, join investors from Startmate, Rampersand VC, x15, Blackbird, Superseed, Macquarie, Folklore, and Flying Fox keeping up to date with Aussie Start-ups here!

Headlines:

• 🌳 Link-in-bio start-up, Linktree cuts ~17% of its 280-person team.

• 💳 OneVentures kicks off a raise for a $200M credit fund.

  • Credit aka debt funding may be more attractive to a start-up looking to avoid a down round or extend their runway.

• 🦄 LaunchVic, the Victorian Governments start-up agency, brings 9 ‘scale-ups’ into the fold. The 30X30 aims to get 30 Victorian companies to reach unicorn status by 2030.

• 🔥 Tech Council of Australia released their roadmap report of getting to 1.2M tech jobs.

  • Full digest at the bottom of the newsletter! (PDF Here)

1. Start-up retro: Summarising the week's start-up raises with a smidge of context.

2. Accelerator News: A snappy digest of new accelerator cohorts.

3. Aussie Raisins: Summarising Aussie start-ups looking to get some investment.

4. Notice Board: Signposting key events and opportunities in the ecosystem.

5. Accredited Tweeters: Snippets from Twitter!

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

7. Tech Council of Australia: Report Summary with special guest.

Start-up Retro!

FinTech

🕴️Timelio

News: The Goldman Sachs-backed start-up, Timelio, has raised $7.5M via a rights issue while its OG founders depart the business. Timelio helps their business customers by receiving payments due from customers early. The new cash is highly dilutive with the post-money valuation at $8.4M. For context, funding for FinTechs has been hard as of late with Volt Bank shut down in June. The capital came from previous investors Thorney Investments, Wilbow Group, Riversdale Capital and David Roseman. In 2021, Goldman Sachs led ~$200-300M in debt financing. Timelio looks to continue to grow with recent acquisitions of the Bendigo and Adelaide Banks invoice financing books.

Read more about it: (AFR)

HealthTech

💻👩‍⚕️ InstantScripts

News: The digital healthcare platform that helps customers manage their health remotely, InstantScripts, has raised another $5M. The cash comes from ASX-listed Bailador Technology Investments in follow-on investment as they’ve previously injected $16.6M into the business. InstantScripts enjoys a nice 10% bump in valuation. The start-up provides online healthcare which includes rapid online prescriptions, medical certificates and Telehealth consultations. The service is cheap too. Prescriptions are $15 without consultation while Telehealth consultations are $49. The service also offers home delivery which is operated by a single pharmacy in Melbourne. The business grew 120% year-on-year in 2022 with over 500K users registered. The raise follows Amazon buying One Medical for $3.9B USD with a similar business model.

Read more about it: (Start-up Daily)

Agriculture & B2C

🥔 Good & Fugly

News: The Sydney-based dating app social enterprise which delivers fruit and vegetables not at the aesthetic standards of supermarkets, Good & Fugly, has raised 500K. The crowdfunding campaign was powered by Birchal. 652 backers took the bet with a minimal cheque size of $250. The business offers standalone orders or subscription boxes. Their stock comes from the 25% of fruit and veg that never reaches supermarket shelves. Farmers can let the start-up know they have extra produce that is available and G&F picks up a bargain. Farmers love the service as it unlocks a revenue stream that didn’t exist previously. The raise is a great example of a B2C start-up leveraging their true fans who all receive a box of fruit and veg with their investment. G&F will use the funds to expand into Victoria and continue on their mission to rescue “fuglies”.

Read more about it: (Start-up Daily)

Aussie Raisins: Start-ups looking for 💵!

• Beauty brand famous for its coffee-based scrubs, Frank Body, is looking to raise $15M from investors. The Melbourne-based start up is looking to fuel international expansion. Previously Frank Body was valued at $100M last year when taking on cash from Chinese-based PE, EverYi Capital. 

Accelerators ⏩

Medtech Actuator has selected 10 start-ups for their accelerator with up to $200K each and a second tranche if the business hits a program milestone. Here is a super brief into to each!

• InflaMed: Managing chronic inflammation in the palm of your hands

• Healtharium: Making it easier to find, buy and sell healthcare software.

• DFU Solutions: Improving outcomes for diabetic foot ulcer patients.

• Anura Medical: Enabling preventative health care through innovative lung monitoring.

• AU-MDXD: Delivering technology-based mobility rehabilitation at the point of care and home

• Gravida Health: A guiding hand to improve the induction of labour.

• Vysum Technologies: Improving glaucoma treatment compliance and management for better vision.

• Vause Medical: An accessible improvement to lumbar punctures in newborns

• Symex Labs: Empowering couples to manage their reproductive health through continuous hormone sensing

• Misti: Protection from childhood infection via lung delivery of treatments

• ACUTRODE: Helping doctors treat the seizures that they can’t see

Frank Lab - a 6-month program that focuses on profitable impact start-ups and helps with legal advice, has chosen 10 start-ups for their 2022 program. Here is a super brief intro to each!

• AIBuild: Using AI to provide businesses custom solutions.

• Book an Artist: Marketplace for booking artists to create original artwork.

• Circle 8 Clean Technologies: Waste management and circular economy.

• DigiSoil: Mapping of soil across farming paddocks to increase optimisation.

• Edapt Education: Personalised teaching.

• Fyrrr: Learning content for the workplace.

• Stipped Supply: Diabetes pharmaceuticals subscrition box

• Ultimate Athlete: Using insights from worldclass athletes to help consumers get fitter.

• Unhedged: Investment app that uses algorithms to manage your money.

Notice Board

• Pitch VC is investing $60K pre-seed into weekly into start-ups and helping them grow.

• The Startmate Women Fellowship is a two-month program that helps ambitious women find their dream job in a startup. Read more about the Fellowship and apply before August 14 (more info here).

• Optus Future Makers Program is calling all social enterprises to their accelerator. Get involved if you're building in health, environment or social. (more info here).

Accredited Tweeters

(KaaS) Knowledge as a Service

• AirTree Venture Capitals Open Source VC has just been updated to include a series of start-up documents and legal templates.

Tech Council of Australia Report: Getting to 1.2M Workers in Tech

Summarised by Startmates Chief of Staff Phoebe Pincus. Full report available here.

• Vacancy rates in tech are 60% higher than the national average and tech jobs are forecast to grow at triple the rate

• The #1 barrier identified to Australians moving into these tech jobs is the lack of awareness about what tech jobs exist. 49% of people surveyed said 'I'm not sure where to start when talking about barriers to careers in tech.

• There are still strong demographic skews in tech jobs, with women, older Australians and regional Australians being under-represented

  • 74% of tech workers are men

  • Just 1 in 10 people studying a university qualification in tech are women

  • Only 33% of young women consider a career in tech, compared to 69% of men

• Developers will be in huge demand. by 2030 there will be 585,000 people working in these roles.

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