6 Australian startup leaders share how they’ll be celebrating Christmas with their teams
Humans are inherently social animals, which made 2020 one of the hardest years in living memory, especially for the closely-knit teams of small startups. Thankfully, the year is ending on a high note in Australia with...
Startup Daily TV: Pearlii is helping people have healthy teeth for free
Pearlii is a world-first dental app offering free check-ups to help people maintain their oral health, checking for common problems such as tooth decay and gum disease. Founder and CEO Dr Kyle Turner made Pearlii free knowing the three biggest barriers to seeing a dentist are cost, time, and where you live. The app is still in early release, but available for free on the Google Play and Apple App stores in Australia. Dr Turner plans to...
The 12 Days of Startups: Give your home a detox
When bushfires scorched Australia last summer, one way people found solace was through the Melbourne wellness brand Sensori+ and its air detoxifying mists and candles. For co-founder Marc Wang, it was validation that eight years of product development for the brand’s environmentally friendly products, locally-made from natural ingredients. That initial growth in sales continued through 2020 as people spent more time at home and...
FutureFeed, the CSIRO-backed startup reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cattle, just won US$1m it will use it go get Aboriginal people into farming
FutureFeed, the CSIRO-backed startup using seaweed to reduce methane emission from cattle has won US$1 million from the world’s biggest prize for the food sector. The Food Planet Prize, established by Swedish...
Afterpay is now one of the ASX’s top 20 stocks (even though it’s yet to be profitable)
Afterpay will receive an early Christmas present next week, joining the elite S&P/ASX 20 Index of the 20 largest companies by market capitalisation on December 21, alongside the likes of Coles, CBA, Rio Tinto, BHP and CSL, as the company’s share price continues to soar The fintech (ASX: APT) now has a market cap of more than $30 billion market cap, having closed Monday’s trade up nearly 9% to $109.93 after reaching a new record...
Space tech incubator Moonshot has its first investment fund and is now on the hunt for startups to back
Tech incubator Moonshot has raised its first investment fund for space startups and opened applications for its next investment accelerator in early 2021. Moonshot is a specialist incubator space startups launched in...
The 12 Days of Startups: Enjoy beer without the booze
Jaz Wearin isn’t new to brewing beer, but when she was pregnant and craved a cold one, she couldn’t find a non-alcoholic beer she enjoyed. So she decided to solve her own problem and make one. Jaz is already a craft brewing veteran, having co-founded Sydney’s Modus Operandi Brewing in 2014 with her husband Grant. Now the country-raised mother has another baby alongside a toddler: the new non-alcoholic beer brand NORT. Nort...
Canva’s 2020 went globally gangbusters as the design giant signed deals around the world
The continued rise of online design unicorn Canva was even more impressive in 2020 with the Sydney-based global venture revealing it developed 42 new partnerships in 18 countries in defiance of the disruption caused by...
The 12 days of Startups: Go catch a wave
When carpenter Rikki Gilbey moved from England to Sydney nearly a decade ago, it changed his life in several ways, including a new found love for bodysurfing. But when he tried to find a handplane to use for catching waves, he could find any at the quality level he wanted, so he put his carpentry skills to use to solve the problem. He made a few extra to sell at the markets. Demand was so strong Rikki decided to turn it into a business...
Black Friday just beat Boxing Day as Australia’s biggest retail sales event
The rapid rise of online shopping and ecommerce has flipped consumer behaviour from the era when shoppers crammed into retail stores on Boxing Day sale with the recent Black Friday promotion beating December 26 as Australia’s most popular time to shop according to new data from Westpac. Westpac merchant facilities processed a record 68 million transactions through the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales (Nov 25-30), up 5.7% on last...
Uber’s ditched its Melbourne flying taxi project
US rideshare company Uber has shed its flying taxi project less than six months after the company reaffirmed plans to launch Uber Air in Melbourne. Joby Aviation, a Californian startup developing an all-electric, vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) passenger aircraft it hopes to launch by 2023, has bought the Uber Elevate project off the rideshare business for an undisclosed sum, although Uber has agreed to tip another $75 million...
Amazon Web Services sets up shop in Victoria with a new regional hub
Amazon Web Services will set up a second Australian-based Asia Pacific cloud infrastructure region in Victoria. The AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region is expected to open in the second half of 2022 and create up to 90 jobs within four years, including data centre operatives and technical engineers. Victorian Minister for Economic Development Tim Pallas said the government welcomed the investment. “The new AWS Region will draw on our...
The RBA believes the BNPL sector isn’t mature enough for retailers to pass on surcharge costs to consumers
The buy now, pay later sector has been given a stay of execution in its fight to stop merchants passing on the costs of the service to consumers with an ongoing review by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) concluding the sector has not yet reached a tipping point in favour of introducing the change. While BNPLs are experiencing dramatic growth in the battle for market share against credit cards, RBA governor Philip Lowe said today in...