Aussie Startups Pulse Check - June 2024 💓

Welcome to the June edition of Pulse Check! 💗 

A huge welcome to the 67 new subscribers who’ve joined us since last edition! 👯 

What is Pulse Check?

Pulse Check is an initiative of Overnight Success (OS), powered by an amazing team of volunteer writers (“correspondents”) who have each contributed their own insights to bring you a comprehensive overview of what’s happening in many corners of the Aussie ecosystem.

In case you’re new here, you can get a weekly download of startup news from our OG newsletter 👇️.

P.S. If this email gets cut short for you (thanks Gmail!), you can always read the online version here.

A shocker for diversity: 96.6% funding to men

May was a shocker for diversity: 90.4% of dollars announced in May flowed to man-only teams, which increased to 96.6% of dollars attributable to male founders when we disaggregate mixed gender teams. No gender minority only teams announced raises in May.

May saw the announcement of two raises greater than $100M. The fact that both companies were founded by men-only teams is a big driver of this change.

The May results pushed the cumulative amount of funding attributed to male founders in 2024 to 89.8% (up from 86.1% in April).

For more detailed breakdown see our blog here, or to see how we disaggregate mixed gender teams see here.

Alice Anderson increases its lead

LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund has increased its lead in the investor leaderboard, with 4 investments into gender minority or mixed gender teams.

Alice Anderson Fund (AAF) has now made double the number of investments into gender diverse teams than any other VC fund, despite the fact the AAF is limited to investing in Victorian startups. 

Given other VCs have a broader geographic mandate, we’d expect to see a closer competition for the top spot. Let’s see what happens next month.

To get in touch with Preethi Mohan or Kirstin Hunter, send them a message on LinkedIn.

June Munchies 

Over the last couple of months, I’ve learnt that pubs and clubs with pokies get as much as 90% of their revenue from these machines. The truth is, without this revenue, thousands of pubs and clubs would close their doors.

Putting aside what you think about gambling, relying so heavily on a revenue stream that’s subject to legislative change isn’t a great business model.

Pubs and clubs are dealing with the uncertainty of government policy and changing local community sentiments, and this makes it incredibly difficult for them to plan for the future.

This is an opportunity for startups. The market in Australia alone is estimated at $20 billion for 2024 and adding the crossover for many venue products into the broader entertainment industry, it’s a sizeable market for more founders to be building in.

Around the Grounds 

• Entertainment x Ecommerce - Roblox partners with Walmart allowing users to purchase IRL goods and receive free digital twins directly on the platform.

• Rolling Stone cover ‘technology changing the future of entertainment’. ‘The possibilities will be endless as artists and technologists innovate and collaborate’

• Rob McElhenney (Wrexham AFC CO-owner) launches new project Adim with $5 million funding from a16z.  Adim is a new way for creators to collaborate and track ownership of what they create.

June MVP

Edit on the Spot gives hosts the ability to edit footage while events are underway, allowing a turnaround of content in hours rather than days.

To get in touch with Gav Parry, send him a message on LinkedIn.

A startup truth: incredible business opportunities rarely exist in a silo. More often than not they manifest via someone you know, and so who you know matters.

For a founder or solopreneur, building a high-value network isn’t optional, it’s essential. It helps to secure clients, build your profile, generate income, and get access to the right help at the right time — and it opens up doors to unique opportunities you otherwise would never have been able to touch.

To tap into this, here are a few ideas:

1. Setup: Create a personal CRM to track your contacts. Make a hit list of people at different career stages and think about how you can offer value to each.

2. Before the Meeting: Engage with people in the orbit of high-profile individuals. Send thoughtful messages or emails, but never ask to "pick someone’s brain."

3. During the Meeting: Match the other person’s energy, listen more than you speak, give more than you take, and take notes.

4. After the Meeting: Write thank you notes, make relevant and valuable introductions, and send personal follow-ups referencing something you’ve already discussed.

There’s no limit to the people you can meet and the opportunities you can create if you put in the work. All you need is the courage to reach out, the commitment to give more than you get, and a system to help you pull it all together. If you nail these three things you will build high-value relationships.

Want to learn more? Head here.

To get in touch with Anna Mackenzie, send her a message on LinkedIn.

JUST LAUNCHED: $10 million for ventures tackling drought resilience

Launching new ventures is hard. Especially in agriculture, with so many different stakeholders, huge distances to travel, and adversity in the climate.

Enter Beanstalk AgTech’s Drought Venture Studio, a world-first venture studio funded by the Federal Government to get innovators collaborating on drought resilience solutions for Australian farmers. 

Under the venture studio model, participants get 12 months of hands-on support from Beanstalk’s specialist team of Venture Builders and are matched with an experienced co-founder for commercialisation and launch. 

Expressions of interest are open to researchers, farmers, entrepreneurs, and corporate innovators. 

Startup to Watch

PHNXX

PHNXX is a Vic-based AgTech decentralising the power grid with modular microgrid systems tailored for remote communities. 

Their technology combines solar, wind, and advanced battery storage to deliver reliable, sustainable energy solutions that empower resilience in rural areas. Big things ahead.

Farm Fumbles

Staying in Victoria, the SproutX crew is hosting a pitch night for their graduating cohort inspired by the legendary FckUp Nights series. 

The evening will begin with a pitch session where agtech entrepreneurs will present their ideas to local farmers for their two cents. 

Then, community mentors will share their "Farm Fumbles” — the ups and downs of entrepreneurial life in the agtech sector — to encourage a more error-friendly culture of innovation.

See you there on Thursday 13 June.

To get in touch with Holly Clark, send her a message on LinkedIn.

🧠 Spotlight: BioTech incubator begins funding round to combat dementia

The Dementia and Cognitive Decline incubator program opened its first funding round last week, offering grants of up to $5 million per project. The $50 million program aims to fast-track the commercialisation of medical innovations to improve the quality of life for people with dementia.

• Why is this important for Australians? Dementia Australia estimates that the number of Australians with dementia will nearly double in thirty years from 412,000 in 2024 to 812,500 by 2054. This will have ripple effects on patients, carers, and the health care system.

• The program will proactively enable medical research, technologies and care models needed for the early diagnosis, treatment and support of dementia.

• Funded by the Federal Government’s Medical Research Future Fund, the program is a partnership between Brandon BioCatalyst, ANDHealth and Dementia Australia and will be delivered over five years. 

• Expressions of interest close on 4 July 2024.

🔔 Other news

• Grant applications for the Critical Technologies Challenge Program are now open to help early stage companies commercialise quantum solutions.

• Have a big idea for cardiovascular health? Learn about the Heart Foundation’s new Catalyst Partnership Grants program at their 13 June webinar.

To get in touch with Berenice Chong, send her a message on LinkedIn.

One of the biggest challenges I encountered while leading a consumer brand in the US was the sheer volume of packaging that the company both used and produced.

I quickly made it my mission to move our operations and products to utilise as much recyclable and reusable packaging as possible. This experience also opened my eyes to how the global packaging industry was (or in most cases, wasn’t) confronting the problem of unsustainable single-use packaging. That’s why two recent announcements about startups aiming to help solve this issue caught my eye.

RecycleSmart

RecycleSmart secured a $1.15 million CSF round on Birchal. By collecting around 100 items from consumers and businesses that can’t usually be put in yellow recycling bins and working with partners to recycle or repurpose them, founders Giorgio Baracchi and Marco Prayer are filling a significant gap in consumer recycling.

Great Wrap

Great Wrap raised an additional $5 million and signed a deal with Opal to distribute sustainable pallet wrap. Co-founders Julia and Jordy Kay plan to do this with their newly-developed compostable machine pallet wrap which is made with compostable biopolymers and plant-based oils. The exclusive distribution deal will make it the only Australian-made compostable pallet wrap in Opal’s product lineup.

To get in touch with Andrew Harding, send him a message on LinkedIn.

What’s going on with this Bull Market? 🚀🐂

WTF is a ‘Bull Market’?: This is typically defined as a period of time where the majority of investors are buying, and demand outweighs the supply of an investment. Market confidence is high and prices are rising. Investors are optimistic or ‘bullish’ about further increases.

If you are following the crypto market, you may have seen Bitcoin (BTC) rocket to over $71,000 USD last week, up nearly 8%, following a period of drops since early April. This was paired with Ethereum (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency, jumping to $3700 USD, up 21%. 

The markets rallied late on Monday, when the SEC requested that all applicants update Form 19-b4 for listing and trading spot Ethereum ETFs, causing markets to react in excitement that the ETF approval could be imminent. Following this, Bloomberg analysts increased the likelihood that the ETH ETF (exchange-traded fund) will be approved in the US to 75%. The markets took the news well, as it indicated that ETH may soon follow Bitcoin’s trajectory. This price rise represented the largest daily candle in Ethereum’s price history.

A big week in the market! Read more on this by Frances Yue, discussing whether ‘Crypto bulls may have gone too far, too quick following the news’.

To get in touch with Erin Howell, send her a message on LinkedIn.

LaunchVic funded for 4 more years 

The recent Victorian State Budget allocated $40 million to the state’s startup agency.

Since its inception 8 years ago, LaunchVic has played a significant role in the ecosystem: startup numbers have more than tripled to 3,400+ companies and the sector’s value has increased from $5.6B in 2016 to $103B in 2023.

CEO Kate Cornick was thrilled with the outcome and as someone who has seen LaunchVic’s positive impact firsthand, as am I.

Federal Budget quiet on startups 

It comes as little surprise that the word “startup” was only mentioned once at the reveal of the 2024-2025 Federal Budget. The tech community was left feeling underwhelmed by a government that still seems focused on pulling things out of the ground, rather than trying to be a world leader in future innovation.

Read my five key budget takeaways here, including details about two new international launchpads and money invested in AI regulation and quantum computing.

Australian delegations underway in Paris, Amsterdam and London

With VivaTech, Money2020 and London Tech Week upon us in the next three weeks, hundreds of Aussie founders are jetting over to Europe on government-funded delegations to help them scale their operations overseas. Watch this space for more updates on their key takeaways.

To get in touch with Dickie Currer, send him a message on LinkedIn.

Last month I met with Nextwork founder Amber Joseph, who recently raised $2.5 million in a pre-Seed round. Knowing it or not, she used all the tried-and-tested techniques that have seen companies raise millions.

Let’s dive right into it:

• Build Relationships Early: Amber emphasised the importance of connecting with potential investors well before the actual need for capital. These preliminary, informal meetings can establish a foundation of trust and familiarity, easing later formal investment discussions.

• Adapt Your Pitch to Your Stage: Amber learned to tailor her pitch to reflect her startup's current stage, rather than an idealised version. "Trying to fit my pitch to what I saw as the ideal deck made me feel terrible," she shared. Founders should present their business authentically, focusing on real achievements and growth potential.

• Transforming Doubts into Strengths: Facing scepticism about her age, Amber turned it into a compelling part of her pitch. “It's an advantage because this is my life's work. Telling an investor, 'This will succeed as long as I'm alive,' is powerful. I've got my whole life to do this. Not many can say that so early on. It gives you an edge.”

To get in touch with Leila Oliveira, send her a message on LinkedIn.

🌍🔑 (Global) Keys to success

I recently listened to TechCrunch's Equity Podcast: “Here's how startups can crack the US market, according to Australian VCs” featuring Australian VC heavyweights Dan Krasnostein, Partner at Square Peg and Gabrielle Munzer, Partner at Main Sequence.

Here are the two key takeaways that stood out to me. Neither are groundbreaking, but they are important. Making the right business decisions early will help you scale faster. 

Key takeaway 1: Build global from day 1

We hear this all the time, but what does it actually mean? Australian founders should consider international expansion when thinking and building all of the below:

• Mentality

• Team 

• Go to market strategy

• Product 

• Operations (does your company have the right structures in place in order to operate in the US?)

Key takeaway 2: Consider what problem you’re solving for the US market.

The US and Australia have more cultural differences than meets the eye. Before landing in the US, consider the core problem you’re solving:

• Does this problem exist in the US?

• Where does this problem exist most pointedly - use that to decide where to market first.

• How can you adjust your current (insert here: strategy, GTM, product or offering)?

To get in touch with Lea Rausch, send her a message on LinkedIn.

If you have feedback on what you liked and didn’t like about this edition of Pulse Check, we’d love to hear from you! Just reply to this email 😃 .

‘Til next time,

The Pulse Check Team 💗