Aussie Startups Pulse Check - October 2024 💓

Welcome to the October edition of Pulse Check! 💗 

A huge welcome to the 37 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 an insightful overview of what’s happening across the many corners of the Aussie startup 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.

Australia’s Top 20 Startups (2024)

This year’s LinkedIn list revealed a VERY interesting shift—Melbourne edged out Sydney with more startups featured, reflecting a growing startup scene in Victoria. Surprisingly (or not), only one of the 20 startups had a woman founder, highlighting the ongoing gender disparity in tech leadership.

SafetyCulture

SafetyCulture's new raise opened a debate about transparency in shared data. It turns out that $90M of the reported $124M capital raise came from secondary sales, not participating in the company's growth. If you'd like to understand what secondary sales are and why this has been debated, click here.

Did you know that 1 in 5 large employers offer fertility benefits as an employee perk? 

​​Currently, 1 in 5 employees going through fertility treatment left their jobs due to insufficient support within the last 5 years alone. So to help with that, companies have been investing in offering benefits in order to attract and retain top talent. 

Male fertility has also decreased over 50% in the last decades and Sapyen (AUS-based, backed by Antler) is addressing the issue with an at-home male fertility test, priced at $149 and provides a personalised report within three days. Click here to learn more about it.

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

Conventional wisdom says that if you do the same thing over a long time horizon then success is pretty much guaranteed. But founders who falsely believe this often fall into the ‘consistency slump’ - a state of being where you tick a box for the sake of ticking a box. But when you stop critically analysing whether your actions move the needle, the game’s over before it began.

Conventional wisdom says that:

[Consistency] x [Time] = Results

But the reality is more nuanced:

[Consistency of Effort + Inconsistency of Action] x [Time] = Results

Consistent inconsistency involves an experimentation mindset. It involves having one ear to the ground to listen for signals. It involves showing up each day a little differently and is the approach of scientists who hypothesise, artists who dabble, entrepreneurs who pivot, chefs who experiment, musicians who tinker and designers who play.

The best performers in the world are iterators. They’ve learned the secret to working smarter, not blindly working harder.

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

October Munchies

I’ve spent 13 years in the music industry. Moving into startups four years ago, I was struck by the structured pathways from idea to IPO.

As a founder, you know what to show to move to the next stage and how to communicate with team members, advisors, and investors. The stages of pre-seed, seed, series A, and beyond are the foundation of this ecosystem.

These foundations create predictability and stability, allowing founders and investors to align on development. Without these milestones, attracting resources and maintaining focus would be difficult.

In contrast, artists and musicians lack structured pathways, struggling to sustain momentum and access critical resources. It's unlike athletes in leagues, where development stages are clear.

So what would happen if we created these stages for creatives? Would it bring similar predictability and stability? Could it help artists and musicians access resources and maintain focus throughout their careers?

October MVP

Like Minded The ultimate social, travel & events bucket list.  Facilitating the move from online to offline, LikeMinded offers a real life solution to connecting with people who are "likeMinded".  Connect with people who relate to you, all whilst doing the things you love.

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

🌍 From Oz to Everywhere 

• East Forged, the nitrogen-infused cold brew tea company (aka “Guinness of the tea world”), is gearing up to go global, armed with a $1.5 million funding round. Secured by Global Mind Agriculture Australia (GMAA) (the VC arm of Vietnam's TTC AgriS), the capital will help scale its production and break into key Asian markets like South Korea and Japan. 

• Restoke.ai, the AI-powered hospitality operations management company, raised $5.1 million in Seed funding round to fuel further expansion into the US. The raise was led by Rampersand, with support form both Australian and US based VCs. Restoke.ai is already used by 2,000 hospitality venues across ANZ, Singapore and the US.  

• Zitcha, the unified retail media platform solution, closed an impressive $15 Series A funding round, to continue and expand their scaling into the US. Their Series A was led by US investment firm, VMG Partners. Already impressively used across the globe, Zitcha looks to use the capital infusion to establish a US team and offices, with Co-Founder and CEO, Troy Townsend, relocating to the states.

My take: What’s exciting about these raises? They’re powered by global capital! By teaming up with investors in their target markets, they aren’t just expanding—they're fast-tracking their global success. It’s smart, strategic, and sets them up to win on the world stage.

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 💗