Australia is a coveted destination and one of the main economic powerhouses in the Pacific Ocean. It's not surprising that Australia has a very mature and growth-oriented startup ecosystem. Australian startups benefit from strong support in funding and soft skills. Sydney is currently ranked in the top twenties in the world as a startup ecosystem, highlighting the business strength found in Australia. Melbourne has also been experiencing rapid growth and development as a startup hub in recent years.
Australian startups receive good support in the early stages of their development through funding, mentorship or a mix of both through the country's more than 247 startup accelerators and incubators. For later stage support and funding, Australia is also well represented for VC funding, with more than 828 VC firms operating portfolios within the country. This overall support makes it much easier for new, innovative startups to survive and thrive.
The Australian government has taken active steps to stimulate the Australian startup ecosystem. Examples of such policies include giving grants of up to AU$500,000 to startup incubators that support Australian startups in expanding into international markets. Additionally, there are also a range of government-run startup competitions and partnerships that help to stimulate the startup ecosystem and foster a strong bedrock of innovation for Australian startups.
1. Marqo
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
Size: 11-50
Founders: Tom Hamer, Jesse Clark
Marqo is an Australian startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently based in Melbourne. Marqo operates in the AI and ML market, providing tools that allow you to make it so that your deep learning models, such as CLIP, are able to discern meaning from images. You're able to choose from hundreds of embedding models should you need to, but you can also use your own. It's currently used by thousands of lead developers in leading tech companies globally.
Marqo has been seeing rapidly improving success in raising startup funding. Its most recent funding round was its largest yet, with the Series A round completed in February 2024 netting Marqo $12.5 Million in funding. This funding will be used to further develop Marqo's technology and allow for further commercial success in 2024.
2. Blend AI
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 1-10
Founders: Dean Kro, Michael Bezman
Blend AI is an Australian startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently headquartered in the capital city, Sydney. Blend's AI platform allows you to maximise the efficiency of your marketing campaigns for your e-commerce brands. You can automatically manage most aspects of your paid ad campaigns, allowing you to immediately react to changes and make the most optimal use of your investment. This allows you to save on wasted funds and actually save money in the long-term.
Blend AI has previously sought investment to further its business goals, with its most recent funding round taking place in July 2021. During this round, it managed to raise a total of $1.5 Million in the Seed round. The funding itself has allowed Blend to improve its internal technology and when it seeks further expansion, another funding round may be necessary to accelerate Blend AI's growth.
3. FlexyStakes
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Southbank, Australia
Size: 51-100
Founders: Jorge Alamos
FlexyStakes is a startup in Australia that was founded in 2022 and is currently headquartered in Southbank. Its DeFi platform allows you to, in comparison to other platforms, earn substantially more from staking. It is also safer, as FlexyStakes' smart contracts ensure that your transactions are secure. You'll have more flexibility as it also allows you to make transactions in a range of different cryptocurrencies, suiting your risk profile.
FlexyStakes has seen recent success with raising startup funding to support its goals. In February 2024, it took part in a funding round backed by Binance, one of the leading giants in crypto. This funding round led to an investment of $12 Million for FlexyStakes, allowing it to improve on its smart contracts and market itself to new users.
4. Me&U
Year Founded: 2018
HQ: Collingwood, Australia
Size: 101-250
Founders: Kim Teo, Kerry Osborn, Andrei Miulescu, Adrian Osman
Me&U is an Australian startup that was founded in 2018 and is currently headquartered in Collingwood. It provides your restaurant with a platform to help improve customer engagement and loyalty. For example, using it, you can offer flexible payment options to your customers. You can also integrate QR codes, allowing your customers to make their order right from their table. Built-in loyalty features also allow you to reward your customers for frequently shopping with you.
Me&U has been very successful in raising startup funding, with its most recent funding round taking place in January 2023. During this funding round, it managed to raise a figure of $30 Million to improve its platform and help facilitate growth and outreach to more customers in its native market.
5. Diraq
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 11-50
Founders: Andrew Dzurak
Diraq is an Australian startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. It operates at the forefront of quantum technology and aims to make quantum computing more readily available for you in the everyday market. Its solutions are built within the parameters of current chip fabrication technology, which means you can integrate it into your operations much more easily.
Diraq has had great recent success with raising startup funding, as it managed to raise a total of $15 Million during its Series A round in February 2024. This funding is slated to be used to further the progression of Diraq's existing technology and help to bring its widespread adoption further to fruition.
6. Athena
Year Founded: 2017
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 101--250
Founders: Nathan Walsh & Michael Starkey
Athena is an Australian startup that was founded in 2017 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. It provides you with cheaper, more convenient and flexible loans to buy your new home. It also has expertise in commercial investment funding, for either refinancing or buying to sell. You can easily find out how much you're going to pay and make a fast application, with a rapid decision all online. Buying a house can be stressful enough; Athena takes a lot of the pain out of the admin process.
Athena has seen huge success in raising startup funding, having been one of the best funded Australian startups. Its most notable funding round was its Series C round, which took place in October 2019. During this funding round, Athena was able to raise an impressive $70 Million.
7. Prophero
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 51-100
Founders: Mickael Roger, Pablo Gil Brusola
Prophero is an Australian startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently based in Sydney. It operates in the PropTech market and helps you as a property investor by providing you with an investment marketplace that puts you in front of the top 1% of property investment opportunities in Australia. Its optimised approach ensures that you get the properties that carry the lowest risk with the highest possible returns. It is a critical tool for any property investor in Australia.
Prophero has been very well financed since it was founded, with its most recent funding round taking place in October 2022. During this funding round, it managed to raise a total of $8 Million, only eight months after raising over $1 Million in a separate round. This funding has allowed Prophero to expand its share in the Australian market and improve its talent acquisition.
8. Relevance AI
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 11-50
Founders: Daniel Vassilev, Jacky Koh
Relevance AI is a startup in Australia that was founded in 2020 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. It provides you with a no-code solution for implementing AI technology into your business processes, without needing to increase your headcount. By doing so, you can automate many aspects of your marketing, sales and operations functions. This allows you to save time and money on employees and ensure that nothing ever slips through the cracks.
Relevance AI has been very successful in raising startup funding, with its most recent funding round being a AU$15 Million Series A that took place in December 2023. This funding round was led by King River Capital and will allow Relevance AI to improve its no-code AI solutions and add more products to its repertoire.
9. Stake
Year Founded: 2017
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 101-250
Founders: Matt Leibowitz, Dan Silver, Jon Abitz
Stake is an Australian startup that was founded in 2017 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. It provides you with an easy-to-use platform so that you can make investments in a range of different asset classes in both the Australian and American markets. You don't have to deal with long-winded exchanges either, as its all done with a tap in the app. Stake's simple pricing structure also makes it transparent to see how much you're earning and how much you're paying out.
Stake, like many FinTechs, has been very successful in raising startup funding, with its most recent funding round in April 2022 raising a very lucrative $50 Million investment. This means that in total, Stake has managed to raise a figure of $93.5 Million across three rounds of funding.
10. Loam Bio
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Orange, Australia
Size: 11-50
Founders: Frank Oly, Guy Hudson, Guy Webb, Mick Wettenhall, Tegan Nock
Loam Bio is a startup in Australia that was founded in 2019 and is currently based in Orange. As a farmer, Loam Bio makes it so that you can achieve high-scale carbon removal from your crops farms. This is achieved through sucking it out of the atmosphere and into the soil. The benefit for you as a farmer is that you get better yields, a second additional revenue stream, and the ability to limit your impact on the environment, which is more important than ever.
Loam Bio's mission has captured the attention of investors, with its most recent funding round being a resounding success. This funding round took place in February 2023 and during this round Loam Bio managed to raise a total of $73 Million to further develop its technology and enter into new global markets.
11. Honey Insurance
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 51-100
Founders: Richard Joffe
Honey Insurance is an Australian startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. Honey offers you a better and smarter way to do your home insurance, whether you're a renter, homeowner or landlord. All it takes to get a quote is to spend 3 minutes filling out the form on the Honey Insurance website and when you sign up, you get $250 of free detection sensors to help keep your property safe from intruders and make it less likely that you need to claim.
Honey Insurance has been very well founded since being founded, with its most recent funding round, which took place in June 2021, it managed to raise a total of AU$15.5 Million in funding. This was during a Seed round, making it one of the largest Seed rounds in Australian history. This funding has allowed it to increase its headcount and grow its share in the Australian insurance market.
12. Leonardo AI
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 11-50
Founders: Ethan Smith, JJ Fiasson, Peter Runham
Leonardo AI is an Australian startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. It allows you to accelerate the design stage of your projects by using AI to generate a range of art and graphic assets. This means you can get your projects done more quickly, efficiently and improve your revenue. You can either utilise your own AI models, or choose from Leonardo's own AI model. It has use cases for a wide range of industries, so you can benefit from it, in a wide range of settings.
Leonardo AI has had some serious recent success with raising startup funding. Its most recent funding round was only recently completed in December 2023 and during this round it managed to raise a total of $31 Million off of the back of previous strong financial performance and rapid growth experienced over the previous two years.
13. Tactiq
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 1-10
Founders: Ksenia Svechnikova, Nick Nikolaiev
Tactiq is a startup in Australia that was founded in 2021 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. Taking notes and keeping up in meetings can be a pain, which is why you'll have massive efficiency gains by using Tactiq's live transcription tool to take notes for you in meetings as things are said. You can integrate it with Teams, Google Hangouts or Zoom. It is currently being used to transcribe more than 2 Million meetings every single month, highlighting the quality of the offering.
Tactiq, in this early stage of its development, has already received startup funding. It completed a Seed round in May 2023 from a pair of investors, which allowed it to raise $2.2 Million in funding. This funding has been useful to improve the quality of the transcription itself and help Tactiq to reach more customers.
14. Reejig
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 51-100
Founders: Mike Reed, Shujia Zhang, Siobhan Savage
Reejig is an Australian startup that was founded in 2019 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. HR and talent decisions are some of the biggest things having an impact on your business, and it is critical to get these decisions right. Its talent AI allows you to make rapid and data-backed decisions about HR and hiring decisions. You can optimise Reejig to meet your specific requirements and make use of automated skill insights into your employees, which don't require their active input.
Reejig is very well funded and has received more than $40 Million in total funding. Its most recent funding round was achieved in October 2022. During this funding round, it managed to raise $15 Million from Salesforce. This funding has allowed Reejig to rapidly expand its headcount and pursue a policy of aggressive expansion in the Australian and foreign markets.
15. Constantinople
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 101-250
Founders: Duncan MacGregor, Dianne Challenor
Constantinople is an Australian startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. It operates in the FinTech market and allows you to more easily manage and maintain the technology infrastructure of your bank by using a Shopify-esque experience of building your banking infrastructure. Everything from customer experience, products, app features and more can be created easily using Constantinople.
Constantinople holds the distinction of having the most lucrative Seed round of any Australian startup when it completed its Seed round in May 2023. During this funding round, it managed to raise an incredibly impressive and deserved $32 Million in startup funding. This has allowed Constantinople to immediately pursue rapid growth in both headcount and revenue.
16. Carma
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 51-100
Founders: Lachlan MacGregor, Yosuke Hall.
Carma is an Australian automotive startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently based in Sydney. It provides the quickest and most convenient method for you to buy a used car, anywhere across Australia. You can search for your desired vehicle using the make, model and body type, along with other filters. You even get a 7-day money back guarantee and a 3-month warranty with your new vehicle, so you know everything is covered if something goes wrong.
Carma achieved very marked and early success in raising startup funding, as it managed to raise $75 Million during a Series A funding round that took place in May 2022. This was only a year after Carma was launched and It has now raised more than $100 Million in funding and entered the forefront of used cars in Australia.
17. Plerion
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 11-50
Founders: Mike Rahmati, Paul Garner, Pierre Liddle
Plerion is an Australian startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. It operates in the cybersecurity market and allows you to secure your entire cloud infrastructure across your organisation. Plerion's agentless platform connects to your cloud in minutes, and it allows you to get full visibility into your code and any associated risks immediately. As a result of this, you can anticipate upcoming threats and immediately respond to any that do arise.
Plerion has been very successful in terms of raising startup funding since being founded. Its most recent funding round took place in July 2023. During this funding round, it managed to raise a total of $10 Million. This funding round was led by Prosus Ventures and was intended to be used to improve the development of the platform.
18. Illuvium
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 51-100
Founders: Kieran Warwick, Aaron Warwick
Illuvium is an Australian startup that was founded in 2020 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. It develops a range of AAA play-to-earn games, that allow you to monetise your fun hobbies. There are a range of PVP and PVE game modes that you can enjoy across a range of games from third-person adventure, to real-time strategy and more. These are good standalone games and are worlds ahead of the majority of crypto and blockchain games.
Illuvium has seen great success in raising startup funding since being founded, with a total of $15 Million being raised across two funding rounds. The more recent of these was a $10 Million Series A round that took place in June 2023. This funding round was led by Framework Ventures and has helped Illivium to accelerate its development timetable and improve its ecosystem of titles.
19. Zeller
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
Size: 101-250
Founders: Ben Pfisterer, Dominic Yam
Zeller is an Australian startup that was founded in 2020 and is currently headquartered in Melbourne. It operates in the FinTech market and provides you with a better option for business banking. You can rapidly order payment terminals, send invoices to your customers and create a new hassle-free bank account all under one roof. One of the best parts is that it can be useful to businesses of any size and you can sign up for your new account for free.
Zeller is very well funded and has managed to successfully raise more than $140 Million in four funding rounds. Its most recent funding round took place in March 2022 and during this Series B, Zeller was able to raise a total of $72.8 Million. This funding has allowed Zeller to rapidly improve its backend service technology, as well as increase its internal headcount so that it could sustain its growth and high-quality service.
20. Verida
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 1-10
Founders: Chris Were, Ryan Kris
Verida is an Australian startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. It operates a Web 3.0 self-custody mobile wallet. You can deploy this wallet on multiple blockchain platforms and your security is assured through an industry-first mobile integration with Polygon ID. This wallet can store both cryptocurrencies and NFTs, as well as allowing you to manage your decentralised identities and your private keys easily.
Verida has been quite successful in raising startup funding, with its most recent funding round taking place in June 2015, shortly after it was founded. During this Seed round, Verida was able to close an investment deal worth $3 Million. This funding was used to accelerate the early-stages of Verida's development and fuel its immediate expansion.
21. Avarni
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Size: 11-50
Founders: Anuj Paudel, Misha Cajic, Tony Yammine
Avarni is an Australian startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently headquartered in Sydney. It allows you to more accurately gauge your performance with meeting your net-zero targets through an in-depth carbon accounting platform. You can deploy an audit of your carbon trail that is assisted by AI that has been extensively trained on related models. This also allows you to make future projections to see if you are on target to meet your net-zero goals and you can get recommended action for what to do next.
Avarni has recently seen its first large startup funding success. It recently, in November 2023 completed an extension round involving a previous investor. This allowed Avarni to raise AU$2.5 Million. This followed a previous funding round in December 2022, which netted a total of $3 Million for Avarni.
FAQs
What Are The Strongest Startup Industries In Australia?
The most represented startup sectors in Australia are EdTech, SaaS, Marketing and FinTech.
How Much Funding Do Australian Startups Raise?
The total average for startups across Australia is not available, however, in Sydney, the primary startup Hub in Oceania the average Seed round is worth $1 Million and the average Series A is worth $7.5 Million.
How Many Tech Startups Are There In Australia?
The total number of tech startups in Australia is hard to narrow down, however it is estimated that there are more than 2600 in the southern state of Victoria alone.
