Main the pack is Queensland-based SwarmFarm Robotics, which has banked $30 million to ramp up manufacturing of its autonomous farm robots and develop abroad.
SwarmFarm Robotics: $30 million
Queensland agtech startup SwarmFarm Robotics has secured $30 million in Collection B funding to ramp up manufacturing of its autonomous SwarmBots and develop into North America.
The spherical was led by European agtech investor Edaphon, with participation from the Clear Power Finance Company (CEFC), QIC and Artesian Capital. The CEFC contributed $7 million by way of its Powering Australia Expertise Fund.
This follows a $12 million Collection A in 2023 and $4.5 million in 2020. The corporate additionally secured an $856,000 grant from the Northern Australia Growth Program in 2022.
SwarmFarm stated the contemporary capital will likely be used to extend manufacturing capability in Toowoomba, develop its group, and speed up entry into the North American market.
Based in 2012 by Queensland farmers Andrew and Jocie Bate, SwarmFarm builds small, self-driving robots designed to assist growers reduce enter prices and environmental affect.
The corporate’s open platform, SwarmConnect, is designed as an “app retailer for agriculture,” permitting builders to construct software program tailor-made to totally different crops and farming practices.
Farmers can use these functions to customize their robots for particular jobs, whereas companions acquire a direct path to market by integrating their know-how with SwarmBots.
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Amber: $10 million
Amber has landed $10 million in new funding because it pushes its house battery and EV automation tech into abroad markets, with equal funding from UK power provider E.ON Subsequent and native local weather investor Virescent Ventures.
The elevate is break up between a £2.5 million (round $5 million) cheque from E.ON Subsequent UK and $5 million from Virescent.
Amber says the capital will speed up licensing its platform to utilities internationally so households can automate after they use, retailer, and promote electrical energy towards real-time wholesale costs.
E.ON is already piloting the software program with as much as 1,000 UK houses beneath its “Subsequent Photo voltaic Max” trial, combining a dynamic tariff with automated photo voltaic and battery optimisation.
“Having each E.ON and Virescent put money into Amber exhibits the power of help for our know-how at house and overseas,” stated Chris Thompson, co-CEO of Amber.
“From considered one of Europe’s largest utilities to a number one Australian local weather know-how investor, this backing demonstrates that our mannequin resonates globally.
“It additionally displays the rising recognition that households can take an energetic position within the power market, lowering prices and supporting a extra versatile system.”
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Javln: $6 million
Cloud-based insurance coverage software-as-a-service scaleup Javln has raised A$6 million for its Australian growth.
The spherical was led by boutique fund supervisor Microequities Asset Administration and, alongside crossing The Ditch, will likely be used for R&D and entry into different markets.
New Zealand entrepreneur Dale Smith based Javln in 2011. It simplifies purchasers, insurance policies, claims, and doc administration in a single cloud platform for brokers, monetary and threat advisers, and underwriting companies. It has greater than 11,000 contracted customers.
Javln CEO David Leach stated the elevate was a pivotal second within the veteran insurtech’s progress trajectory, following a strategic partnership with Envest, Australia’s largest privately-owned insurance coverage and monetary companies distribution group, and can assist cement its place as a number one innovator within the Australian insurance coverage trade.
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Improve Labs: $2.3 million
A Brisbane startup hoping to unleash the unrealised productiveness beneficial properties of office synthetic intelligence has raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding to assist individuals refine concepts and inspiration utilizing AI.
The funding spherical for Improve Labs was led by Blackbird Ventures with help from QIC Ventures.
Improve Labs was co-founded by former Amazon engineer Haziq Nordin, former Google designer Jesse Head, and second-time founder Mike Keating, and was born out of their very own frustration with AI instruments that promised effectivity however delivered generic outputs requiring in depth human revision.
Improve Labs is a voice-first collaboration platform that amplifies human pondering quite than changing it.
The startup already has early adopters at Amazon, Canva, Microsoft, and in addition to a number of startups, with customers reporting feeling energised by the liberty to assume out loud each time inspiration strikes, reworking these moments into productive pondering time by way of AI prompts.
Customers discuss by way of concepts of their uncooked, unfiltered kind whereas the platform asks probing questions that push their pondering additional. These insights grow to be shared artefacts that collaborators can construct upon by way of the identical considerate course of. What emerges is collective reasoning, captured and refined by way of dialog.
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Indi: $1.46 million
Indi, an AI-powered co-pilot app serving to dad and mom of youngsters with advanced care wants, has raised $1.46 million.
The spherical was led by Large Leap and supported by Antler, together with a number of strategic angel traders.
The contemporary capital will likely be spent on expertise to speed up platform growth and develop partnerships with allied well being clinics and households.
Indi was born from the lived expertise of co-founder Orrin Benford, who co-founded the app 5 months in the past with chief know-how officer Jeff Quach.
In December 2021, Benford’s daughter Indi suffered a seizure, leading to 18 months of coping with a posh and infrequently inaccessible system of care.
“In 2021, my life was turned the other way up when my daughter Indi had a seizure. That second set us on a journey I didn’t even know existed,” Benford stated.
“For 18 months my accomplice and I fought to be heard by the system, till I realised the one manner Indi would get the intervention she wanted was if I stepped in and constructed one thing myself.
Benford hacked collectively the primary model of the Indi AI co-pilot, and says “it fully modified the sport for us”.
“Then I partnered with Jeff to refine it, making a instrument that’s now important for households going by way of the identical expertise. I nonetheless use it every single day to navigate healthcare, allied well being, schooling and the NDIS,” he stated.
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Wych: $1.32 million
New Zealand fintech Wych has raised $1.32 million to speed up open banking supply in New Zealand and Australia.
The spherical was New Zealand FinTech Fund (NZFF) with participation from the NZX-listed Booster Innovation Fund, and different strategic traders.
Wych gives safe, real-time monetary info and knowledge change to energy the subsequent technology of open banking and cost options and is accredited beneath Australia’s Client Information Proper (CDR).
The fintech is now working with New Zealand’s largest locally-owned financial institution, Kiwibank, to ship the tech stack for open banking companies from 2026.
The funding will likely be used to scale supply in Aotearoa, strengthen safety and compliance, construct new partnerships, and drive product innovation, together with belief account reconciliation, lending and broking options, and monetary emissions monitoring. It’ll additionally prolong accredited CDR companies in Australia, with a pathway to help New Zealand’s upcoming Client and Product Information Invoice.
Expat Irish tech entrepreneur Dermot Butterfield based Wych in Auckland in 2018 and has bootstrapped the enterprise till now.
“Closing this spherical with help from NZFF, Booster, and a government-matched fund provides us the momentum to scale sooner,” he stated.
“Our mission is to make open knowledge easy, safe, and transformative — and to place New Zealand on the forefront of open banking innovation.”
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Carry Ladies: $1.3 million
Crowdfunding platform Carry Ladies has secured $1.3 million in contemporary funding, with its founder Irene Tsang calling the capital elevate a constructive signal “the market is able to again ladies”.
The spherical was led by Singapore-based enterprise capital agency Braxton Capital Ventures and supported by particular person traders, together with the previous managing director of Alibaba ANZ, Maggie Zhou, and the previous chair of AXA Asia, Gordon Watson.
Since its founding by Tsang in 2021, Carry Ladies has facilitated 363 crowdfunding initiatives for women-led startups, together with Ovum, Xylo Methods and Understanding Zoe, and helped founders elevate thousands and thousands in follow-on funding.
“Now we have a imaginative and prescient that each lady and woman can have equitable entry to capital and alternative to show the concepts into one thing significant and make a distinction,” the founder informed SmartCompany.
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Ambra Spirits: $1.18 million
South Australian distillery Ambra Spirits has raised $1.18 million by way of an fairness crowdfunding marketing campaign on the OnMarket platform, backed by 716 traders with a median funding of $1,648.
The marketing campaign drew help from Australian cricketer Adam Zampa and gaming entrepreneur Shane Yeend.
Ambra has reported 123% year-on-year progress, with greater than 530,000 limoncello spritzes bought throughout 1,200 venues nationally over the previous 12 months.
The corporate stated the contemporary funds will likely be used to help growth into New Zealand, Europe, China and the US.
It’ll additionally go in the direction of launching new merchandise comparable to pink limoncello and ready-to-serve spritzes, scaling the nationwide gross sales and advertising group, and increasing the corporate’s Adelaide venue with a rooftop bar and bigger occasion house.
Ambra managing director Finn Healey stated the corporate was inspired by the extent of investor curiosity.
“To see 716 individuals share our imaginative and prescient and again Ambra’s future with such enthusiasm is humbling, energising and provoking,” Healy stated.
This story first appeared on SmartCompany. You may learn the unique right here.
