It has been an extremely quiet week for startup funding, which left us wondering if there would even be a funding round-up. But some last-minute investments have led to four local startups collectively raising $4.25 million in funding this week.
Keep reading to learn more about Myostellar, FytonBio, Remagine Labs and Hall.
Myostellar, FytonBio, and Remagine Labs: $2.25 million
L-R: Dr Heather Benson; Professor Stan Skafidas; the Hon Ged Kearney MP, Assistant Minister Health and Aged Care and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health; Remagine CEO Pat Kelly; and Rene Koopman. Source: The University of Melbourne
A co-investment from Breakthrough Victoria and Monash University will see three healthtech spinout companies share in $2.25 million to ease the pressure on the Victorian healthcare system.
Myostellar, co-founded by professor Peter Currie and associate professor Mikaël Martino, is developing a breakthrough therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy that regenerates muscle with reduced fibrosis.
In a statement provided to SmartCompany, professor Currie said the startup’s research will have a huge impact when it is made available as a therapeutic.
FytonBio, co-founded by CEO Chuck Silberstein and Adel Nada, is developing new antibody treatments that find and remove the immune cells responsible for autoimmune diseases.
Silberstein said the funding “marks an exciting step forward in our mission to deliver potential functional cures in autoimmunity and inflammation by deleting pathogenic immune cells”.
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Remagine Labs, co-founded by Pat Kelly and professor Stan Skafidas, is developing wearable, electronically controlled drug delivery devices to enhance treatment outcomes for chronic disease patients.
The funding into Myostellar, FytonBio and Remagine Labs coincides with the official launch of the $15 million Monash Ventures Pre-Seed Fund, developed in partnership with Monash University.
“At Monash, we are committed to transforming outstanding research into tangible outcomes that benefit our communities, our economy, and the world,” professor Sharon Pickering, vice-chancellor and president of Monash University, said in the same statement.
These investments are part of Breakthrough Victoria’s $100 million University Innovation Platform, a program designed to support the commercialisation of critical research across the state’s seven leading universities: Deakin University, La Trobe University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, Swinburne University, RMIT, and Australian Catholic University.
“These investments are a powerful demonstration of how the University Innovation Platform is working exactly as intended — backing world-class research at its earliest stages to successfully commercialise and deliver real-world solutions,” said Breakthrough Victoria CEO Rod Bristow.
Victorian Minister for Economic Growth and Jobs Danny Pearson said backing such world-class research can generate life-saving treatment and drive the economy.
“These investments help industries and businesses to grow, so more Victorians have secure jobs they can count on,” he added.
Read more.
Hall: $2 million
The Hall team. Source: Supplied.
Sydney startup Hall launched this week with $2 million in pre-seed funding from Blackbird as it seeks to help businesses leverage AI platforms like ChatGPT as marketing channels.
Hall founder Kai Forsyth was previously a product design lead at Atlassian, Intercom, and Dovetail, and the startup’s team includes product engineers with experience at companies like Rokt, Dataro and Displayr.
In a statement provided to SmartCompany, Forsyth said the shift away from Google search in favour of AI has changed the game for businesses trying to reach consumers.
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“When someone asks ChatGPT for restaurant recommendations or software comparisons, they’re bypassing Google entirely,” said Forsyth.
“The move away from 10 blue links to instant, personalised answers represents Google’s first genuine threat in decades and creates an entirely new marketing channel for businesses.”
Hall’s platform is designed to help companies understand how they are appearing across various AI platforms, as well as track how AI conversations are translating to outcomes for the business.
The free, self-serve platform was launched in April and allows users to monitor ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot.
To date, Hall says it has had hundreds of signups from SEO agencies, in-house marketing teams and brands.
“Traditional SEO tools become irrelevant when discovery shifts from page rankings to AI model responses,” said Forsyth.
“Companies are asking urgent questions: ‘How often does ChatGPT mention our brand?’, ‘Why are we getting referral visits from ChatGPT?’, ‘What can we do to improve how AI systems represent us?’.”
Read more.
