Two Australian startups moved closer to unicorn status this week, after revealing new funding rounds that gave their valuations a healthy boost.
This week’s funding round-up is led by Heidi Health’s $98 million Series B round and Octopus Deploy’s $45.6 million investment, although the latter was secured in 2024.
They are joined by four other Australian and New Zealand startups with fresh capital to deploy.
Keep reading to learn more.
Heidi Health: $98 million
L-R: Heidi Health co-founders Waleed Mussa, Thomas Kelly and Yu Liu. Source: Supplied.
Melbourne scaleup Heidi Health has raised $98 million (US$65 million) in a Series B funding round, just seven months after banking nearly $27 million in a Series A top-up.
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The round was led by New York hedge fund manager Steven A Cohen’s VC arm, Point72 Private Investments, supported by existing backers including local VC Blackbird, and US funds Headline and Latitude, the growth fund of Phoenix Court.
The raise values Heidi at $704 million (US$465 million), after US$96.6 million in venture funding has been injected into the AI-based medical notes taker.
In March, Headline led a $27 million (US$16.6 million) top-up to Heidi’s initial $10 million Series A in October 2023. Blackbird led the $5 million seed raise, when the startup was called Oscar, in 2021.
The latest cash botox will plump up Heidi’s headcount, office locations, and support in the USA, UK, and Canadian markets. The AI healthtech also counts France, Spain, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, Singapore and Hong Kong as key markets for ongoing expansion.
Read more on Startup Daily.
Octopus Deploy: $45.6 million
Octopus Deploy founders Sonia and Paul Stovall. Source: Octopus Deploy
Brisbane-born startup Octopus Deploy is now valued at $882 million, after it secured a new investment in 2024 worth $45.6 million (US$30 million) at the time of writing.
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The capital injection came from New York City-based Insight Partners, which previously invested $223 million in the startup in 2021.
Octopus Deploy was founded in 2012 by Paul and Sonia Stovell as a way to help software teams deploy, verify, and stress-test new code at the enterprise scale.
The company employs more than 300 people and has a customer base of more than 4,000. Its platform has been used for 426 million code deployments.
The latest funding was first reported by the Australian Financial Review on Wednesday. The investment was secured in 2024, and it helped Octopus Deploy acquire US company Codefresh in the same year.
Read more.
Nexl: $35 million
Nexl founder and CEO Phil Thurner. Source: supplied
Sydney legal practice collaboration and CRM platform Nexl has raised $35 million (US$23 million) in a Series B investment.
The round was led by Dave Yuan’s US growth equity firm Tidemark Capital.
Philipp Thurner, former head of innovation at Gilbert and Tobin and now based in New York, founded Nexl in 2018. The startup pivoted in 2021 to help law firms collaborate across marketing, business development, and operations to drive revenue, improve profitability, and strengthen service delivery and client relationships.
The AI-driven growth platform modernises the business side of law, uniting front-office functions for customer relationship management.
While headquartered in Sydney, Nexl has leadership hubs in New York and Chicago, and more than 150 firms, including several AmLaw 100 leaders, as clients worldwide.
Nexil has now raised more than $45 million in the past two years, following a $6.6 million Series A in December 2023 and $4 million in March that year.
Previous investors include Shearwater Capital, EVP, Vulpes and Saniel Ventures.
Read more on Startup Daily.
OpenSolar: $30 million
Members of the OpenSolar team. Source: LinkedIn/OpenSolar
Australian-born, US-based OpenSolar has banked $30 million (US$20 million) in a fresh raise as it looks to expand its AI implementation in the renewables design and sales platform.
The raise was backed by existing investors, including Telstra’s former VC fund Titanium Ventures and London- and Copenhagen-based 2150 Sustainability Fund, as well as Google, and others.
OpenSolar previously raised $22 million (US$15 million) Series B in early 2023, and the total funding raised now tops $68 million (US$45million).
The free software platform is used by more than 25,000 solar installation businesses in over 160 countries. It connects them to hardware, finance and services, which generate revenue for the climate tech startup.
OpenSolar 3.0, which uses artificial intelligence to automate an installer’s workflow with improved efficiency, was recently released. The new funds will be used to improve the AI and expand global coverage.
The startup, founded in Sydney in 2017 by industry veterans Adam Pryor and Andrew “Birchy” Birch, uses Google’s Solar API data for installers to design accurate solar energy solutions for homes and businesses.
It also has a range of tools, including sales proposals, project management and payments systems, finance solutions, hardware ordering, and inventory management.
Read more on Startup Daily.
Lucent: $2 million
Alisa Wu, founder of Lucent. Source: Supplied
Melbourne-born startup Lucent, founded by 22-year-old Alisa Wu, has raised $2 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round.
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Backers include Long Journey Ventures, Horizon, Browder Capital, and Weekend Fund. The round closed out within 36 hours of launch.
Lucent is Wu’s second founding after her first startup, Stella AI, was acquired in 2024.
Wu was also a founding engineer at MagicBrief, an AI ad platform later bought by Canva.
She said the new business was about providing data upstream, for frontier labs that “need unique datasets for specific use cases”.
“Lucent provides data that allows them to build differentiated capabilities. We provide behavioural datasets grounded in real web interactions.”
Read more on Startup Daily.
PAM: $502,000
PAM co-founder Nicole Retter, her app and a couple of her beta testers photo bombing. Source: Supplied
Wellington startup PAM (Personal Administration Manager) has raised $502,000 (NZ$570,000) in the first close of its seed round to help parents deal with the life admin of raising a family.
Initial support was led by Flying Kiwi Angels, with participation from Icehouse Ventures, Even Capital’s Sarah Park, Easy Crypto founder Janine Grainger, Foggy Valley, Wainot Investment and others. PAM is hoping to hit $800,000 for its seed round by the end of 2025.
Grainger and Marsello founder Brent Spicer will join the board, with angel investor Caro Williams joining in as a board observer.
Co-founder, CEO and Maori mum Nicole Retter launched PAM in February, having moved from marketing to startup founder in 2023.
This year, the app overtook the apps that could lead you to having to deal with children — Tinder and Hinge — to top New Zealand’s Apple App Store, with more than 16,000 users.
“The funding is about a lot more than money – it’s validation,” Retter said.
“Parents and caregivers are telling us PAM makes a real difference in their daily lives, and with the support of our investors and new board members, we can scale that impact far beyond New Zealand.
Read more on Startup Daily.
