There’s been a flurry of funding deals announced by Australian and Kiwi startups this week — from a Brisbane startup building superfast, hydrogen-powered planes to a Perth company transforming seaweed into a natural alternative to plastic.
Keep reading to learn more about the eight Australian and New Zealand startups that collectively raised more than $113 million this week.
Hypersonix: $46 million
L-R: Hypersonix CEO Matt Hill and co-founder, CTO, head of engineering Michael Smart. Hypersonix Launch Systems showcases their DART AE 001, the world’s first entirely 3D-printed airframe of a hypersonic launch platform in high-temperature alloys. Source: Sarah Keayes/The Photo Pitch
Brisbane-based aerospace startup Hypersonix Launch Systems has been backed by the federal government’s National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) and the Queensland government’s investment arm in a $46 million Series A funding round.
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Hypersonix is building reusable hydrogen-powered hypersonic aircraft that it claims can fly at five times the speed of sound and leave no carbon trail.
The round was led by UK-based High Tor Capital and included participation from the NRFC, the Queensland Investment Corporation, European defence firm Saab, and Polish space-tech investor RKKVC.
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The NRFC contributed $10 million in what is the fund’s first investment in Australia’s defence sector. Defence represents one of the NRFC’s priority areas, said NRFC CEO David Gall.
“We see huge potential in backing Australian companies and innovations that build our sovereign capability while also tapping into the global market for hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities among our friends and allies,” he said in a statement provided to SmartCompany.
Read more.
ENA Respiratory: $34 million
L-R: ENA Respiratory CEO Christophe Demaison, an image of the company’s nasal spray, and Brandon Capital partner Chris Smith. Source: Supplied
Melbourne-based clinical-stage biotech ENA Respiratory has secured $34 million (US$22.4 million) in a Series B funding round as it prepares for the next stage of testing for its virus-agnostic nasal spray, INNA-051.
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The spray is designed to support the body’s natural defenses against respiratory infections, including influenza, RSV, rhinovirus, and coronaviruses. The therapy will soon be tested in a community Phase II trial.
As reported by SmartCompany, the Series B round was led by existing investors Brandon Capital and Uniseed, with participation from Stoic Venture Capital. The Gates Foundation also participated in the round, which also included a previously announced investment from Flu Lab.
ENA Respiratory was founded in 2020 and is led by CEO Christophe Demaison, who told SmartCompany the company is taking on a global challenge.
“In Australia, around one in four people live with a chronic condition that increases their risk of complications from common respiratory viral infections such as influenza, COVID-19, RSV and the common cold, and hundreds of millions more face the same risks worldwide,” he said.
Read more.
Uluu: $16 million
Uluu co-founders and co-CEOs Michael Kingsbury and Dr Julia Reisser. Source: Supplied
Perth sustainable materials startup Uluu has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round to help it scale its technology that can turn seaweed into a natural plastic alternative.
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The funding round was led by Germany’s Burda Principal Investments, with existing investor Main Sequence once again backing the startup. The round also included contributions from Novel Investments, Startmate, and impact investors and family offices, including Fairground and Trinity Ventures.
Uluu’s advanced fermentation process is applied to seaweed to produce materials called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), which are then extracted, collected and turned into pellets that can be used by packaging and fabric manufacturers.
The startup, which was launched in 2021 by co-CEOs Dr Julia Reisser and Michael Kingsbury, has already partnered with Quiksilver to create a wax scraper for surfboards, and with sleepwear brand Papinelle to create luxury pyjama buttons.
With its new funding, it hopes to build a commercial facility that is capable of producing 10 tonnes of PHA materials annually, to expand the market for its product.
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Human Health: $8.5 million
Human Health co-founders Georgia Vidler and Kate Lambridis. Source: Supplied
Patient care platform Human Health has raised $8.5 million as it looks to expand its global reach.
The round was led by new UK backer LocalGlobe, and supported by existing investors Airtree, Skip Capital, Aliavia and Scale Investors, and several angel investors, including Cricket Health’s Arvind Rajan, former Kantar CEO Eric Salama and OIF’s David Shein.
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The fresh capital for the Sydney startup will be used for expanding reach in Human Health’s existing US and UK markets, deepening the platform’s intelligence in focus areas like women’s health, respiratory, pain, and autoimmune diseases, and funding Human Evidence, a platform helping researchers learn directly from patient data, which they can contribute anonymously.
Founders Kate Lambridis and Georgia Vidler met at Canva, where the former was a senior product manager and the latter head of product. In 2022, they closed the biggest seed round for an all-women-founded Australian startup, at $10.15 million.
More than 200,000 patients in the US, UK, Canada and beyond have already logged 20 million-plus health actions (now 40,000 daily) on the Human Health, which Lambridis says is the missing layer between patients and medicine — a care management platform that learns from their experiences and treatments.
Read more on Startup Daily.
SecurePII: $5 million
L-R: SecurePII co-founders Jason Thals and Haydn Faltyn. Source: Supplied
Melbourne compliance and data privacy startup SecurePII has raised US$3.5 million (AU$5 million) in seed funding.
The round was led by Sydney VC Tidal Ventures.
SecurePII was founded by Jason Thals, Haydn Faltyn and Bill Placke, self-confessed skiers, mountain climbers, soccer players, cyclists, marathon runners, campers, golfers, paragliders and travellers who are “into motorbikes, sports cars, woodwork, Lego, science fiction, Pink Floyd and walking in the rain” as well as beer brewing.
They also have deep expertise in cloud communications, data compliance, and large-scale software delivery, spinning SecurePII out of cloud communications company BroadSource in early 2025.
PII stands for personally identifiable information, and the startup’s cloud-native expertise is initially focused on the PCI (payment card industry) and the new PCI DSS (data security standard), released in March, which has stricter requirements for how sensitive payment data is stored, handled, and protected for companies storing call recordings containing cardholder information.
Read more on Startup Daily.
Huckleberry: $1.84 million
L-R: Huckleberry co-founders Diogo Böhm and Aaron Ward. Source: supplied
New Zealand voice-based 360 feedback platform Huckleberry has raised NZ$2.1 million (AU$1.84 million) in pre-seed funding.
The round was led by US VC Oregon Venture Fund, with support from Archangel Ventures, plus US and NZ founders, including Mineral CEO Nathan Christensen, TradeMe’s Rowan Simpson and M-Com’s Serge Van Dam.
Huckleberry enables people to talk rather than taking notes, giving feedback to teammates. The artificial intelligence-augmented platform listens, guides and delivers practical suggestions in minutes, replacing long surveys and other feedback methods to make it feel more like talking to a personal AI executive coach.
The funding will be used to accelerate product development, advance Huckleberry’s AI models, expand the team, and grow in its key markets in the United States, Australia and Aotearoa.
Aaron Ward, of Maori descent, previously founded customer experience platform AskNicely. He founded Huckleberry earlier this year with Auckland-based Diogo Böhm, the engineering and AI development lead.
Read more on Startup Daily.
StrongRoom AI: $1.2 million
Strongroom AI founders. Source: Strongroom AI
Pharmacy software startup StrongRoom AI has raised $1.2 million in new funding as it seeks to reposition itself, following a legal dispute between its former management and investors.
According to the Australian Financial Review (AFR), the funding has come from wealthy individual pharmacy owners, healthcare private investors, aged care operators and hospitals.
Pharmaceutical entrepreneur Joe Zhou acquired StrongRoom AI from administrators in June, following a dramatic series of events following the company’s $17 million raise in March, which was led by EVP at a $70 million valuation.
Ten days after the raise was announced, EVP launched legal action to recover its funds, and StrongRoom’s board placed the company in voluntary administration. Legal proceedings against former directors of the company are ongoing.
The AFR reports StrongRoom AI plans to use the new funding for product development, transitioning to a cloud platform, and expanding the company’s commercial partnerships in the pharmacy and aged care sectors.
Tala Thrive: $500,000
Tala Thrive founder Sonia Kaurah. Source: Supplied
Australian-founded mental health startup Tala Thrive this week revealed details of a previously undisclosed $500,000 pre-seed raise.
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The round was completed at the end of 2024, following a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised £220,000 (AU$443,600 at the time of writing) when founder Sonia Kaurah was based in London.
This was topped up by additional funding from angel investors, including Duncan Gould, ex-global head of product at Amazon, Feike D, 800x Limited angel syndicate lead and ex VC, and Izzy Obeng, CEO of Foundervine.
Tala Thrive, which is in the process of moving its operations back to Melbourne, offers culturally responsive mental health care and coaching services.
The platform connects clients with therapists and coaches who either share or deeply understand their cultural background, language and lived experiences.
Read more.
