Stephanie Palmer-Derrien

Athena, a cloud-based digital home-loan startup, has raised $15 million in Series A funding ahead of its launch next month, and co-founder Nathan Walsh says it couldn’t have got to this point without its crack team.

Micro-investment startup Raiz has lodged its prospectus for a $15 million IPO, not even a month after it announced its re-brand from Acorns. But, according to CEO George Lucas, it’s only with its existing customers in mind.

Australian real estate startup ActivePipe is continuing its international expansion, partnering with the behemoth that is the US National Association of Realtors, but founder Ashley Farrugia is committed to keeping the company’s startup culture alive and well.

Blockchain has made an appearance, albeit a short-lived one, in this year's budget.

Global startup WePower has exploded onto the Australian energy scene, using blockchain to champion renewable energy providers. According to chief business development officer Mantas Aleks, not only is this an environmental milestone, it’s a savvy pathway to investment.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has taken a dig at Amazon and Google, accusing them of effectively rigging their systems to the detriment of retailers. Nadella attacked the rivals to his Microsoft Azure cloud platform, saying: “Amazon and Google both are fantastic at being able to rig transactions.”

Australian hypnosis app Mindset has reached a milestone 12,000 users in just over two months, attributing its growth to a strong social presence and a commitment to getting to know its users.

A US startup success story is heading to Sydney, and advising others to think globally, too. Chicago-based sales and marketing automation startup ActiveCampaign is opening its first international office in Sydney, in a bid to better serve its Australian and APAC clients.

Democracy is destined to be blockchain-based, according to Jamie Skella, co-founder of blockchain-for-voting startup Horizon State.

Having spent 37 years in the electrical industry, a US native based in Australia has secured $400,000 of initial seed funding to launch QuickSafety, an app intended to improve electronic safety compliance testing.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has confessed that his ecommerce, cloud and publishing enterprises come second to — and fund — his “most important work”: space tourism and reusable rockets.