Three Australian startups that landed over $22 million this week

Happy Friday, raise bandits. This week we have three Australian startups for you that collectively netted over $26 million in cold hard cash.

Cauldron: $10.5 million

Agtech startup Cauldron has secured $10.5 million in seed funding led by the CSIRO’s investment arm — Main Sequence Ventures.

Located in Orange, NSW, Cauldron is focused on bringing its proprietary precision fermentation platform to the world to help support the future of food and the environment.

The company says that its platform is faster and cheaper — and it’s already being used by some other Australian startups such as ULUU and Loam Bio.

Read the full story here.

Lumiant: $5 million

Fintech Lumiant has raised $5 million in a seed round extension for its cloud-based advice and client management platform. The round was led by Invest Blue and Savant Wealth Management.

The platform is primarily designed for financial advisors to help them track and measure the impact of their advice on their clients.

The cash injection will be used for pushing into the US market as well as developing a mobile app.

“By meeting clients where they are — on their mobile devices — we can enhance their ability to track progress toward their goals. We’re thrilled to have backers who understand the wide-reaching appeal of our advice engagement technology and its ability to transform the advisor-client relationship,” Lumiant CEO, Santiago Burrige, said in a statement.

FLAIM Systems: $6.7million

FLAIM Systems just raised $6.7 million in Series A for its immersive firefighting training system. The round was led by Breakthrough Victoria.

Founded in 2019, FLAIM has customers in over 300 emergency services, defence, training organisations and more. The fully immersive VR system allows for a safer and cheaper training solution compared to real-world scenarios that can endanger people and the environment.

Both a VR headset and haptics are used to simulate real experiences. It also utilises a real firehose as well as a thermal vest to reproduce heat.

FLAIM has 80 different VR training scenarios ranging from urban fires to industrial sites and even aircrafts.

“With the annual cost of firefighter injuries estimated by the US Fire Administration at between US$1.6 billion and US$5.9 billion in the US alone, and 14% of all injuries incurred during training, we see significant scope to commercialise FLAIM’s innovative Australian technology as we seek to protect the lives of those who respond to hazardous fire, safety, rescue and emergency situations,” FLAIM’s CEO, Simon Miller, said in a statement.