Eight Aussie startups that raised $81.5 million this week

It seems AI startups are the flavour of the month (or year), with half of the startups to have raised this week utilising artificial intelligence in some way or another.

But look deeper and you’ll find a host of other innovative companies also raising funds for virtual reality health training, sustainable packaging and B2B retail relationships.

Here’s eight Australian startups that raised capital this week.

Leonardo.Ai: $47 million

Leonardo.AI co-founders: Jachin Bhasme, JJ Fiasson and Chris Gillis. Source: Supplied

Sydney-based AI startup Leonardo.Ai leads the founding round-up this week, with a massive $47 million raise from local and global investors including Blackbird Ventures, Side Stage Ventures, Smash Capital, TIRTA Ventures, and Gaorong Capital.

Launched by founders Jachin Bhasme, JJ Fiasson and Chris Gillis in late 2022, Leonardo.Ai specialises in hyperrealistic image generation. It initially honed in on the video games sector but has since moved into other industries, including marketing, fashion and advertising.

As SmartCompany‘s Tegan Jones reported earlier this week, the company’s AI has been developed from open-source technologies, trained with synthetic and Creative Commons data, and offers unique user control compared to other platforms, along with its own API.

Its seven million users give it one of the biggest generative AI communities globally, and these users have already used the platform to generate more than 700 million images. Some 4.5 million images are being generated each day on the platform.

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Planet Protector Packaging: $12 million

Joanne Howarth (left), CEO of Planet Protector Packaging. Source: Supplied

A Sydney-based startup working to rid the planet of polystyrene by providing cost-effective, sustainable, eco-friendly packaging, has raised $12 million from a group of investors that includes Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation.

Minderoo has led the investment round with a $3 million contribution, according to the Australian Financial Review, however, SmartCompany understands $12 million has been committed in total, with the startup open to raising another $2 million from aligned investors.

Planet Protector Packaging was founded in 2016 by CEO Joanne Howarth, a previous fellow of the Cartier Women’s Initiative, who saw the sheer amount of polystyrene products that were ending up in landfill after working for a meal kit company that went through some 35,000 polystyrene boxes each week.

So Howarth and her team created Woolpack, a packaging alternative that is created from the underbelly wool of sheep, a material that also previously ended up in landfill as there was no commercial use for it.

The company encases the waste wool is encased in a recyclable plastic or compostable sleeve, which is then used to line boxes and cushion and insulate food and medical supplies. End customers can then put the insulation into their home compost, or find another use for it, such as lining hanging plant baskets or creating bedding for a pet.

Planet Protector Packaging won the inaugural Ocean Impact Pitch Fest in 2020, and in 2021, was processing 20 tonnes of waste wool from Australian and New Zealand sheep each week.

At that time, Howarth said the company had diverted 2,600 tonnes of compressed polystyrene from the waste stream, which equated to 44 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Vantari VR: $7 million

The founders of Vantari VR. Source: Supplied.

Virtual reality startup Vantari VR has raised $7 million in a pre-Series A round led by Co:Act Capital, reports Startup Daily.

Also participating in the round were Acova Capital, Significant Early Venture Capital, Sirius Capital, and several unnamed investors in the medical device and insurance sectors.

Vantari VR was founded in 2017 by Dr Vijay Paul and Dr Nishanth Krishnananthan with the goal of eliminating medical errors and making healthcare training more accessible.

The startup has created an immersive training platform to help clinicians and students practice medical procedures, and has previously attracted grant funding from the federal government and games developer Epic Games.

The platform is now being used in a number of local training hospitals, including Sydney’s Royal Prince Albert Hospital and Westmead Hospital, and according to a statement, achieved 400% revenue growth in the 2022-23 financial year.

“The pre-Series A round marks a huge milestone for Vantari’s trajectory,” said Krishnananthan in the statement.

“With the support of trusted investors in the ecosystem, we can really fast track our goals for the US market and help health care professionals (HCPs) access the platform across the North American region.”

Arkeus: $4.45 million

Source: Arkeus

Melbourne-based optical radar startup Arkeus also has fresh funds to deploy, after raising $4.45 million in seed funding.

The round was led by deep tech venture capital firm Main Sequence, with participation from Steve Baxter’s Beaten Zone Venture Partners and Salus Ventures.

Arkeus was founded in 2020 by Simon Olsen and Dr Jonathan Nebauer, with its tech aimed at high-risk environments, including military settings, disaster recovery, search and rescue missions, border and security.

The startup’s radar system is designed to provide real-time understanding and response capabilities in these settings, which have previously been at the mercy of outdated technology that doesn’t work as well in bad weather or dark environments.

“Our solution sees what conventional systems miss. Advanced AI analysis delivers instant orientation, threat detection, and trajectory tracking – empowering teams to act decisively and with speed,” Simon Olsen, CEO and co-founder of Arkeus, told SmartCompany.

The company is now looking at expanding to the US market, where it is already seeing demand for its tech, as well as exploring new applications for its tech in fire fighting and prevention, wildlife protection and precision agriculture.

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Nexba: $4 million 

Nexba/Goodness Group Global founders with David Koch. Source: Facebook

Goodness Group Global, the company behind the sugar-free soft drink Nexba and recently launched alcoholic drink brand Remixt, has raised $4 million in capital via its Series B round.

Among the prominent investors to back the company are finance expert and former Sunrise host David Koch and Australian men’s cricket captain Pat Cummins.

Goodness Group Global founders Troy Douglas and Drew Bilbe launched Nexba in 2010, gaining distribution in the major supermarkets in 2014, and going on to raise around $6 million in 2019 to help build out its range of drinks. This week, the company debuted the Remixt range of wine-based drinks at First Choice Liquor stores nationwide.

Speaking to SmartCompany, Bilbe said neither Koch nor Cummins have been directly involved in the Remixt launch, but as investors are “heavily involved in Goodness Group and really supportive of the direction, everywhere we go”.

Read more.

Everlab: $3 million

Everlab founders, (left to right): Marc Hermann, Anshul Jain, Dr Steven Lu and Sam Kothari Source: AfterWork Ventures

Sydney-based health tech startup Everlab has secured new funding for its mission to eradicate chronic diseases and drastically improve individuals’ quality of life, raising a $3 million pre-seed round from international and local VCs and a host of prominent founders.

Founded by Marc Hermann, Dr Steven Lu, Sam Kothari and Anshul Jain this year, Everlab is building a proprietary medical operating system that it says will help catch diseases early, provide personalised and data-driven health care, and improve users’ overall quality of life.

The $3 million in funding will go towards building this system, and comes from lead investor, European VC b2venture, along with a number of Australian VCs, including Ten13, AfterWork and Flying Fox.

The startup has also received backing from founders from Go1, Aconex, Foodspring and Telemedica.

Its membership-based Everlab Protocol is open now for beta users, ahead of a wider release planned for 2024.

The startup says its clinician-led system can detect a range of chronic health conditions, from brain tumours to hypothyroidism, sleep apnea and advanced heart disease.

“Premium, personalised health care has been reserved for the ultra-wealthy until now,” said CEO and co-founder Marc Hermann, in a statement.

“We are leveraging the latest technology in diagnostics, AI and behavioural science to radically reduce prices and make it accessible for millions of people, in particular those at risk of, or suffering from chronic diseases.”

SourseAI: $3 million

SourseAI CEO Tanya Hyams-Young. Source: SourseAI

Fellow Sydney startup SourseAI also announced a successful capital raise this week, closing a $3 million Series A round led by Centerstone Capital, according to The Australian.

SourseAI seeks to help telecommunications providers sign up new customers by using data about their service history.

The startup is led by CEO Tanya Hyams-Young, who previously served as chief product officer and was part of the company’s founding team when it was incubated in and spun out of, OVO Mobile in 2019.

Hyams-Young took over as CEO in mid-2022, with founder Matt Jones moving into the role of chief revenue officer to support the startup’s UK and European expansion.

SourseAI focuses on helping its clients find customers that have “long lifetime value”, rather than only the ones that are easy to acquire, according to reports.

Among the prominent brands listed as customers of the SourseAI website are Vodafone, Amaysim, Boost Mobile and Kogan Mobile.

Andisor: $1 million

CEO Vandana Chaudhry (right) with the team. Source: Supplied

A Melbourne startup on a quest to disrupt the wholesale retail sector has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding from Antler, LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson fund, Jam Pad Investments, and prominent retail leaders Paul Greenberg and Nishan Wijemanne.

Andisor was founded in 2021 by CEO Vandana Chaudhry, who wants to make it easier for bricks-and-mortar retailers to compete, and thrive, in an industry dominated by major e-commerce platforms.

Chaudhry, a former executive at Deliveroo and Crocs, describes the Andisor platform as like The Iconic, but for business-to-business transactions. The platform digitises the wholesale process and connects enterprise-lever buyers and sellers through a marketplace.

“Retail is a high-stakes, fast-paced industry where precision in buying is crucial. Andisor addresses this by offering a lower-risk path for brands to penetrate the market, overcoming the constraints of limited resources and risk appetite,” she said in a statement provided to SmartCompany.  

LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick said her team is “proud of Andisor’s mission to revolutionise the wholesale retail sector.”

“It’s exciting to see founders like Vandana, with extensive corporate experience, building tools that redefine the industry,” she added.  

Andisor plans to use the investment to build out its analytics and segmentation tools, to provide brands with practical insights to help them better manage their merchandise production and supply.