Five startups that raised $109.8 million this week

The capital raises came thick and fast this week, with an impressive $109.8 million raised by Aussie startups across industries as diverse as space tech, e-commerce, and student recruitment.

Here are five startups that raised millions this week.

Fleet Space Technologies: $50 million

South Australian space tech startup topped the roster this week, revealing a “heavily oversubscribed” $50 million Series C raise on Wednesday.

The raise more than doubled the company’s valuation, to more than $350 million, and follows its oversubscribed Series B round back in 2021 which sat at $36 million.

The fresh round of funding was led by previous investors Blackbird, Grok Ventures, Alumni Ventures and Hostplus, with new investors TelstraSuper, Bondi Partners, The 1941 Fund and Pavilion Capital also participating.

The company attributes the new investment to the commercialisation of its ExoSphere satellite mineral exploration technology, which is being used by more than 30 clients worldwide, including Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold Corporation, Core Lithium and Gold Fields.

The new funding will be used to expand globally, particularly in the US as well as further develop its tech stack in regards to AI and machine learning capabilities.

Read more here.

The Fleet Space Technologies team. Source: supplied

Checkmate: $23 million

A personalised smart shopping tool founded by three Aussie friends has secured US$15 million ($23 million) in new funding, less than a year after raising a US$5 million seed round in late 2022.

Checkmate has attracted some star-studded investors too, according to the Australian Financial Review. The Series A round was led by GV (previously known as Google Ventures) and includes Chainsmokers duo Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, and Paris Hilton and her husband Carter Reum.

Australian VC Blackbird also participated in the round, as did Wischoff Ventures, DST Global partner Saurabh Gupta and founders and executives from Linktree, Pinterest, Google, Amazon and Rakuten.

Checkmate was founded by Elliot Rampono, Harry Dixon and Rory Garton-Smith in September 2022 and has since found an audience among gen Z shoppers, who can use its free desktop extension and app to easily see online offers available from more than 40,000 retailers, store gift cards together and track deliveries.

According to the AFR, the startup now has 380,000 users and has tracked more than 1 million packages.

Checkmate founders (L to R) Rory Garton-Smith, Harry Dixon and Elliot Rampono. Source: supplied.

Adventus: $22 million

Student recruitment platform Adventus also raised significant capital this week, securing $22 million in a funding round led by existing investors, two years after raising a similar amount in its Series A round.

Adventus was founded in 2018 by Ryan Trainor, Lincoln Trainer, Victor Rajeevan and Richard Uren as a way to connect international students with universities over the world. It does this via its subscription-based marketplace that allows international student recruiters to find the right universities and courses for potential students.

The company is said to have placed 100,000 students in overseas courses since 2020.

According to the Australian Financial Review, the new funds will go towards bolstering the platform’s tech stack, including AI and automation.

Adventus co-founders Ryan Trainor, Victor Rajeevan, Richard Uren and Lincoln Trainor. Source: Supplied.

Endua: $11.8 million

Brisbane-based startup Endua revealed it has $11.8 million in fresh funding this week, which it plans to use to scale its hydrogen-powered business.

The round includes a $7.5 million investment from newly launched Melt Ventures, as well as the CSIRO’s Main Sequence VC arm, QIC, 77 Partners and Ampol. The extra $4.3 million is from grant programs.

As reported by SmartCompany earlier this week, Endua has developed standalone power markets that can store renewable energy sources, like hydrogen, and transform them back into electricity. It sees this as particularly useful for regional and remote communities that have traditionally used off-grid diesel power.

Read more here.

Source: Supplied

Servicely: $3 million

Also raising this week was enterprise software startup Servicely, which has secured $3 million in a round led by Sydney-based venture fund EVP.

As Startup Daily reports, Servicely was founded by serial entrepreneur Dion Williams and Ben O’Loghlin in 2020 and the company previously raised $1.2 million in July 2022. 

The Software-as-a-Service startup plans to use the funding to continue expanding internationally and building out its Enterprise Service Management platform, which uses artificial intelligence to help improve workflow within the IT, HR and facilities management functions of businesses.