Six Aussie startups that raised $56 million this week

It’s been a huge week for Australian startup raises, with more than $56 million invested into six companies, while Square Peg also banked $860 million for two new funds.

Psylo: $5 million

Biotech startup Psylo has raised $5 million in seed funding to help treat mental illness with therapies inspired by psychedelics.

At last week’s Purpose Conference in Sydney, Psylo stated that while Australians are large users of traditional antidepressants, they’re only 20% more effective compared to a placebo.

Psylo has taken inspiration from psychedelics, such as psilocybin found in magic mushrooms, to utilise AI and computational chemistry to create and streamline therapeutics that can have the proposed mental health benefits of psychedelics without the hallucinogens. It plans to work with its first clinical candidates in 2023.

Psylo was founded in 2021 by CEO Josh Ismin and chief scientific officer Dr Sam Banister and it has a lab within the University of New South Wales as part of its UNSW Founders SynBio10x accelerator program.

“The scientific community has long known that natural psychedelics can have a positive impact on a range of mental illnesses, but we have lost nearly half a century of progress and peer-reviewed research,” said Ismin.

“The pace of our preclinical work has been faster than any other program I’ve been involved with,” said Dr Banister.

“In the past 12 months, we’ve achieved 2-3 years of R&D, which has allowed us to bring our timelines forward several times over. I’m very confident we can move through lead optimisation and into clinical candidate selection next year.”

Investment in the funding round has been led by Main Sequence and has been joined by Lionheart Ventures, Negev Capital, Empath Ventures, and the partners of CaraMed Capital.

Psylo is also working on a joint project with the CSIRO that involves introducing the company’s novel compounds to neuronal cell cultures to see if they improve brain function.

Urban Swan: $2 million

The ‘RedBalloon of gen Z dating’ platform, Urban Swan, just received $2 million in seed funding led by Antler. The business has also received some angel investments for anonymous investors.

The platform allows users to search for and buy unique dates in Sydney, such as axe throwing, tapping into the growing ‘experience economy’.

It’s currently focused on Sydney but it will use the funding to expand to other major cities in 2023.

We got the exclusive on this one and you can read the full story here.

Greener: 4 million

Cleantech startup Greener has raised $4 million in seed funding, led by NAB Ventures with participation by RealVC.

The digital platform aims to help users make greener choices regarding what they spend their money on. Users can track their spending by connecting their bank accounts, so they can get an idea of their own carbon footprint. It can then also suggest greener alternatives to lower their personal carbon emissions and avoid companies that aren’t sustainable or engage in greenwashing.

Since launching in 2019, the company has partnered with brands such as Microsoft, T2 Tea, Afends, Scoop Wholefoods, Brew Dog, Huskee and Go for Zero.

“Sustainability can be complicated, and the more you learn the more difficult it gets. But it doesn’t have to be. That’s why we’re focused on simple solutions that are underpinned by a positive message of hope,” said Tom Ferrier, founder of Greener.

“By rewarding greener businesses with new customers, and helping consumers take action at no cost, we can drive unprecedented impact. If everyone got behind the green economy just here in Australia, we could help take the equivalent of 58 million cars off the road each year.”

Greener has also partnered with the City of Sydney and the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) with an aim to hit net zero.

Amber: $13.4 million

Renewable energy retailer Amber has scored $13.4 million in Series B funding, led by existing investors Commonwealth Bank and Square Peg and joined by the NRMA.

Launched in 2017, Amber provides efficient and sustainable energy innovation options for customers. For example, it offers real-time wholesale energy prices from the grid, as well as hedging costs that come in under one sent per kWh.

The funding round will be largely used to further develop its SmartShift solar battery and EV automation software that will allow customers to charge when electricity prices are low and sell it back to the grid when it’s high.

“We are delighted to have brought on new investors such as NRMA who can clearly see Amber’s value in supporting electric vehicle owners optimise the charging of their cars — and eventually the capabilities we will build in helping EVs also be utilised as home batteries.

“This year has demonstrated how reliance on coal and gas in our grid has wreaked havoc on Australia’s energy market. This has absolutely reinforced the need to transition Australia to 100% renewables as quickly as possible.”

Lyka: $30 million

Premium dog food startup Lyka has received a massive $30 million in Series B funding, led by Israeli entrepreneur Itai Tsiddon — founder of video and photo editing app Lightricks.

The company was launched in 2018 by vet Matthew Muir and consultant Anna Podolsky after the latter’s dog had poor reactions to store-bought pet food brands.

Lyka works as a subscription service for dog food, which is tailored specifically for the need and breed of your pup.

We have the full story here.

Steppen: $1.65 million

Fitness app Steppen has received a $1.65m funding round led by Galileo and included participation from Flying Fox, LaunchVic, Startmate, Jagen and Afterpay co-founder Ant Eisen

Aimed at gen Z users, the app combines short workout video and fitness tracking with social media integration such as TikTok and Instagram, and it also allows for user-made videos. At the time of writing the app had surpassed 325,000 downloads, with more than three million videos viewed.

“Existing health and fitness apps ignore the behavioural trends of young people which inherently keeps them motivated and engaged,” said Steppen CEO Cara Davies.

“Steppen is able to demonstrate progress when it otherwise may not be visible. This is the key to keeping gen Zers motivated and consistent towards their fitness goals. We are looking forward to officially launching the next iteration of our product in early November.

Bonus: $860 million from Square Peg and $3.1 million from LaunchVic

It’s also been a big week for investing funds, with Square Peg announcing its closed $860 million across two new funds. The primary fund will invest in Seed to Series B startups, with the other will be allocated for follow-on investments. To date, Square Peg has banked $2.4 billion across all of its funds.

LaunchVic has also announced a commitment of $3.1 million across three local accelerator programs — AMDHealth, Antler and Climate Salad.

“By backing programs with a proven track record of helping founders, we will ensure LaunchVic supports our rapidly growing ecosystem,” LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick said in a statement.