FUNDED May 2023

Welcome to our summary of Australian startup and tech company funding news for the month, FUNDED for May 2023.

Private investment levels from deals announced in May 2023 dropped from April's levels from $498m from 40 rounds down to $374m from 42 deals (noting we haven't had any angel deals reported to us for the month). This represents the lowest level of private investment captured for a May since 2019.  What should be noted is that there were no deals greater than $100m for the month and only megadeal of $50m or more. In fact, if we omit deals of over $100m, May had the largest amount of investment reported so far in 2023.

For the record Techboard captured a total of 95 funding events for May, including 42 private investments, 3 public investments, 45 grants and awards and 5 acquisitions. We created new profiles for 41 new companies, 31 new funders and 64 new company founders.

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May saw strong growth in the number of deals in the $1m-$5m range and $10m-20m range, with the apparent drop in sub $1m deals, most likely being due to Techboard not yet receiving reports of Angel investments for the month of May. 

 

Average deal sizes in May grew in pre-seed to series C, with the average size of series D investments showing a dramatic drop, although not much should be read into movements for series, B to D as each deal label only had one investment.

Megadeals ($50m+) in May 2023

Fleet Space Technologies, a nano satellite startup, had the only $50m+ megadeal for May, closing a $50m Series C raise. read more

Deals by Industry Sector

The dominant Industry sectors in May were Fintech, Climate, Space and Edtech. Fintech saw $85.3m announced across 4 deals, Climatetech had $60m across seven investments, Edtech saw 52.8 aross 4 deals and Spacetech saw 52.2m across 2 deals. Healthtech, which is usually a leading sector  was unusually slow with $24m announced across 4 deals.

My Prosperity was acquired by Hub24 for $40m (read more).  PayDock, a fintech platform which originated in Sydney but which is now focussing heavily on the UK market has closed a massive $46.75m Series A funding round (read more).  Constantinople, a software fintech, has just announced that it completed a $32m seed round late last year (read more.)

Also in Fintech News:

Credit Clear, a fintech software growth company, completed an $8.5m placement. read more
Promotional platform for ASX companies InvestorHub (formerly Fresh Equities) closed a $4m raise and rebranded. read more.
Finspo, an online mortgage broker, closes a $2.55m Series D raise. read more.
Regtech Certmate has been accepted into the next QuantumTX Queensland METS Technology Accelerator. read more.

 

E-bike startup Zoomo closed a $24m funding round (read more) climate and agtech startup FLINTpro, closed a $13.5m Series A raise (read more) and Sicona Battery Technologies secured $10.32m in private funding (read more). Renewable energy startup Endua  secured $7.5m Series A round read more.
Mobility Startup Liftango secured $4.6m investment (read more).
Wildfire Energy a startup focused on the commercialisation of MIHG Waste to Energy and Hydrogen Technology and Solar to Water Technologies, a startup conducting field trials of an ultra-high efficiency off-grid water pump system, were awarded Accelerating Commercialisation Grants (read more.)  Leakster Operations, an integrated pilot of an autonomous water pipeline leak detection system startup and Everclime, a sustainability platform, have also both been awarded Accelerating Commercialisation Grants (read more).
has been awarded a $305k Accelerating Commercialisation Grant (read more.)
Vaulta, a battery tech startup, secured $250k from Renu Energy (read more).
Carbon Compass and CFS - Univat have both been accepted into the next QuantumTX Queensland METS Technology Accelerator (read more).
Samsara Eco Samsara Eco secures strategic investment from Lululemon (read more).

Essential Assessment  has been acquired by Education Perfect for $40m (read more), Workplace learning platform Go1, closed an undisclosed round (read more) and Adventus.io a student recruitment platform, closes a $22m Series B raise (read more).
Anti-plagiarism edtech Cadmus closed an undisclosed raise with Breakthrough Victoria investing $600k (read more), Cleverbean closed a $200k Seed round (read more), and Teacher training startup Teach Well has won the Cartier Women's Initiative and $150k. read more.
Hindsite Industries and ID Culcha have been accepted into the next QuantumTX Queensland METS Technology Accelerator. read more.
STEM XR  a Curtin Accelerate participant, has been awarded a $10k grant from Lotterywest through Spacecubed's IdeaStarter fund. read more.

Other deals (for our paying subscribers)

Details of all deals we capture are available on the Techboard platform for our paying subscribers. Inquire about a data subscription.

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