The Australian startup and tech sector continues to achieve great things. This month Techboard has collected data on 1,390 companies, thats 140 or more than 10% more than last month, collected 532 news items, identified 138 milestones and 35 funding events. We will be publishing our summary of the News, Milestones and Funding events that we collected this month in our Techboard Company Traction Report out next week. Subscribe at the foot of the page to get our Newsletters or Sign up to get free access to the full ranking results and Traction Reports on Techboard.
Prospa was Australia's hottest startup in July, with strong news coverage of its $20m venture debt funding from US-based Partners for Growth. The NSW company was also the first ever fintech to receive the 2017 Telstra New South Wales Medium Business Award, and it featured in CB Insights' Fintech 250. This is the second time that Prospa has topped the Techboard Ranking, the last time in February on the back of its $25m round led by Airtree Ventures. Speaking to Techboard, Beau Bertoli, Joint CEO and co-founder said:
"Prospa has injected more than $400m into the small business economy over the past five years, and just like our small business customers, we require funding to grow. 2017 has been a remarkable year for Prospa, with a $25 million equity raise in March, and the additional $20 million funding line from Silicon Valley based Partners For Growth in July. We have always approached finance in an innovative way. Like Prospa, PFG adopts a partnership approach and really took the time to understand our business. We both seek to fill the gaps left by traditional banks, and they share many of our philosophies about how to build long-term competitive advantage and stakeholder value. We have ambitious targets and we're looking forward to creating even more opportunities for Australia’s two million small business owners.”
Family Zone was the second highest trending startup of the month. The WA-based cyber security company announced multiple partnerships, including distribution agreements with Learning With Technologies and with ethical telco The People’s Operator, and other commercial agreements with Linewize in New Zealand and IgnitNet. The ASX listed company also saw 20% growth in its share price over the period.
“It's great to be recognised by Tech Board for our achievements in the past month. This has capped off a great period for the Company and a successful institutional raising which we have just announced.
“This is an exciting time from Family Zone. Our capital raising positions us push harder into our target markets and strengthens our balance sheet for new opportunities." Tim Levy, Managing Director Family Zone.
Third-ranked Nuheara, who topped the June Techboard Ranking, raised $9m through a share placement, attracted strong news coverage and saw a strong improvement in its website global ranking. The WA-based intelligent earbuds maker also collected a nomination from our Panel of Experts.
The second Airtree Ventures backed company appeared in Techboard's top 5 for July, Consultant marketplace Expert360, also trended highly in July, following successful completion of a $13m Series B round led by AirTree Ventures. The NSW startup also saw strong improvements in its website rankings, and also collected a nomination from our Panel of Experts.
WA and NSW-based healthtech ePAT was our fifth highest trending startup, after a month of successful milestones. The pain-management technology company received regulatory clearance in Australia and Europe, signed a global license agreement with Swiss-based nViso and received positive results from a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. The ASX listed company saw a 60% increase in its share price this month.
“This past quarter has seen the positive results of ePAT’s efforts during this year. We have completed the development of the IOS version dementia pain assessment app, published our clinical study work in the Alzheimer’s Disease journal and received TGA and CE Mark regulatory clearance. We have also finalised a global, perpetual, exclusive license for use of the nViso artificial intelligence (AI) technology for pain assessment.
We will now be focusing on commercialisation of the dementia app into the Australian aged care sector while ensuring other key projects such as dementia app FDA approval and the kids pain assessment app development continue in parallel. The Techboard ranking is appreciated and a reflection of the team efforts” Philip Daffas, CEO, ePAT Technologies Limited.
Victoria's highest trending startup was Dubber, ranked 9th overall. The call recording startup this month signed an agreement with Macquarie Telecom for the provision of its Cloud Call Recording platform, and announced it will provide white-labelled call recording platform to UK managed services provider Redcentric Solutions.
SocietyOne was the second marketplace to feature in the top ten. The peer-to-peer lender has lent $300m since its launch, with new lending in the first half of 2017 up 67% on a year ago. The Sydney-based fintech was another Australian company featured in CB Insights' Fintech 250.
NEXTDC was Queensland's highest trending company, and ranked 14th overall. The ASX-listed data centre provider received strong news coverage after it acquired a 14.1% interest in Asia Pacific Data Centre Group for $29m.
See the top 10 below (you must be signed up and logged in to view the full ranking).
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