Any new Australian unicorn is worth writing about, but this week’s startup funding wrap is something special.
Keep reading to learn about quantum giant Q-CTRL, along with Alta, Vudoo, Refilled, Provectus Algae, and Aimer Farming.
Q-CTRL: $425 million
Q-CTRL has raised US$290 million (AU$425 million) in a Series C that makes the Sydney quantum software scaleup the country’s first quantum unicorn, valued at more than US$1 billion (AU$1.47 billion).
The round was led by existing backer Salesforce Ventures, with the federal government’s National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) chipping in $70 million, alongside chipmaker AMD’s venture arm, Jared Kushner’s PE firm Affinity Partners, and SPARX Asset Management.
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Other returning investors include Alpha Edison, Alumni Ventures, Bullhound Capital, DCVC, In-Q-Tel, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Main Sequence, Ridgeline, Salus Ventures, and Square Peg.
Q-CTRL says it expanded the round twice to meet investor demand, leading to a record private raise for a quantum software business.
The funds will be used to help it sell its computing software to finance and energy companies, and get its navigation tech into more aircraft and autonomous vehicles.
Q-CTRL was founded in 2017 by University of Sydney quantum physicist Michael Biercuk to tackle a core problem with quantum computers: they’re so sensitive to interference that errors can creep into a calculation before it finishes.
Q-CTRL uses AI to suppress those errors.
“That software layer will decide whether quantum shows up in enterprise data centres this decade,” said Salesforce Ventures partner Robert Keith.
New York-born Biercuk moved to Australia in 2010 and remains a US citizen. Q-CTRL is headquartered in Sydney, with offices in several US cities, as well as Japan, Germany, and the UK.
Read more on Startup Daily.
Alta: $67 million
Airwallex co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang has a side hustle – a fintech blockchain startup, this time, which has raised $114 million across its Seed and Series A rounds in the last two months.
Alta, previously known as Metal, launched in June, is based in Melbourne and San Francisco, and help banks settle payments 24/7 using blockchain.
This week, it announced a $67 million (US$47.5 million) Series A round at an undisclosed valuation, led by Index Ventures with support from Google’s venture arm GV, Australian VCs Blackbird and Square Peg, and Capital 49, the investment firm set up by Airwallex’s founders.
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The funding will go towards hiring engineers and compliance specialists, blockchain development and onboarding banks and payment providers to Alta’s network.
Zhang cofounded the fintech with serial entrepreneur Loong Wang and former Meta crypto developer Catherine Porter.
Vudoo: $22 million
Melbourne adtech Vudoo has raised $22 million in a Series B as it looks to scale in the US.
The round was led by US fund Blue Sky Capital, supported by several existing family office investors.
The funds will go to expanding its overseas sales operations and developing its commerce technology.
Vudoo has hired two executives to lead its North American push as it looks to get more retailers selling directly through ads and videos.
Vudoo was founded in 2017 by Nick Morgan and Andrew Spalding, who conceived the interactive videos idea while chatting in a Singapore bar.
One of its earliest checkouts appeared in a 2022 Vogue Australia campaign with News Corp Australia for Moët & Chandon. Viewers watching model Victoria Lee put together a birthday celebration could buy a personalised bottle of champagne inside the video, then continue watching
Refilled: $5.6 million
Refilled, the hardware startup seeking to rid the world of single-use bottles and drink cans, has raised a $5.6 million Series A round.
The raise was led by OIF Ventures, and includes follow-on investment from Melt Ventures, which tipped into its 2023 seed funding round. Veteran investor David Paradice also contributed.
Refilled builds smart drink dispensers that provide an alternative to vending machines and hotel fridges, with more functionality than a simple water fountain.
They dispense chilled, still, and sparkling water with scores of flavour combinations, and ‘boosters’ like caffeine, vitamins, and electrolytes, tailored to those seeking a wellness or productivity boost.
The Sydney-based company already counts customers like Meta, Google, Uber, Atlassian, and Marriott Hotels, which have installed Refilled units across their properties.
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In a sea of AI investments, founder Ryan Nelson said he was proud to lead a hardware-focused Australian business.
“If anything, the SaaSpocalypse is reinforcing what a great time it is to build hardware,” Nelson told SmartCompany on Friday.
“You can’t vibe code a hardware startup in a matter of days or weeks.
“It’s taken us years and millions of dollars of investment to get to this point, and we’re really only just getting started.
“Software tools, widgets and apps may come and go, but people will always need healthy, clean drinking water so I’m not worried.”
“We’ve combined hardware, software, Australian manufacturing and a recurring beverage model into something that would be very difficult to replicate.
“I love the fact that during the inflection of AI, we’ve got more defensibility than ever.”
Refilled has a manufacturing base in Penrith, but the startup is considering how global fabrication might help it meet its lofty goals.
“What definitely won’t change is that Refilled is an Australian-born and bred company,” he said.
“We’ll remain headquartered here and expect core parts of the business, including our drinks, flavours and the intellectual property to remain Australian.”
In a statement, OIF Ventures investor Oliver Darwin said its support will help Refilled grow on the international stage, as it develops new ‘boosters’ including protein, probiotics, and collagen.
“People see one and immediately want one for their office,” Darwin said of the Refilled machines.
Provectus Algae: $2.8 million
A Sunshine Coast startup developing methane-busting cattle feed has secured $2.8 million in equity investment from the Queensland government’s Sowing the Seeds of Farming Innovation Fund.
Provectus Algae is part of a booming agtech sector focused on ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of commercial livestock.
It has developed a feed additive called Surf’N’Turf, which it claims has caused an 85% reduction in methane emissions under trial conditions.
In a statement, Provectus Algae founder and CEO Nusqe Spanton said the additive shows immense promise for climate-conscious livestock producers.
“Surf’N’Turf was developed here in Queensland, and it has moved from something we believed could work to a product demonstrating meaningful results in thousands of cattle under commercial conditions,” he said.
The $30 million Sowing the Seeds of Farming Innovation Fund provides equity investments for companies poised to support the state’s primary industries.
“Queensland’s beef is the envy of the world, and our Sowing the Seeds of Farming Innovation Fund is backing our producers to continue leading the way in agricultural technology too,” said Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training Ros Bates.
Aimer Farming: $2.4 million
New Zealand agritech startup, Aimer Farming, which helps farmers calculate how much grass they have to feed beef cattle, has raised $2.44 million (NZ$3 million).
The round was co-led by Cultivate Ventures, the Erbacher Food Family, Pacific Channel and Agnition, with backing from Australia’s Antipodean Capital and Aotearoa investors Flying Kiwi Angels, Enterprise Angels and Angel HQ.
The cash will help adapt Aimer’s dairy tech for beef farmers ahead of a 2027 launch, as well as developing its dairy product, expanding satellite pasture measurement service to more farms, and entering new markets via partnerships.
The Aimer platform combines smartphone and satellite measurements with forecasts of pasture growth. Understanding how much pasture’s in a paddock and how quickly it will regrow, helps farmers decide where to graze their herd next, as well as if and when they need to buy extra feed.
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