January has seen a surprisingly sturdy begin to Australian funding for 2026.
This week has actually continued that pattern with $195.4 million invested throughout sectors as various as auto, legaltech, manufacturing, interval merchandise and extra. Right here’s who’s banking the money
AutoGrab: $80 million
Melbourne-born tech firm AutoGrab leads this week’s startup funding round-up with an $80 million capital increase that provides it a valuation of $230 million.
The funding spherical was led by UK investor Octopus Ventures and New Zealand enterprise capital agency Movac. Different contributors within the spherical included Premier Capital Companions and current traders, EVP and Ten13.
AutoGrab was based 5 years in the past by co-CEOs Daniel Werzberger and Chris Gardner as a platform to assist automobile dealerships, insurers and fleet managers preserve monitor of car knowledge and valuations.
The platform provides sellers entry to real-time automobile values based mostly on nationwide common promoting costs, and fleet managers can get insights into when they need to trade-in or promote automobiles.
The corporate says it’s now working with greater than 1,000 dealerships throughout Australia. It additionally operates in New Zealand and Malaysia, and is making early strikes into the UK market.
Utilized EV: $57 million
Melbourne-based self-driving automobile firm Utilized Electrical Autos revealed it has raised $57 million in new funding this week, with the Nationwide Reconstruction Fund (NRF) contributing simply over $30 million to the spherical.
The funding increase may imply that self-driving vehicles with out seats, home windows or steering wheels might be manufactured in Australia throughout the subsequent 12 months.
The NRF’s funding in Utilized EV represents its first within the transport sector, and is predicted to assist the corporate add one other 25 staff to its workers of 113.
Barrenjoey and Japan Publish Capital additionally participated within the Collection B funding spherical, which can speed up the corporate’s manufacturing of its Blanc Robots, which seem like automobiles which have been minimize in half.
The robots are created from a Suzuki chassis and have proprietary elements and software program manufactured and put in in Australia. They’ve been designed for use in industrial, business and logistics companies.
Checkbox: $33 million
Australian legaltech startup Checkbox is making ready to scale its AI-powered platform for in-house authorized groups after securing $33 hundreds of thousands in Collection A funding.
The Checkbox platform is designed to behave as a central consumption layer for authorized groups and makes use of automated workflows to exchange fragmented and handbook processes.
The startup, which was based in 2016 by Evan Wong, James Han and Paul Wenck, was bootstrapped for 2 years earlier than elevating $1.77 million in angel investment in 2018, adopted by $6.3 million in a pre-Series A spherical in 2022.
The brand new Collection A spherical was led by Touring Capital, with participation from Peak XV (previously Sequoia Capital India), Conductive Ventures, Tidal Ventures and 5 V Capital, alongside angel traders.
Co-founder and chief product officer James Han mentioned Checkbox goals to show on a regular basis authorized requests into “institutional experience”, and the brand new funding will gasoline this imaginative and prescient.
Checkbox is already being utilized by greater than 100 enterprise clients, together with Telstra, Woolworths, Coca-Cola, Xero, Hitachi and extra.
Hometime: $19 million (type of)
Decade-old Sydney property administration and short-term leases platform Hometime has topped up its coffers as soon as extra with a mixture of enterprise capital and debt totalling $19 million.
As soon as once more, the corporate didn’t reveal particulars of the cut up between money and borrowings, which additionally included debt refinancing with the Commonwealth Financial institution.
The VC aspect was led by Craig Burton’s Verona Capital, supported by a phalanx of 15 current backers in addition to household workplaces.
Hometime, based in 2016 in Perth, kicked off with its capital elevating in 2017 with $1.5 million from Martin Dalgleish’s Asia Principal Capital, adopted by $6 million in debt and fairness from OneVentures in mid-2019, then topped it up a number of months later with $4.5 million from NAB Ventures and AS1 Capital.
In 2024, one other $10 million hit the bank account from Sydney-based Fifth Property Asset Administration for a shopping for spree. After acquiring Sydney-based Hey Tom in 2018, Hometime snapped up two rival short-term-rental platforms, Host My Residence in Cairns and bnbpal in Melbourne.
The corporate now takes care of greater than 3500 properties, from residences to resorts and seaside homes, in dozens of places throughout Australia. It manages its personal properties, in addition to collaborating with Airbnb hosts.
Hometime manages every part from cleansing to reserving inquiries, property upkeep and advertising.
Co-founder Dave Thompson left the enterprise in August 2024 after 10 years and now runs Freedom Ventures.
Manufacturing unit: $4.69 million
Manufacturing course of administration platform Manufacturing unit has raised $4.69 million in a Collection A spherical for its US ambitions.
The spherical was led by Shearwater Capital, with help from US investor Martin Tobias and current backers Investible, Adrian DiMarco and Beachhead Capital.
The Sydney software program startup beforehand raised $1.05 million in a 2023 seed round led by Investible.
Manufacturing unit helps fabrication and manufacturing companies handle jobs from quote to supply and buying.
The capital can be used to extend product and engineering capability, increase the go-to-market group,
and for US growth, kicking off in Texas.
Brothers Paul and Michael Lutkajtis based Manufacturing unit in 2021, impressed by their very own household’s fabrication enterprise.
On the Home: $1.7 million
Brisbane-based Startmate alumnus Remy Tucker, 26, has landed a $1.7 million seed spherical for her startup On the Home to supply free interval merchandise in public bogs.
The spherical was led by WA VC Function Ventures, supported by UniQuest Extension Fund and Startmate.
On the Home installs digital dispensers in girls’s bogs, offering free, natural and biodegradable interval merchandise, funded by digital promoting on the dispensers.
Tucker, a former scholar midwife turned marketer, mentioned the thought got here from noticing what was lacking in on a regular basis environments.
“The issue begins in communal bogs,” she mentioned.
“Three in 5 girls are utilizing makeshift options for interval merchandise when caught out in emergencies. Rest room paper is accessible in public bogs, however by no means interval merchandise. I needed to construct an answer that was sustainable, scalable and didn’t depend on ongoing grants or donations.”
This story first appeared on SmartCompany. You possibly can read the original here.
