This week’s startup funding round-up options high-tech units, a startup on a mission to get rid of timesheets, and an organization that reminds its lead investor of “the early days of Canva”.
Hold studying to be taught extra about Liquid Devices, Marloo, Aigentsphere and Manifest, which collectively have raised a mixed $90 million this week.
Liquid Devices: $70 million
Main this week’s funding round-up is Canberra-born Liquid Devices, which plans to deliver its manufacturing again to Australia after securing a $70 million Sequence C funding spherical.
The capital injection contains $28.45 million from the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF).
The Sequence C spherical was co-led by listed US agency Keysight Applied sciences and included contributions from Breakthrough Victoria, Acorn Capital, Vital Capital Ventures and Tribeca.
Liquid Devices was based in 2014 from analysis undertaken on the Australian Nationwide College. The corporate makes use of software program, together with AI, to make specialised units that may substitute widespread laboratory devices, comparable to oscilloscopes and sign mills.
The corporate’s units are actually being utilized by main world tech companies, together with Apple, Nvidia, Blue Origin and BYD, to create know-how throughout quantum computing, AI, aerospace and defence.
The funding from the NRF will help the relocation of Liquid Devices’ manufacturing operations from Southeast Asia and the US to Melbourne.
Marloo: $14 million
Auckland startup Marloo has raised $14 million (US$10 million) in a seed funding spherical because it costs forward constructing its “AI associate for each monetary adviser”.
The startup has now raised a complete of US$12.7 million in funding, following a $4.2 million pre-seed raise in September 2025. After main Marloo’s pre-seed spherical, Blackbird Ventures is as soon as once more backing the startup as lead investor on this seed spherical.
In a blog post in regards to the capital elevate, Marloo stated greater than 650 corporations are actually paying to make use of the Marloo platform, throughout six nations. The startup stated its income is rising at a price of greater than 40% month-on-month and its buyer churn is “near zero”.
Based in June 2024 by Shakeel Lala, Hardy Michel, and Ben Robertson, Marloo says its system goes properly past being an AI notetaker for monetary advisers.
“AI notetakers have been simply the beginning,” the corporate stated this week.
“What advisers want is a associate that takes on the work across the recommendation itself, the paperwork, the compliance, the consumer context that carries throughout each dialog, to allow them to amplify what they do finest.
“Advisers present up for the consumer and Marloo helps them deal with every part else.”
Blackbird basic associate Samantha Wong stated in the identical put up that Marloo “reminds us of the early days of Canva”.
“Hardy, Shak and Ben are constructing with the sort of readability, velocity, and obsession that defines generational corporations,” stated Wong.
“They honestly perceive this occupation from the within. What they’ve constructed is elevating the complete occupation and what each adviser is able to.”
Aigentsphere: $4 million
Sydney AI agent administration and governance platform Aigentsphere has raised a $4 million seed spherical led by CSIRO-backed VC Major Sequence.
The funds will go to upping the engineering workforce and increasing operations in Australia and the US.
Aigentsphere’s platform addresses potential AI agent sprawl with a unified management layer that permits organisations to register and onboard brokers, monitor their efficiency in actual time, observe prices, implement insurance policies and robotically generate compliance reporting.
Chair Kelly Bayer Rosmarin stated growing demand for AI administration and governance is being pushed each by board-level mandates to innovate quickly with AI and regulatory strain to make sure techniques are secure and properly ruled.
“As AI brokers grow to be extra autonomous and embedded in core workflows, corporations can’t afford to have unmanaged AI working inside their enterprise,” she stated.
“Aigentsphere offers leaders a transparent line of sight and management over how AI is getting used, the influence on prices, the enterprise efficiency, and the dangers it introduces. Aigentsphere permits corporations to really perceive their ROI for brokers, not simply as a theoretical train in growth cycles, however in an ongoing, sustainable means all through the life span of the lively brokers.”
Manifest: $2 million
A trans-Tasman startup has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding to assist promoting businesses higher observe and worth their work amid the speedy adoption of AI throughout the sector.
Manifest has formally launched this week with the funding spherical, which was led by Model Fund by Beforehand Unavailable, which was an early investor within the likes of Tracksuit, Ideally and Appetise.
Antler, Icehouse Ventures, Techstars and the Huljich & Bhatnagar Household Workplaces additionally participated within the spherical, together with a gaggle of outstanding business buyers.
This group includes Henry Innis, co-founder and CEO of Mutinex; Mark Coad, ex-IPG Mediabrands CEO; Jamie Mackay from BWM Dentsu; Jonathan Isaacs from Taboo Group; James Hutchinson from Sling & Stone; Jordan Taylor-Bartels from Prophet; Connon Bray from TRA, Tracksuit and Ideally; and Mumbrella co-founder Tim Burrowes.
Based by Freddie McKenzie and Henry Collinson, Manifest has constructed an AI-powered intelligence platform that permits advert businesses to robotically seize how work is completed throughout their groups, instruments and AI platforms.
This permits businesses to entry a real-time view of their operations to higher perceive the time, effort and workflows required to finish tasks.
