From insurance and property management to plastic recycling services, the startups featured in this week’s funding round up are focused on game-changing services to their customers.
Keep reading to find out more about five Aussies startups that collectively raised $163.6 million this week, including a former Smart50 Awards winner!
Cover Genius: $120 million
Cover Genius co-founders Christopher Bayley and Angus McDonald. Source: Supplied.
Former Smart50 Awards winner Cover Genius leads this week’s funding round-up with a huge $120 million (US$80 million) Series E funding round.
While now headquartered in New York, the insurance tech startup was founded in Australia in 2014 by Angus McDonald and Christopher Bayley and was crowned the overall winner of the Smart50 Awards in 2017 with a three-year revenue growth of 2606%.
According to Startup Daily, US-based VC Spark Capital led the latest funding round and included existing investors Dawn Capital, King River Capital and G Squared.
Cover Genius previously raised $112 million (US$70 million) in Series D funding in 2022 and $100 million in Series C funding in 2021.
The company, which initially started out in the travel insurance space before expanding into other areas, reached unicorn status in 2021 and reportedly has some 30 million customers around the world.
It plans to use the new funding to accelerate its growth plans and improve its digital solutions, according to the report. This will include using artificial intelligence for claims handling and offering more insurance products on its platform.
Data Zoo: $35 million
L-R: Data Zoo chair Tony Fitzgibbon and CEO Charlie Minutella. Source: Supplied.
Sydney-based digital ID verification startup Data Zoo has secured $35 million (US$22.7 million) in Series A funding from Ellerston Capital fund, Ellerston JAADE.
Announcing the funding on Wednesday, Data Zoo said capital injection will help it scale its ID verification software, which it says provides efficient access to authoritative data from over 170 countries while also prioritising data protection and privacy by eliminating identity data storage.
The software is used by financial institutions, payment providers and fintechs.
Data Zoo was founded by chair Tony Fitzgibbon in 2011, and is led by recently appointed chief executive Charlie Minutella.
“There’s been a long-standing need for a more efficient and secure way to verify identities,” explained Fitzgibbon in a statement provided to SmartCompany.
“Data Zoo has spent years refining its solution – the result has been incredible innovation, UX optimisation, and growth in a fiercely competitive market, putting us head-to-head with today’s most established identity providers.
“Ellerston JAADE spotted an opportunity in Data Zoo’s proven ability to help global firms verify consumer and business identities, reduce fraud, and meet global compliance standards.”
The Series A round represents Data Zoo’s first outside investment. It now joins a number of other Australian firms in Ellerston JAADE’s portfolio, including Mable, Camms, and Phocas.
Neo-Bionica: $5 million
Also securing funding this week was Melbourne-based Neo-Bionica, which has raised $5 million from Breakthrough Victoria.
Neo-Bionica was founded in 2021 as a joint venture between the Bionics Institute and the University of Melbourne.
The startup specialises in manufacturing and commercialising medtech, working in the fields of engineering, bioelectronics, and neurotechnology to develop advanced medical devices.
Neo-Bionica offers services to other companies, such as medical device prototype development, clinical trials, and initial low-volume manufacturing, and has two workshops at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne that are used to develop implantable and wearable tech.
The company plans to use the funding to help it expand its manufacturing capability, facilities and market presence, both in Australia and globally.
Asseti: $2.5 million
L-R: Asseti team members Katrina Bignasca, Alex Doyle, Aonghus Stevens, and Nima Idel. Source: Tidal Ventures
Sydney-based proptech startup Asseti has secured $2.5 million in seed funding to continue building its AI-powered real estate asset management platform and take on the US market.
The round was led by early-stage VC Tidal, which has previously invested in the likes of Shippit, FrankieOne, and Sonder.
Asseti was founded in 2018 by Aonghus Stevens to help property managers improve the lifetime value of their assets. It does this by using high-quality images and machine learning to predict and prioritise what needs fixing in a property.
The platform, which is reportedly being used by the likes of Mirvac and Colliers, can help manage things like wear and tear of items and potential hazards in buildings.
On its website, the startup said it plans to use the new funding to build out its AI features and expand into the US market from a new base in Dallas, Texas.
This move “follows significant year-on-year growth in Australia and marks an important next step in helping customers to manage the vast and aging real estate landscape of the United States”, the company said.
Asseti now employs a team of more than 30 people and said it has recently welcomed two new key hires: Nima Idel as head of product, and Courtney Cusack as head of growth marketing.
The opportunity for Asseti is vast, said Tidal’s Kieran O’Neill in the VC’s investment notes.
“Every building and structure is a potential asset that Asseti can assess and help manage,” he said.
RecycleSmart: $1.1 million
The team of RecycleSmart. Source: Supplied.
More than 1000 investors have backed Sydney-based RecycleSmart, with the recycling startup successfully raising $1.15 million via a Birchal equity crowdfunding campaign that closed on Thursday.
Founded in 2019 by Marco Prayer and Giorgio Barracchi, RecycleSmart helps households, businesses and councils dispose of hard-to-recycle items by picking up unwanted waste from a customer’s doorstep.
The startup will pick up soft plastics, clothes, shoes, and small e-waste, and then sort and transfer them to specialist recycling partners like APR Plastics, Mobile Muster, and the Red Cross, which accepts unwanted but wearable clothing.
The startup says it has sent 800,000 kgs of items to be recycled to date but now wants to scale that impact.
This latest fund raise follows a previous $1 million raised by the startup in July 2023, also completed via an equity crowdfunding campaign on Birchal.
In the time since then, RecycleSmart has extended its Power Pickup program to businesses and is now recording more than $2 million in annual recurring revenue.
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