G'day and welcome to Overnight Success! A big shout-out to the 70 new subscribers who’ve joined since the last edition. You’ve just joined 1,800+ readers!

This is a very special edition of Overnight Success because tomorrow is our 1st birthday! 🥳️

We’ve just locked in venues for simultaneous celebrations in Melbourne and Adelaide on Friday 16th of June, at 4:30pm local time. Full details will be released next week, but if you’re keen to secure your spot before then, reply to this email with “Invite me please!”.

Until then, here are a few fun facts about our journey to date…

• Will started Overnight Success while participating in the Startmate Media Fellowship (where he met Gemma!).

• When Will first started writing, he sent out three “test” editions of the newsletter to a ‘friendly’ audience of family (hi mum!), friends and participants of the Fellowship. The first edition of OS was on the 26th of April and went out to just 7 recipients!

• The first "official" edition reached 66 readers, growing to 350 in the first 6 months.

• Gemma officially joined the team in October, and we now have over 1,800 active readers!

• We've sent over 34,000 emails and generated over 3,400 clicks to Aussie start-up & VC news, events, and resources.

A boring operations message: Thanks to the readers who reached out and said the email wasn’t loading fully on their phones. Some email clients don’t like to share the full OS newsletter. Make sure you click ‘Read Online’ on the top right of this email to load all the goodness.

Headlines

💰 Did someone say… Budget Week!?

• The Federal budget was released on Tuesday, meaning every business & finance journalist was completely wrapped up in unpacking the juicy (and not so juicy) details.

• This probably also explains the lack of raise announcements this week, with only the Aussie tech unicorn Go1 managing to cut through the budget noise with their $30M raise.

• We’ve wrapped up the most impactful budget announcements for Aussie start-ups in a special deep-dive below!

⛓️ Everledger, the former Queensland Chief Entrepreneur Leanne Kemp’s blockchain start-up that tracks the provenance of precious goods like diamonds, has entered administration. (AFR)

• Everledger had previously raised significant capital and was backed by Tencent, amongst others. However, they could not close one last investment round which apparently would get them to profitability.

👭 Scale Ventures transitions business to its management team. (Startup Daily)

• The current executive team, Samar Mcheileh, Chelsea Newell, and Roo Harris, have purchased the business from the original founders.

• The decade-old women-led investor network has backed 47 women-led start-ups.

💲 Start-up Budget Retro

Big Winners 🤑

AI and Quantum computing -$101M

• The government has committed an additional $101M over the next five years to help businesses integrate quantum computing and AI into their operations. How this actually fleshes out remains to be seen. We wonder if this means everyone gets a ChatGTP subscription?

The Critical Technologies Challenge Program - $116M

• The CTCP will support projects that solve significant national challenges. However, this will also be limited to extending the National AI Centre and the development of governance for AI usage.

• Additionally, this funding will establish an Australian Centre for Quantum Growth supporting the Aussie quantum industry.

General support for start-ups & SMEs

• The budget commits to $431.9M over 4 years from 2023 and $79.2M per year ongoing to support SMEs and start-ups.

  • Following this, the Industry Growth Program will chip in $68.2M a year.

• The Government also wants to grease the wheels of SMEs interacting with Government entities with $39.6M across four years with the Single Business Service. This helps SMEs find appropriate grants and government services.

$2B for Hydrogen

• $2B will be dedicated to the Hydrogen Headstart Program to provide revenue support for large-scale renewable hydrogen production.

VISA Updates

• The visa processing times should improve with $28m funding over two years to upgrade the visa ICT systems.

• The temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) also increased from $53,900 to $70,000 on July 1. Meaning, those coming in on a Skilled Occupation List must have a minimum income of $70K.

Read more: Startup Daily

1. Start-up Retro & Crowdfunding: Australia's start-up raises with a smidge of context.

2. Wins: Highlighting wins, big and small.

3. Notice Board: Signposting key events and opportunities.

4. Vibe Check: Getting your thoughts on a hot-topic.

5. Accredited Tweeters: Snippets from mostly Aussie start-up Twitter.

6. (KaaS) Knowledge as a Service: Articles to make you smarter. Or to share with co-workers to make them think you’re smart.

⚡️Start-up Retro⚡️

Edtech

Go1 raises $30M to help fund acquisition of Blinkist

Brisbane-based Edtech start-up Go1 has acquired Berlin-based start-up Blinkist, the company that delivers a 15 minute-long summary of a book's key insights. The acquisition of Blinkist was a mix of cash and shares, but full details remain undisclosed. As part of the deal, Go1 has raised $30M of cash from their biggest investor Insight Partners, at an increased valuation. To kick off, the two platforms will continue to operate separately, but there are plans for integration and cross-selling in the future. Go1 aims to incorporate Blinkist's high user engagement features and leverage the app’s format to offer a wider range of course delivery options. Presently, Go1 has 8 million users, including major customers like Salesforce and Microsoft, while Blinkist has 25 million app downloads and nearly 1 million paying users. Blinkist was last valued in 2018 at $160 million with profitable growth. The acquisition could be a hint to Go1's future plans to expand into e-learning and reading leveraging the power of AI. The question of whether an IPO is on the cards for Go1 will be asked over the next 12-24 months, and Blinkist's large user base and profitability will no doubt excite investors.

Due Diligence: Tech Crunch

If you're a founder or investor who has just closed a round, please reach out to us at [email protected]

Aussie Raisins

• Aussie data centre NextDC is raising $618M to fund its expansion into New Zealand and Malaysia. (Market Watch)

  • The sites are already acquired, and building is expected to start in 2024.

Wins

• Tractor Ventures 🚜 This week reached the milestone of 100 ventures who have accessed the company’s non-dilutive alt-capital for their growth. Tractor Ventures buys a Lego Tractor set for every founder they fund - watch Gaz Williams (Engagement Director) stocking up this week at BigW.

• ClearCalcs 🧮️ Has announced an industry-first partnership with Standards Australia. The partnership means ClearCalcs users will be able to to access and validate their calculations against all Australian Standards which are primary references in the National Construction Code. ICYMI, we covered ClearCalc’s most recent raise late last year.

• Superhero 🦸‍♂️ The low-fee trading platform has officially launched in New Zealand after side-stepping a merger with Swyftx and achieving 12 months of rapid growth, which saw the number of investors on the app go from 70,000 to 240,000! (Business News Australia)

Notice Board

• Australian Technologies Competition - Entries now open!

  • A national growth and awards program that spotlights and accelerates homegrown tech scale-ups with the greatest global potential. Entries are open until 31st of May. Learn more and apply here.

  • Best suited to: Founders of tech scale-ups

• Coralus (formerly SheEO) Venture Program - Applications now open!

  • This highly regarded entrepreneur community & support program only has one annual intake. Applications are open until the 13th of June. Learn more here.

  • Best suited to: Companies with <$2M in revenue that are majority-owned and led by women or non-binary folks

VIC ☕️

• Startup Victoria: Advanced Tech, Web3 & AI Pitch Night - 30th May 📍 Melbourne

  • You can still apply to pitch your start-up until the 18th of May. Get your tickets to get in on the action here.

  • Best suited to: Founders & Investors

QLD 🏄

• What the Health: Health Tech & Innovation Hangs - 17th May 📍 Brisbane

  • WTH is hosting its first ever event in the Sunshine State! Register to attend here.

  • Best suited to: Anyone mad about med & health-tech

NSW 🍹

• F2F - 18th of March 📍Sydney

  • A casual catch-up for female founders to meet face-to-face with funders, supported by AWS & Airtree. Register to attend here.

  • Best suited to: Female founders & investors

• Young Founders Pitch Competition

  • An initiative from Textbook Ventures and Aura Ventures. Entries are open until midnight on the 21st of May. The final pitches take place on the 2nd of June. Register to pitch here, or find out more here.

  • Best suited to: Student & early-grad founders

SA 🍇

• Lot Fourteen’s Biggest Morning Tea - 10 - 11am, 24th May📍Stone & Chalk Adelaide

  • What better reason to come together with other start-up & innovation ecosystem folk than to raise money for a worthy cause like cancer research? Bring a sweet or savoury plate or share a donation on arrival. In the meantime, you can donate here.

Have something to put on the Notice Board? We're always looking for upcoming events & opportunities across the Aussie start-up ecosystem. Reach out to [email protected] to add yours!

Vibe Check

Over the last 12 months, the format of the Overnight Success newsletter has slowly evolved to include more sections. Our aim is to capture the broad diversity of activity and opportunities available across the ecosystem.

We’re always looking to improve our content so it better serves you, our readers! So, we’d love to know…

Any extra feedback or ideas for new sections? Reply to this email, we’d love to hear from you!

Accredited Tweeters

KaaS (Knowledge as a Service)

• Gemma’s Pick 💁‍♀️ ANZ Accelerators List, courtesy of Michael Batko (Startmate CEO)

  • Batko put a call out this week via LinkedIn for help to fill out this spreadsheet of Accelerators across Australia and New Zealand. It’s an awesome initiative and currently lists ~46 programs! If you’re a founder or aspiring founder looking for support, be sure to take a look.

• Will’s Pick 💁‍♂️ You are not late by Kevin Kelly (Medium Blog post)

  • Although this article is out of date being written in 2014, with minimal mention of AI or Web3, the message still holds resolutely true. Despite more companies starting daily, the surface area for new opportunities also increases.

Have we missed something? Got some feedback? We love emails, so send one over!

• 🦤 Find us on Twitter: Overnight Success, Will, Gem

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• 💌 Email

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‘Til next time,

👋 Will & Gem