G'day and welcome to Overnight Success. A warm welcome to the 79 new subscribers that have joined since the last edition! You've just joined 1,379 other legends learning about Aussie start-ups.

Headlines:

• 👀 Australia’s top VCs in the eyes of founders revealed

  • Astral Ventures has released a leaderboard of over 100 Australian VC’s ranked according to anonymous voting from founders who have raised funds. We spoke to the team behind the list - check out our hot takes below.

• 🤑 Blackbird announced three new partners to help deploy $1B fund

  • The fund has promoted Michael Tolo, Phoebe Harrop and Tom Humphrey to general partners. (AFR)

• 🤔 Business News Australia released their list of Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs

  • Maxine Sherrin noted that very few women were highlighted on the list (we counted 19…), which sparked an active debate on LinkedIn here.

• 🚀 Kirstin Hunter was announced as the new Managing Director for Techstars Sydney

  • Kirstin is a respected ecosystem native with an incredibly impressive CV, including Co-founder & CEO of Future Super, Chief People, Risk & Legal Officer at Brighte and Chief of Staff at Human, amongst many other things.

  • The first Techstars accelerator program is now open for applications. Check out the Notice Board for more info!

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

2. Aussie Raisins: Start-ups & scale-up’s publicly looking for funds.

3. TL;DR: What’s the deal with this VC Leaderboard?

4. New Fund, Who’s This?: Fresh funds flowing into the ecosystem.

5. Notice Board: Signposting key events and opportunities.

6. Wins: Highlighting wins, big and small.

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

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

9. Guess the Aussie Start-up: A series of hints to guess an Aussie start-up. How well do you know the ecosystem?

⚡️Start-up Retro⚡️

Consumer

🍾 Remedy Drinks fizzes with undisclosed Series B following US growth

Remedy Drinks, the kombucha manufacturer founded in Melbourne, has closed a Series B. While the numbers remain disclosed, the round was led by L Catterton and the Kin Group, who have previously led investments in Remedy. The no-sugar, better-for-you drinks have seen solid growth worldwide. Remedy Drinks sit as the #1 kombucha brand in Australia and the UK and at #3 in Canada. Accompanying the round was the announcement of a new Chief Customer Officer, Nathan Schy, who will look to accelerate US growth which already sits at 272% YOY. Remedy Drinks will try to gain shelf space among its existing retail partners of Walmart, Costco, Target and Kroger. The company sits within a nice niche - health-conscious customers looking for healthy alternatives to traditional soft drinks. The kombucha products are retail friendly too, with a long shelf life, no need for refrigeration and high solid margins. With the new funding, Remedy Drinks hopes to enter another 3,000 retail stores in the US to cap out at 10,000.

Due Diligence: Remedy Drinks Press Release

Communication

📜 Chronicle closes $7.5M Seed round to create smarter presentations

Chronicle, a new "storytelling" software that aims to revolutionise how presentations are created and consumed, has closed a $7.5M Seed round. The funding was co-led by Square Peg and Accel, with participation from angel investors from Google, Apple, Superhuman, Meta, Slack, Intercom, and more. In short, Chronicle creates smart presentations using pre-designed blocks. These blocks are often interactive and will auto-resize for any device. The decks are stunning - very Steve Jobs. The platform also allows for real-time collaboration, allowing presenters to direct audience attention and team members to work on the presentation simultaneously. The founders, Mayuresh Patole and Tejas Gawande come from consulting and product backgrounds and have extensive experience creating slide decks. The Seed capital will be used to further the product, add more smart blocks and features and expand the team. The product is still in live beta. If you want to check it out, head to the early access registration here.

Due Diligence: Square Peg Investment Notes 

AgriTech

🐮 Our Cow mooves along nicely with a $1.65M crowdfunding raise following Voly acquisition

Our Cow, an Australian AgriTech start-up that offers 'meat-as-a-service', has raised over $1.65M from more than 800 investors. The crowdfunding campaign, which is still live at the time of publishing, has surpassed its goal and is looking to close out at a total of $2.62M at a $62.67 pre-money valuation. The start-up comes from humble beginnings finding product-market fit by selling beef directly to consumers through social media. The founding farming team then saw the opportunity to launch a subscription service in April 2021. Currently, the MaaS generates $22M in subscription revenue annually, with over 7,500 subscribers. The network has snowballed with over 150 farms producing meat for Our Cow. Over Christmas, Our Cow acquired the recently closed down grocery delivery service Voly from administrators. Seeing how Our Cow utilises the Voly assets as they grow will be fascinating. Australia is seeing plenty of innovation in this space, with a butcher based in Albury recently offering a 24/7 self-service butchery. This latest capital raise will help Our Cow move its offering of products away from just beef and open up distribution to all capital cities in Australia.

Due Diligence: Business News Australia 

B2B / MarTech

🤝 Partnar lands $200K Seed to make business partnerships easier

Locking in a business partnership is often far more challenging than it should be. Understanding the benefits for both parties, what the other side of the partnership is bringing to the table and sorting out legal terms often ruin a good opportunity. Partnar, a B2B marketing platform, has raised $200K from Skalata Ventures. The Partnar platform offers a matchmaking service for D2C brands that can distribute your brand via their network. Partnar has caught the tailwinds of marketing teams moving away from paid online and social advertising with recent changes to cookies and privacy policies; Partnar is an alternative to pay-per-click advertising and offers unique distribution. For example, an e-commerce brand could partner with HelloFresh and take up an offer of distribution for flyer inserts in HelloFresh boxes. Each business can understand the demographics of the counter party and ensure it’s a good fit. The platform already hosts MYOB, Jenny Craig and Naked Wines as available for partnerships.

Due Diligence: Startup Daily

Hospitality / Eco-cabin

🛖 Unyoked raises $28M to grow the eco-hospitality cabin brand internationally

The off-grid cabin, eco-stay group Unyoked has raised $28M. The funding round was led by European-based SURPLUS Equity Partners and Australian Realside Financial Group. The new capital will allow for expansion into new territories such as Scandinavia, Germany, Benelux, Austria, and Switzerland. Unyoked currently runs 100 off-grid cabins across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. They're designed to be secluded and offer access to nature within easy reach of heavily populated cities. Each cabin uses solar power, rainwater, and composting toilets for minimal environmental impact. The company partners with local landowners and offers a revenue share for landowners who keep the cabins clean and stocked up on filter coffee and cassette tapes. Each cabin is slightly modified and optimised for different climates and terrain. Unyoked was founded by brothers Chris and Cameron Grant in 2016 and has resonated with young to middle-aged professionals getting away from the always-online lifestyle. The Nudge Group did an excellent interview with the founders towards the end of 2022.

Due Diligence: Press Release 

FinTech

💵 DataMesh closes oversubscribed $30M

Sydney-based payment services software company DataMesh as closed a $30M funding round. They originally wanted ~$15M at a $115M valuation. This $30M close is a positive sign for the Australian ecosystem and marks the company at a "significantly higher valuation" than $115M. NAB Ventures led the round with contributions from Deutsche Bank, ANZ's external innovation and venture capital partner 1835i, Wunala Capital, Fifth Estate and Peregrine Corporation. The DataMesh platform helps banks and payment systems (Visa & Mastercard) support next-generation terminals. Next-generation terminals, in this case, are more intelligent EFTPOS machines that can process transactions with a point-of-sale system, split bills and offer accessibility prompts for the hearing and vision impaired. NAB and other banks come as significant strategic investors who hope to pilot the DataMesh system with their merchants. Deutsche Bank is also deploying the platform across its online payment acceptance technology in Asia-Pacific.

Due Diligence: FinExtra & NAB Ventures Announcement

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

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Aussie Raisins

• Southern Innovation is seeking $30M to fund the growth of its materials analysis business.

  • The company’s “advanced sensing technologies and instrumentation” have a multitude of current & potential applications from medical imaging and battery recycling to mining critical minerals.

  • Due diligence: AFR

TL;DR: Astral Ventures VC Leaderboard

There’s been a lot of hype and chit-chat around the ecosystem about the VC Leaderboard released this week by the team at Astral Ventures.

What is it? The leaderboard ranks Australian-based VCs according to an anonymous survey asking founders who their most preferred fund is from those currently on their cap table. For more detail around the methodology, read here.

Who’s behind it? Astral Ventures is a capital raise advisory for tech companies. It was founded by Joe Patrick, who was joined by Albert Patajo as Principal late last year.

What’s the big deal? The Astral team feels there needs to be greater transparency in the ecosystem, and the purpose of the leaderboard, in their words, is to “level the playing field between founders and investors”. Apparently, they’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback since launch, which is lucky as the team is keen to retain positive relationships with local VCs.

What can we expect next? "Our next step is to build out more actionable insights that give founders more insight into investor value-add and VCs insights to understand where their strengths are and how they benchmark against their peers", says Albert. So, watch this space! 👀

New Fund, Who’s This?

• Salus Ventures has raised $40M to drive the growth of defence, robotics and advanced manufacturing start-ups. (AFR)

  • Who’s behind it?:

    • Dan Bennett - lawyer-turned-serial-investor with a focus on science-based companies & Managing Partner of OurCrowd, a crowdfunding platform that gives its network access to tech start-up VC deals.

    • Mike Ferrari - ex-Salesforce Ventures Australia & led the Sydney office of the CIA’s VC firm (In-Q-Tel).

    • Marten Peck - Principal of a leading Australian architectural practice & experienced Investment Executive.

Notice Board

• ☕️ Melbourne Accelerator Program - applications close this weekend!

  • This is one of Australia’s best-known and oldest university-aligned accelerators, with $20k of equity-free Seed funding available to successful applicants. Learn more and apply here.

  • Best suited to: Aspiring & early-stage founders

• 🌟 Techstars Accelerator applications are open!

  • The newly opened Techstars HQ at Tech Central Sydney has officially launched its first accelerator program, offering participants up to $120k for 6% equity (refer to the full investment terms for more info). Applications close 5th April. Apply here.

  • Best suited to: Aspiring & early-stage founders focused on emerging technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, blockchain, fintech, cloud computing, cybersecurity, quantum computing, creative tech, and climate tech)

• 🏳️‍🌈 Can you support the queer tech community?

  • The wonderful Josh Lipscombe (LaunchVic & FuckUp Nights, Melbourne & Sydney) and the Out In Tech Melbourne team are planning their next event for late March and are looking for sponsors. Full details from Josh here.

  • Best suited to: Organisations (start-ups & corporates) looking to walk-the-talk as LGBTIQ+ allies.

• 🧑‍🚀 _SOUTHSTART Odyssey - 7- 10th March, Adelaide

  • The OS team and a heap of Australia’s most influential start-up movers & shakers will be at this incredible event. Check out the program & get your tix quick!

  • If meeting these people and listening to the incredible speaker line-up isn’t enough, you’ll also be in town for Adelaide’s renowned ‘Mad March’ festival season (Fringe, Adelaide Festival, Writers Week & WOMAD!).

  • Best suited to: Founders, Operators, Investors & the ‘start-up curious’

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!

Wins

• AMSL Aero 🚁 This well-funded EV aeroplane startup has successfully completed its maiden test flight. (AFR)

  • The husband and wife founding team scored $23M in investment in September last year to progress the development of its aircraft, which takes off vertically like a helicopter but flies like an aeroplane.

• Cartelux 🚗 The AdTech business is expanding to the United States, Canada, and Latin America. (Mediaweek)

  • Headquartered in the Sunshine Coast, the company primarily services the automotive industry and boasts brands such as Ford, Renault, and BMW Group as clients. Details of the company’s previous funding efforts aren’t readily available. However, Tractor Ventures is one confirmed funding partner.

Accredited Tweeters

KaaS (Knowledge as a Service)

• 🎧 What we’re listening to this week: OS-team favourite Acquired Podcast has just started a new season!

  • Have a listen to the first two episodes on The NFL and LVMH here.

• A Minimum Viable Product Is Not a Product, It's a Process by Jim Brikman

  • This a great article on why testing assumptions early is more important than building a whole product.

What is the best thing you read or published this week? Reply to this email to be featured.

Guess the Aussie Start-up

Hint: They were founded in 2014, have raised over $20 million, and are headquartered in Sydney. They provide solutions for mining and construction and have a cloud-based platform for collecting, processing and analysing data.

Shoot a reply with your best guess; those who guess correctly will gain eternal glory in next week’s newsletter! Reply for an extra hint.

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‘Til next time,

👋 Will & Gem