Ten startup raises worth getting excited about in 2024

SmartCompany - Eloise Keating - News Editor

At SmartCompany, we keep a close eye on the startups raising capital each week and it gives us a box-seat view of groundbreaking Australian innovations.

While funding levels in 2024 are tracking lower than in years gone by, there’s been no shortage of deals to cover in the first four months of the year.

Our weekly startup funding round-ups in 2024 have featured 61 Australian startups and four New Zealand startups, which collectively have raised $898.8 million. We expect the actual total raised by local startups to be higher, however, as we may not have reported on all the capital raises that have taken place. 

Of the startups that have raised fresh funding this year, here are 10 startups the SmartCompany editorial team thinks are worth getting excited about.

Gilmour Space Technologies: $55 million (February)

A pioneer of Australia’s burgeoning space industry, Queensland’s Gilmour Space Technologies raised $55 million in a Series D funding round in February, as the countdown continues for the launch of its Eris rocket — the first-ever orbital launch of a commercial rocket in Australia — expected later this year.

Gilmour Space is leading in other ways too, emerging as a standout performer in terms of gender pay equity in March.

Prota Therapeutics: $32 million (January)

Melbourne biotech startup Prota Therapeutics is pioneering treatments for food allergies in children, and in January, it secured $32 million (US$21 million) in a round comprising of equity and debt financing.

Led by CEO professor Mimi Tang from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Prota Therapeutics is working towards the Phase 3 clinical trial for its first product, its PRT120 oral therapy for peanut allergy.

Ultra Violette: $15 million (January)

Also in January, SPF brand Ultra Violette raised $15 million from US-based Aria Growth Partners to help it replicate its local success in the North American market.

The brand has already won major export awards for its skincare range, which looks and feels much more like cosmetics than traditional sunscreens and counts the likes of Adore Beauty, Sephora, Harrods and Liberty London among its retail stockists.

Cauldron: $9.5 million (March)

In March, precision fermentation startup Cauldron closed a $9.5 million Series A funding round to continue scaling its cutting-edge approach to continuous fermentation, which in turn is setting the stage for more sustainable bio-based products to achieve price parity and mainstream adoption.

Cauldron is already providing its precision fermentation services to other Aussie startups — including Eden Brew, ULUU and Nourish Ingredients – all of which have also had substantial capital raises over the last 18 months.

Diversity Atlas: $6 million (April)

Company leaders are increasingly focusing on improving diversity, equity and inclusion in their businesses and Melbourne-based data analytics startup Diversity Atlas is well-placed to help them do just that.

The startup raised $6 million in fresh funding from Canadian funding platform Gener8 VC in April for its platform that gives companies unique insights into diversity and employee engagement. The platform’s dataset – which includes more than 45,000 human identity data points – is used alongside the startup’s proprietary algorithm to track cultural diversity and sentiment within a company.

Sumday: $5.3 million (April)

Similarly, carbon accounting is only going to become more important for Australian firms and Tasmanian-founded Sumday has been described as “the only carbon accounting platform that is built for accountants first”.

In April, Sumday locked in $5.3 million in seed funding in a round led by US-based VC fund Planeteer Capital, and including existing investors Blackbird, Wedgetail and Canva co-founder Cameron Adams.

VAPAR: $5 million (January)

Further global expansion is on the cards for Australian deep-tech startup VAPAR, which has developed tech that uses AI and machine learning to find faults in sewerage and stormwater pipes.

In January, the startup raised $5 million to fuel its expansion into North America, following its success in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, to help address the challenges posed by ageing sewer pipe infrastructure in the region.

Alt.Leather: $1.1 million (January)

Alt.Leather founder Tina Funder has an ambitious goal to disrupt the $70 billion plastic leather industry by creating a bio-leather alternative using 100% Australian, ethically sourced ingredients.

To that end, her Melbourne-based startup closed an oversubscribed $1.1 million seed funding round in January, led by family investment firm Wollemi Capital Group and joined by LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund, Startmate, and The Austin Group.

Femtek: $1 million (March)

Femtek founder Olivia Orchowski sees a significant gap in the wearable market for a device specifically designed to improve healthcare for women.

That’s where Femtek’s Basal Body Ring, for which the startup raised $1 million in March, comes in. The ring is tailored to track women’s menstrual cycles, and measure their basal body temperature, heart rate, and heart rate variability, to help provide better data to healthcare professionals.

Anni: $1 million (March)

Perth-based on-demand wellness startup Anni also wants to address a major challenge in the healthcare space: that of Australians left languishing on specialist waiting lists for months or years for appointments.

In March, the startup raised $1 million in seed funding to expand its marketplace, which links users with wellness, health and wellbeing experts to help them solve problems or find the right product or service for them.

This appeared in SmartCompany on April 26, 2024.

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