This week’s startup funding wrap includes a pioneering alternative to GPS, a homegrown AI system for lawyers, and a startup challenging an all-too-common health condition.
Keep reading to learn more about Advanced Navigation, MiAI Law, and Deftbiotech.
Advanced Navigation: $158 million
Australian deep-tech company Advanced Navigation has raised $158 million in a Series C round led by Airtree Ventures.
The investment also saw participation from Quadrant Private Equity and the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC), which separately confirmed $50 million in preferred equity investment.
The Sydney-founded company develops positioning, navigation and timing systems that allow vehicles, ships and autonomous systems to operate without relying solely on GPS, a technology increasingly vulnerable to interference.
Advanced Navigation CEO and co-founder Chris Shaw said GPS alternatives are increasingly important, as “the world’s reliance on any single navigation technology has evolved from a technical limitation into a systemic vulnerability”.
That thesis won over Airtree, and partner Kelland Reilly said the technology has real potential for commercial and defence applications.
“Advanced Navigation has built the leading solution in the positioning field and their rapid expansion into the US and Europe marks a definitive shift for mission-critical industries,” said Reilly.
NRFC CEO David Gall also said the investment would help commercialise Australian-developed technology globally while strengthening sovereign capability.
“Advanced Navigation’s technology is precise, secure, reliable, and efficient, and its products are already being used in the mining, marine and defence industries,” he said.
MiAI Law: $2 million
A legal tech startup built by a barrister to use an AI reasoning system for case law and legislation has launched with $2 million in funding.
MiAI Law was founded and designed by practising barrister Laina Chan.
After beta testing with lawyers, including international firms and barristers’ chambers, she secured $2 million from family, staff and angel investors in just five days last year.
The backers include Wai Ling Chan, Mei-Shan Tan, former general counsel for Citibank SAR Hong Kong and China, and David Ioannidis, former head of fixed income trading at JP Morgan Australia.
The startup enters the market with the goal of providing new, AI-powered technology in a sector where trust and transparency are paramount.
Rather than merely retrieving or summarising legal material, MiAI Law shows how conclusions are reached and makes each analytical step visible.
Chan said existing AI legal tools can locate a case or statute, but don’t show why it matters, the connections, or where the reasoning may fail.
“MiAI Law delivers transparent, methodical reports that lawyers can verify and test,” she said, adding that the human aspect of the law remains at the forefront.
“AI can support judgment, but it must never obscure it. MiAI Law is designed to strengthen professional reasoning, not replace it.”
The startup already has some heavy-hitting legal fans — most notably former High Court justice Michael Kirby, who said: “MiAI Law is the way of the future and it is great to see an Australian at the forefront”.
Deftbiotech: $1 million
Melbourne-based Deftbiotech has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to develop a new treatment for onychomycosis, a frequently painful fungal infection of the nails affecting some 500 million people worldwide.
Breakthrough Victoria’s University Innovation Program (UIP) and La Trobe University’s Eagle Fund each contributed $500,000 to the company.
Spun out of La Trobe University by emeritus professors Marilyn Anderson and Adrienne Clarke, and the University of Melbourne’s Dr Susan Lachal, Deftbiotech hopes to revolutionise treatment for the common condition.
Today, treatment consists of daily oral antifungal medications, taken over several months, or topical treatments, which can require daily application for more than a year.
Deftbiotech is developing a solution based on the non-toxic compound Pezadeftide, which works differently to existing topical treatments.
“With the growth in resistant fungus, there is an immediate need to develop new treatments for fungal disease,” professor Anderson said, in a statement accompanying the raise.
“Without treatment these infectious diseases get worse, and current therapies are ineffective or toxic, particularly in diabetics and immune-compromised people.”
Onychomycosis is both widespread and under-addressed as a health concern, said Breakthrough Victoria CEO Rod Bristow.
“Their approach has the potential to transform treatment outcomes for millions of people globally, and we’re proud to support their journey through the UIP,” he said in the statement.
