Australia’s startup sector has seen a huge week of dealmaking.
Firmus came in clutch on Friday morning with a massive $500 million raise just two months after it raised $330 million, making it one of the largest tech rounds announced this year.
In total, eight companies pulled in $572.12 million across AI infrastructure, biotech, renewable energy and more. This marks a sharp upswing in late-year activity, which we have seen become a bit of a trend in recent years.
Firmus: $500 million
Firmus has raised a further $500 million to accelerate the national rollout of Project Southgate, following a $330 million round in September. The new capital lifts the company’s valuation to around $6 billion and cements its position at the centre of Australia’s fast-moving AI infrastructure build-out.
Founded in Australia and now headquartered in Singapore, Firmus is developing a national network of “AI factories” designed to handle the power and cooling demands of large-scale AI workloads.
The funding will support site development, infrastructure deployment and energy partnerships across Tasmania, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Perth, as Firmus works toward its target of 1.6GW of capacity by 2028.
The company recently signed a strategic alliance with Nvidia and CDC Data Centres to roll out an estimated $73.3 billion worth of AI facilities across the country, anchored by a flagship green AI campus in Tasmania, with additional sites planned across the mainland.
Co-CEOs Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfeld said the raise will accelerate the next phase of Project Southgate, enabling the company to manufacture and deploy its next generation of AI infrastructure more quickly and on a national scale.
RAGE Biotech: $29 million
Melbourne-based therapeutics startup RAGE Biotech has raised $29 million in Series A funding and installed new executives as it prepares to take its treatment for chronic lung disease into first-in-human trials.
The round was led by IP Group Australia and Hostplus, with existing backers including Monash Ventures also participating.
The capital will support clinical development of RB042, an inhaled splice-switching oligonucleotide (SSO) therapy designed to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other inflammatory lung conditions.
Alongside the raise, the company has appointed former IP Group life sciences lead Dr Siro Perez as CEO and Dr Edwin Tucker as chief medical and development officer.
SunDrive: $25.3 million
The SunDrive team. Source: SunDrive
The government-backed Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has tipped $25.3 million in new funding into Sydney startup SunDrive, which is developing cheaper, copper-based solar panels.
It’s the second major funding injection from ARENA, which also tipped $11 million into SunDrive in 2023 and has now supplied nearly $40 million in capital.
SunDrive began life in a Wollongong garage in 2015, co-founded by Vince Allen and uni mate David Hu. Allen developed the idea of using copper as a cheaper alternative to silver in solar panels, which could make the new cells up to 30% cheaper.
Blackbird backed SunDrive’s seed round in 2018, then a $5 million Series A in 2020. The company went on to raise $21 million in a Series B in 2022, but last year was forced to trim its sails and shed jobs.
SunDrive’s backers also include Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Canva founder Cameron Adams, former PM Malcolm Turnbull and Tesla chair Robyn Denholm.
It has an R&D factory in Kurnell in southern Sydney, and the new cash will deliver an upgrade for technology development, as well as help undertake cost modelling. Modules made there will be used for in-field testing and early market acceptance to generate new licensing revenue streams for SunDrive.
Number 8 Bio: $11 million
A Sydney startup looking to reduce methane emissions from livestock has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round.
The round for Number 8 Bio was led by Kiwi VC Icehouse Ventures, with support from existing backer Main Sequence, as well as Japanese climate VC One Innovators joining the cap table.
Japan is Australia’s second-largest beef export market.
In September 2024, CSIRO-backed Main Sequence led a $7 million seed round with support from Breakthrough Victoria and The March Group.
Number 8 Bio was founded in 2022 by Dr Tom Williams and Dr Alex Carpenter, and it took part in the UNSW SynBio 10X Accelerator that year, winning the Positive Impact Award.
Number 8 Bio is using synthetic biology to create a cost-effective solution to dealing with enteric fermentation (burping) by livestock, a major source of agricultural methane, which accounts for around 70% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in NSW. One estimate suggests ruminant burps are responsible for around 10% of Australia’s total reportable greenhouse gas emissions.
Fabra: $2.8 million
Australian 3D product design startup Fabra has launched its public beta, alongside a $2.8 million pre-seed round backed by January Capital, Side Stage Ventures, Concept Ventures and Li & Fung.
Founded in 2023 by Luke Grana, Gloria Yu and former Canva engineer Nick Manks, Fabra is positioning itself as an accessible alternative to specialist product design software. According to the company, this is typically expensive, complex and geared toward trained industrial designers.
Instead, Fabra allows users to create 3D designs directly in their browser, including automatically generated tech packs for production.
Keeyu: $2.3 million
A Sydney AI-powered e-commerce startup focused on customer satisfaction during delivery — known in the trade as WISMO (where is my order?) — has raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding.
The round for Keeyu was led by Rampersand, with support from Archangel, Startmate, Empress Capital, Exhort Ventures, Sydney Angels, Southern Angels, and others, including Marketplacer’s Jason Wyatt, Alexey Mitko from Eucalyptus, Paul Greenberg and Luigi Iacullo.
The round is more than double the $1 million the startup was seeking last year when it was part of the Startmate program and was completed in July, but only announced this week with the rollout of Keeyu’s AI agent from beta testing to tackle automated issue resolution.
MyGig: $1 million
MyGig founder Angus Vidor (Image: MyGig)
MyGig has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to scale its “workforce-as-a-service” (WaaS) platform, which aims to take on payroll, award compliance and onboarding for businesses employing casual and shift workers.
The round was led by Artesian (via Hostplus), with participation from Co Ventures, Aussie Angels and a group of industry operators.
MyGig positions itself as an “Employer of Record” for casual workers, taking on compliance obligations and payroll functions on behalf of businesses. The company says this allows employers to outsource the administration and risk associated with modern award interpretation, right-to-work checks, WHS requirements and worker onboarding.
Drone-Hand: $720,000
Drone-Hand founder Edward Barraclough
Victorian agtech startup Drone-Hand has raised $720,000 in a pre-Seed round for its autonomous livestock management platform.
The raise was led by US VC Radius Capital, supported by three local agribusiness investors
