Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Deputy raises $37m and becomes a Unicorn!



After nearly going bust during Covid, Deputy has joined Canva, Go1, Pet Circle , Linktree and SafetyCulture - achieving   unicorn with an investment  of $37m at a $1.1b valuation from Express Employment Professionals, a global staffing and labour hire company who was a customer of Deputy.


This has made founder Ashik Ahmed a happy man together with investors Square Peg, EVP, and US investors IVP and OpenView.


In 2018, Deputy raised  $111 million led by US investor IVP, which valued the company at $423 million. 


What Deputy does 

Deputy have  built a truly extraordinary platform that automates a broken and manual workflow for more than millions workers in over 100 countries helping them communicate, engage , onboard and organise their rosters.


Businesses onboard hourly workers via a mobile app and conduct employee engagement surveys after their shift ends. 


The company also created a communication tool, similar to Slack, that allows shift workers and managers to share information easily.


Ashik was first exposed to the need for better organisation of shift workers as a 16-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh, when he was flipping burgers at Hungry Jack’s.


He founded Deputy in 2008, alongside entrepreneur Steve Shelley. Ashik stepped aside as CEO a year ago to bring in San Francisco-based Silvija Martincevic and Joins Steve Shelley on the board.


Silvia told the AFR that Deputy are focused on the impact that they can achieve in the shiftwork community, which remains an underserved community despite being the most substantial. 


She said that there’s no better validation of a company’s mission and what we’re doing than having a customer who decides to invest in you. 


So who is Express Employment Professionals?

EEP have more than 860 franchised locations across Australia, America, South Africa and New Zealand, and will add more than 500,000 new users to Deputy - a 36 per cent increase to  its current 1.4 million global user base.

Deputy investors love them!

Paul Bassat of Square Peg told AFR that this investment would provide Deputy with the firepower to continue to invest in the growth of the business.


Howard Leibman of EVO says “I've had the privilege of working with Deputy since we were a team of 20, and of serving on the Deputy Board since 2016. Whilst it’s taken some time to exceed the $1 billion valuation, the fact that Deputy would one day be a unicorn was for me never in doubt. 


The business serves one of the world's largest markets - the many hundreds of millions of hourly paid workers - who have long been under-served by software and for whom technologies such as Deputy have life-changing impact. 


Through the Express Pros partnership alone, a further 500,000 hourly workers will have access to Deputy over time. Express Pro's material investment into the business speaks to Deputy's extraordinary long term prospects as we take on the US market. 


A huge congrats to Silvija Martincevic and the entire Deputy team on this milestone achievement. But in so many respects we're only just getting started!!”


Who to look out for!!!

Watch Anwar Kahlil and Martian Logic !!




https://www.startupdaily.net/topic/sydney-staff-management-deputy-boston-openview/


https://anthillonline.com/deputy-raises-us25-million-series-openview-redefine-workforce-management/


https://medium.com/authority-magazine/silvija-martincevic-of-deputy-five-things-i-wish-someone-told-me-before-i-became-a-ceo-a4022059e6f2


https://www.afr.com/technology/australia-has-its-first-tech-unicorn-in-two-years-20240314-p5fcbg


https://www.linkedin.com/posts/howardleibman_australia-has-its-first-tech-unicorn-in-activity-7175640006055616512-4rlb?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios


Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Biocatch founders have pay day at unicorn valuation




Founders of Israeli cybersecurity business, BioCatch, Avi Turgeman and the late Benny Rosenbaum get paid out as Macquarie buys $32 million, Sapphire Ventures $70m and Permira Growth Opportunities $40 million at a valuation of slightly more than $1 billion.


What biocatch does 

BioCatch founded in 2011, specializes in software development for identifying and preventing bank fraud and money laundering.


BioCatch  numbers 

BioCatch is currently led by CEO Gadi Mazor, employs 280 people, half of whom are based in Israel. 


The recent surge in the company's value follows accelerated growth, propelling it to a yearly revenue pace of $100 million, leading to a positive cash flow. 


BioCatch clients

This growth is fueled by a 51% revenue increase from its 152 clients, consisting of banks and financial institutions. 


Notably, 28 of the world's top 100 banks are on BioCatch's client list. 


The early investors 

The primary shareholder in BioCatch , Bain Capital, led the last $145 million fundraising round in 2020 with the major global banks such as HSBC, Citi, Barclays, and the investment arm of American Express. 


To date, BioCatch has raised $253 million, with the proceeds from the last three rounds benefiting early investors seeking an exit.


Related articles:


https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cwsisrael_australian-investment-giant-macquarie-acquires-activity-7163085854314336256-96E5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios


Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Oneventures closes first fund with 4X investment

Australian venture capital firm OneVentures has hit a landmark moment, with the official closure of its first fund, providing strong returns to its backers, including the federal government, which provided half the money for the fund back in 2010.

This is a significant moment for the local technology industry as it marks the first major fund of the post dotcom era to officially wrap up and return good money to investors. 

The return currently stands at four times the money invested, and could rise higher!!


Source AFR https://www.afr.com/technology/this-vc-firm-has-hit-a-landmark-and-it-s-payout-time-20240211-p5f427

BuPa raises a $20m VC find for Healthtech Companies

Adelle Moynihan’s  work over the last five months at Bupa, building Bupa Ventures, has come to life through launch in the The Australian Financial Review 😊 
 
Yes, it takes a minute to build a corporate venture fund, and I have learnt that's for good reason. Behind the scenes, the Ventures team has been aligning Bupa's robust capabilities to be able to deliver value beyond capital to the health techs we fund. 
 
In the words of CEO Nick Stone 
 
"That's the hardest thing for any start-up, getting a customer base. We can offer a readymade one as well as a very well capitalised business to support their growth".
 
Here's a fund overview for you
- $20m to deploy with an allocation for follow-on
- Seed - Series A stage
- Backing APAC companies
- Strategic fund with a focus on predictive and preventative healthcare, genomics and personalised medicine, and in-home and remote monitoring solutions. 
- Value beyond capital with a partner that is one of the worlds few, truly global, healthcare provisioners

Health techs, start applying! 



Thursday, January 11, 2024

How to assess a persons character

 


  1. If you want ot know a persons character, beliefs and values - watch there words and actions when they are pushed to the edge....

or

take them for a game of golf

Tuesday, January 02, 2024

The Small Business Export Loan - Government Backed Unsecured Finance available for Exporters

 


What is the Small Business Export Loan?

The Export Finance Australia’s Small Business Export Loan  provides small to medium export businesses with loans ranging from between $20,000 - $350,000 

  • to cover up to 80% of the costs to secure an export contract or purchase order with an overseas buyer,
  •  funding for export market development, 
  • equipment finance and 
  • general working capital

The loan is an unsecured, government-backed loan solution with an easy online application and fast approvals for businesses with a turnover of more than $250K.

The loans are designed to meet the specific needs of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), to help them take advantage of export opportunities when financial institutions can’t help.

Are you eligible? 

To be eligible for a loan, your business must have:

  • an Australian Company Number (ACN)
  • an annual revenue of $250,000 – $10 million per year
  • been established for at least two years.
  •  struggling to get a loan for your business, and do not want to put your house on the line... this is an option to consider!! 

Objective

Export Finance Australia financially supports Australian exports of goods and services that provide a benefit to Australia  -  benefits can include (but are not limited to):


  • greater Australian participation in international supply chains
  • access to new markets or export opportunities for Australian businesses
  • more Australian jobs
  • payment of dividends or other financial proceeds from overseas to Australia
  • new research and development expenditure in Australia
  • Australian access to new products, intellectual property or technology

Timing

Applications open on an ongoing basis.

More Information 

contact Ivan Kaye at www.bsifinance.com.au or https://bsiinnovation.com.au/ 


Source for more information 

https://www.exportfinance.gov.au/how-we-can-help/our-solutions/small-business-export-loan/ 

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Songtradr poised to be a unicorn in 2024




2023 was a big year for SONGTRADR the music licensing platform founded by the musical genius   PAUL WILTSHIRE (in Picture )


Songtradr raised $109 million in 2023  at a valuation of $879 million.

Investors included  

  • Epic Games — the same company that sold the D2C music sales platform Bandcamp to Songtradr last month 
  • WiseTech’s Richard White
  • Perennial and 
  • Argo.

Investors in Songtradr include the 

  • St Baker family office, 
  • Regal Funds Management, and 
  • Aware Super.



What Songtradr does 

Songtradr is like a B2B version of Spotify, says Paul - with songwriters and producers earning fees whenever a Songtradr client licenses their music. 


Songtradr aims to be an all-in-one music licensing platform for corporates, small businesses, and content creators. Its subscribers can select songs from the Songtradr marketplace or browse from playlists, including ones inspired by popular films and TV shows.


Wiltshire has previously described the platform as a B2B version of Spotify

Monday, December 04, 2023

Morse micro - kicking serious goals





After 7 years of R&D, VentureCrowd portfolio company Morse Micro is on track to produce “hundreds of millions of semiconductor chips” in the next few years, chips that have 10 times the range of conventional Wi-Fi technology and last many years on a single battery! 🤩 

VentureCrowd investors sit alongside high profile venture capital investors including Malcolm Turnbull, Lucy Turnbull AO, Blackbird, The CSIRO's Main Sequence, and superannuation funds HESTA, Hostplus & UniSuper demonstrating once again that crowdfunding is growing up. 🚀 

No longer limited to mum & dad investors investing $50 into the local brewery, crowdfunding has democratises access to some of the best venture deals in the market and has generated hundreds of millions of dollars of new capital into the venture capital sector globally with no signs of slowing down.

And my prediction is 2024 will be the biggest year yet for the fast-growing industry! 😜 

Johnny Quattro Campbell Walshe Jock Fairweather 🦄 Michael Lancaster Lee Hearsey Greig King Jason Kennewell Sherrie Robless Sean Gregory Connie Mckeage Amanda Price Darren Tasker Adrian Bunter Philip Argy Ben O'Dwyer