G’day and welcome to your weekly edition of Overnight Success - your download on all the important things that have happened in the Aussie startup ecosystem. 🚀
Welcome to 2026! And for the first time, the newsletter is being sent on Monday morning! I hope it has reached your inbox after a restful break. Next week, we’ll be back to normal programming with the Saturday morning send. This week's newsletter has you caught up on the high-signal developments that happened over the holiday break in the startup ecosystem.
If you’re a startup founder currently raising capital at the moment and have some capital committed to your round, reply to this email with the deck and some details around your fundraise. I’m working on a project to help get rounds closed faster!
👀 Headlines 👀
⚖️ Employment Hero drops Federal Court fight with investor and rival Seek after accusing the ASX-listed recruitment giant of anticompetitive conduct over cutting off its access to Seek’s job-posting API. (AFR, Capital Brief)
Seek has permanently reinstated Employment Hero’s API access as part of the settlement, cancelling a three-week court hearing scheduled for September.
The dispute centred on data use and competition claims, with Seek alleging Employment Hero misused jobseeker data and breached platform policies, while Employment Hero argued the API shutdown harmed competition.
Employment Hero, last valued at $2 billion, now competes directly with Seek (currently trading at $8B AUD on the ASX) through its fee-free job listings alongside its payroll and HR software platform. Seek remains a major investor via its Growth Fund in Employment Hero, which still holds a “meaningful stake”.
🔗 Linktree slashes annual loss to $19 million, down from $62 million, after an aggressive cost-cutting drive and a sharp rise in subscriptions. (AFR)
Revenue in the year jumped nearly 50% to $64 million, while costs were cut by $25.2 million to $75 million, pushing the company closer to profitability.
The Melbourne startup halved its workforce to 140 staff and trimmed marketing and sales spend as part of its turnaround strategy. However, this hasn’t stopped Linktree from scooping up competitors. Linktree has recently snapped up Koji’s tech assets, This One, Plann, Episodes.fm, Snubb and Fingertip over the past two years.
❤️🩹 Eucalyptus parts ways with Compound lead Dan Cable as delays push its men’s longevity program to the back burner, as the UK becomes Euc’s largest market, growing 250% (Capital Brief)
The unicorn hopeful has postponed Compound’s full UK rollout to mid-2026, shifting resources to expand its women’s weight-loss brand, Juniper, with diagnostics and testosterone offerings.
The men’s program was previously shut down in Australia in 2024 due to “teething issues” and criticism of its execution, before being relaunched in the UK in mid-2025.
🚁 Defence calls for industry input on building sovereign drone manufacturing, branding it a “national resilience imperative” amid lessons from modern conflicts like Ukraine. (Innovation Aus)
The government wants a Commonwealth-led uncrewed aircraft ecosystem, backed by a prime systems integrator and a network of local SMEs to plug supply-chain gaps. Reliance on overseas suppliers is flagged as a major vulnerability, particularly for electronics, batteries and motors, alongside risks of digital interference and AI-enabled warfare.
Defence is exploring a surge-production facility to rapidly scale drone output during conflict.
The push follows a $1.4 billion deal with Boeing to turn Australia’s MQ-28A Ghost Bat into a combat-ready drone, after a successful live-fire test.
More than $10 billion has been earmarked for drone and counter-drone technologies, as Canberra moves to build a stronger sovereign defence industry.
Live Session: Turn Compliance into a Deal Accelerator
Your company is growing. Your compliance workload is growing, too. More customers means more security questionnaires, more frameworks, more audits—and if you're managing it manually, you're burning time that should go towards building your business.
Join Vanta for a live session to learn how to:
Automate evidence collection and continuous monitoring so teams can stay focused on growth
Manage multiple frameworks—SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and more—from a single platform
Strengthen security posture while reducing time, cost, and manual effort
Plus, you’ll get a live walkthrough of the Vanta platform, followed by an interactive Q&A.
⚡ Startup Retro ⚡
Origin Energy tips another $140M into Kraken to digitise the operations of energy retailers
CEO: Amir Orad
UK-based energy software giant Kraken is spinning out as a standalone company after locking in a US$1 billion equity raise that values the business at US$8.65 billion (~$13B AUD), with Australia’s Origin Energy tipping in US$140 million to retain a major strategic stake.
The deal marks Kraken’s first independent capital raise ahead of a planned formal separation from Octopus Energy in mid-2026. The round is being led by US crossover investor D1 Capital Partners and includes a new major global energy retailer customer, which is adding more than 10 million customer accounts to the Kraken platform as part of a long-term licensing agreement.
Kraken provides cloud-based software that powers the digital operations of energy retailers and utilities, managing everything from billing and customer accounts to smart grids and electric vehicle charging. The platform is now rapidly closing in on its target of 100 million customer accounts globally, with contracted annual recurring revenue more than doubling over the past 18 months.
Origin will invest US$140 million and has also agreed to waive its exclusivity to Kraken in Australia, allowing Kraken to license its platform to other local utilities. In return, Origin will receive an additional 1.5% equity stake in Kraken, keeping its total economic interest at 22.7%.
Post-raise, Kraken will retain US$150 million on its balance sheet to fund growth, while Octopus Energy will receive US$850 million to support its own international expansion. The deal cements Kraken’s position as one of the world’s most valuable energy software companies as it prepares for life outside the Octopus group.
Due Diligence: Origin Energy Announcement, AFR
Applied Electric Vehicles secures Japanese investment for commercial rollout of Level 4 autonomous vehicles platform
Founders: Julian Broadbent and Shane Ambry
Autonomous vehicle startup Applied Electric Vehicles has secured investment from Japan Post Capital, the corporate venture arm of Japan Post Group, as it accelerates the commercial rollout of its software-first platform for Level 4 autonomous driving.
Applied EV is best known for its Digital Backbone, a universal software control platform that centralises functions traditionally spread across multiple vehicle systems, including control, perception, and decision-making. Built on an electric-vehicle foundation, the platform provides a unified architecture that can be integrated across passenger vehicles, commercial fleets, and specialised-purpose vehicles.
The company is positioning its technology as a fast path to deploying autonomous operations in logistics, infrastructure inspection and public services. It's Blanc Robot, a cabinless autonomous vehicle designed for logistics and industrial use, including last-mile delivery, warehouse transport, mining sites, and agriculture. The platform is highly adaptable and can be configured for various duties where driverless operation reduces labour costs and improves efficiency.
Japan Post Capital says the investment reflects the growing importance of autonomous driving as a core piece of future social infrastructure, spanning logistics, regional mobility and disaster response. The partnership will focus on developing autonomous logistics solutions for Japan, where labour shortages and rising operational costs are straining traditional delivery networks.
Due Diligence: Applied EV announcement
GenAqua secures $300K pre-seed to roll out point-of-use water disinfection tech for hospitals
Founder: Scott Goulter
Gold Coast-based healthtech GenAqua has raised $300,000 in pre-seed funding to accelerate the commercial rollout of its point-of-use water disinfection technology for hospitals and care facilities.
Founded in 2023 by Scott Goulter, GenAqua is tackling a persistent and costly problem in healthcare - the growth of bacteria inside building plumbing systems that contaminates water at the point of use. While centralised water treatment systems often fail to eliminate contamination at the tap, GenAqua’s compact UVC LED device disinfects water directly where it is used, with remote monitoring to ensure the correct radiation dose is delivered.
The round was backed by angel investors, industry supporters and LX Health, a healthtech investment syndicate and accelerator. GenAqua was part of LX Health’s 2025 LuminaX Accelerator cohort on the Gold Coast, where it was named Startup of the Year.
The funding enables the company to move from validation to real-world deployment. The capital will be used to progress Watermark certification, prepare for manufacturing, and support its approved in-facility trial with Queensland Health’s Metro North Public Health Unit.
GenAqua is also exploring opportunities in Southeast Asia, where hotels are seeking solutions to protect guests from waterborne illnesses. The startup plans to open its next funding round in June 2026 to support scaling and international expansion.
Due Diligence: Business News Australia
Savic Motocycles lands $2M and a new CEO to expand EV motorcycle business internationally
Founder: Dennis Savic
Melbourne-based electric motorcycle platform Savic Motorcycles has appointed Marc Alexander as chief executive following the close of a $2 million strategic funding round to support international expansion and increased production capacity.
Founder Dennis Savic, who launched the company in 2016, will remain closely involved as a board member, continuing to guide the business at a strategic level as it enters a new phase of growth.
Alexander brings more than 25 years of experience across technology-led industries, spanning enterprise systems, electric vehicle platforms, autonomous technologies, IoT and consumer automotive products. He has been working with Savic in recent months and will formally assume the CEO role ahead of what the company describes as a major development and manufacturing scale-up period in 2026.
The fresh capital will support plans to expand into overseas markets, including Europe, and to establish a Savic-owned powertrain sub-assembly facility in Taizhou, China, which is scheduled to begin operations in December 2025. The facility is designed to strengthen supply chain capability and lift production volumes as global demand grows.
Production of Savic’s C-Series electric motorcycle will continue at its West Melbourne headquarters, with design and final assembly remaining in Australia.
Due Diligence: MCNews
Become a confident angel investor!
Australia’s startup ecosystem is booming — but how do you actually get started as an angel investor? Overnight Success has partnered with the team at Aussie Angels on their excellent Angel Academy.
Angel Academy takes you inside the playbook: the terms, the thematics, the mindset, and the risks. It’s a comprehensive, engaging course featuring insights from some of the country’s most recognised investors.
If you’ve ever wanted to move from watching the headlines to backing the founders, this is your entry point.
👉 Enrol now for a limited time with code OVERNIGHT for discounted access.
🤝 Aussie Raisins 🤝
❄️ Melbourne-based wellness-tech Clearwater Wellness launches $2M convertible note at $6M valuation cap as cold therapy boom to scale manufacturing and fuel global expansion for its SnowCap thermoelectric ice bath.
🏏 Former Australian cricket captain Tim Paine has backed the company as a strategic investor, lending star power and credibility as Clearwater pushes into international markets.
SnowCap is the world’s first thermoelectric ice bath, offering plug-and-play cold therapy with no plumbing, compressors or ice, making recovery simpler, quieter and more accessible. The company has reportedly generated more than $700,000 in pre-sales in just eight weeks.
The company originally raised $250K in 24 hours on Indiegogo to get started and is now sold out. The fresh capital will support production ramp-up, US and European expansion, and partnerships with elite athletes, boutique gyms and wellness clubs.
🧠 Insights 🧠
🛞 Canva’s long-anticipated IPO is shaping up to be one of the most important moments in Australian tech history, with a valuation reportedly of around $65 billion ahead of a potential US listing in 2026. (Capital Brief)
Bhavik Vashi, Carta's Managing Director for Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa, poses a key question for the Australian startup ecosystem: how can a single global success story be transformed into a scalable, repeatable engine for innovation and growth?
After more than a decade of building world-class software companies, Australia still struggles to produce regular, high-quality exits. Canva has become both a symbol of how far the ecosystem has come and a reminder of how dependent it remains on a handful of outliers. The company’s decision to list offshore also highlights a familiar tension: Australian founders can build global champions, but the deepest capital markets and liquidity still sit overseas.
A successful IPO could trigger a long-awaited “flywheel effect”. Thousands of Canva employees, many still based locally, are expected to realise significant wealth. If even a small portion of that capital is recycled into angel investing, new startups and advisory roles, it could reshape Australia’s early-stage funding landscape almost overnight.
🥳 Wins 🥳
💽 Australia has emerged as the world’s biggest government backer of quantum computing among developed nations, with public spending leading all OECD countries over the four years to 2024, according to a new international report. (Quantum Australia)
The surge has been driven largely by Australia’s $940 million investment in US-based PsiQuantum, founded by Australians Jeremy O’Brien and Terry Rudolph, which now accounts for roughly 80 per cent of the country’s total quantum funding.
The report found Australia, Germany and the Netherlands recorded the largest increases in government quantum investment between 2021 and 2024, while France, Germany and the UK still rely more heavily on private capital despite lifting public support.
Australia also topped OECD government investment in quantum in the four years to 2021, narrowly ahead of Canada, although public funding then represented closer to 40 per cent of total investment.
Australia is now the only top-eight investing nation to have sent the majority of its quantum funding offshore between 2016 and 2024, making it a global outlier for backing overseas quantum.
The country is also skewed heavily towards late-stage bets, with around 80 per cent of its quantum funding between 2021 and 2024 directed at mature companies rather than early-stage research and startups.
🚀 Now in its 13th year, Curtin University’s free accelerator program supports early-stage founders with mentoring, capital pathways and customer access, with alumni having launched more than 70 ventures and raised over $41 million. (Startup Daily)
The 2026 cohort spans healthcare, safety tech, education, robotics and sustainable consumer products. Let’s meet them, but note that most of them don’t yet have a website so we’ve linked to the ones that we could find.
Minerva: A virtual-reality imaging platform that converts CT and MRI scans into true-scale 3D anatomy, allowing surgeons to plan and practise complex paediatric heart procedures before entering the operating theatre. (YouTube Demo)
Sonowest Healthcare: A 24/7 integrated telehealth primary care model designed to improve healthcare access for remote and regional communities across Western Australia.
Yalkarang Consulting: A Noongar-led consultancy delivering culturally grounded learning programs to strengthen workplace capability and community understanding.
AchieveAble: A gamified maths tutoring platform combining coaching, daily micro-practice and interactive lessons to lift student engagement and learning outcomes.
aisembl: A design-to-documentation platform that simplifies material selection and project planning for homeowners, architects and construction professionals.
NeuroAnalyse: A clinical decision-support tool that integrates dementia risk prediction directly into GP software to enable earlier intervention and prevention.
Safe Call Up: A discreet safety-monitoring app for family and domestic violence survivors, using timed check-ins and silent alerts to provide fast access to support.
Eikonic: A menopause-focused health and beauty startup developing an advanced oral crème using regenerative gold-calcium technology.
Respiradigm: A digital health companion that predicts infant asthma risk while providing parents and clinicians with clear, actionable guidance.
Suss Beauty: A sustainable skincare brand offering waterless, powdered and refillable products designed to dramatically cut packaging and transport waste.
Next Generation Sensors: A sensor technology company building portable electrochemical detectors for rapid, on-site identification of explosives and water pollutants.
hyvr: A cloud platform that streamlines maintenance handovers by unifying shift data to improve operational safety, compliance and reliability.
Sunfish Robotics: A solar-powered ocean robot designed for long-duration, low-cost marine data collection for research, monitoring and environmental protection.
👀 People Moves 👀
🧑⚕️ Needle-free vaccine startup Vaxxas, last valued at $805 million, appoints Merck veteran David Peacock as CEO, nine months after its founding chief executive departed following a difficult capital raise. (AFR)
Peacock brings 25 years at Merck, most recently as president of its global vaccines division, as Vaxxas pushes to commercialise its needle-free vaccine patch. Vaxxas is developing a flu vaccine patch using its High Density Microarray Patch (HD-MAP) covered in thousands of vaccine-coated microspikes. The patches have been tested on more than 750 participants across phase 1 trials for measles, rubella, influenza and COVID-19, and can be self-administered without refrigeration.
📆 Notice Board 📆
Would you like to promote an event or an opportunity? Enquire about a Notice Board promotion by replying to this email.
🧠 KaaS (Knowledge as a Service)
Will’s Pick 💁 1929: The Inside Story of The Greatest Crash in Wall Street History by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Decided to steer clear of the tech sector over the holiday period, but the best bit of learning I did was Sorkin’s retelling of the 1929 stock market crash over the holiday period. Incredible to battle between Wall Street and Washington, the mob mentality and what happens when investors get a little too excited.
Have we missed something? Got some feedback? We love emails, so send one over!
👔 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Overnight Success, Will Richards
📈 Want to invest in great startups? Join Australia’s friendliest investment syndicate here, where small cheques are welcome!
Want better startup data? Check out our startup deals database used by VCs, founders and business development teams to stay across all the high signal data.
🚀 Want to get your product in front of ~5,200 founders, investors and operators building scaling startups? Email us to learn more about our sponsorship and partnership opportunities.
❤ Getting a bunch of value from OS and want to support our growth? Consider becoming an OS Superhero.
‘Til next time,
👋 Will