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. 🚀
Huge week for startups announcing their fundraising this week! Australia welcomes its second unicorn for the year (it's only Feb!!). 2026 has produced 2x as many unicorns as 2025 did.
Speaking of fundraising, I’m super excited to announce the launch of Cheque Mate, a newsletter to help founders find investors and investors find startups. The idea was spawned from constantly being in the middle of two asks. Could you introduce me to promising founders and help me connect with investors? Cheque Mate will share a short investment memo from a mid-stage startup that has secured some capital but hasn’t closed the round.
The first edition goes out this Tuesday, and I’ll aim for a monthly cadence. Please subscribe below or apply with your startup!
Sponsor shoutout!
Super pleased to be working with Carta for the next few months. Carta has arrived in Australia in a big way and is giving away a free ESOP template custom-made for the Australian market. More information below, but you can check it out here.
👀 Headlines 👀
🦄 Australia welcomes its newest Unicorn with Neara locking in a $90 million Series D led by TCV, valuing the AI-powered digital twin platform at more than $1 billion and officially minting the 10-year-old company as Australia’s latest unicorn. Neara joins Gilmour Space in the 2026 unicorn club. (Startup Daily)
The round included backing from existing investors such as Partners Group, EQT, Square Peg and Skip Capital, doubling Neara’s total capital raised to $180 million.
Skip Capital’s Kim Jackson has backed Neara across five rounds since its 2018 Seed, while TCV adds Neara to a local portfolio that includes SiteMinder and Employment Hero, alongside ASX-listed Xero.
Founded by Dan Danilatos, Karamvir Singh, and Jack Curtis, Neara builds physics-enabled 3D digital twins of energy networks, helping utilities identify underutilised grid capacity, accelerate renewable connections, and improve resilience. The company says surging AI workloads and electrification are pushing ageing infrastructure beyond its limits, creating demand for faster, more intelligent grid modelling tools grounded in real-world physics.
👀 Fewer than 3% of the 14,000 claims lodged under the Research and Development Tax Incentive were subject to full compliance audits last year, despite the scheme costing taxpayers $6 billion. (InnovationAus)
The Australian Tax Office told Senate Estimates that it conducted just 400 compliance cases in 2025, with most claims initially self-assessed and accepted under the program’s dual-administration model.
The Australian Taxation Office handles refundable offsets and enforcement, but confirmed that in-depth actions such as financial reviews, interviews and site visits remain rare.
Greens senator Barbara Pocock raised concerns about fossil fuel companies accessing taxpayer support and warned that “pathetic” penalties may embolden firms to push the boundaries of the scheme.
ATO Second Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn said penalties can escalate to multiples of the claim in cases of fraud, though very few matters proceed to court.
Industry minister Tim Ayres said the government is reviewing the structure of the RDTI following a major inquiry that recommended simplifying eligibility rules and increasing participation by smaller firms, with a formal response expected before the May Budget.
🎓 The University of New South Wales has unveiled the Global Innovation Foundry, a new initiative under UNSW Founders aimed at helping 100 startups expand internationally this year while attracting inbound founders and investors to Australia.
The program will provide practical, in-market pathways, including R&D partnerships in India, investor networks in Singapore and hiring support in the US.
It will be delivered through UNSW Founders, which has backed more than 135 startups since 2017.
🍎 HBF Health, Australia’s second-largest member-based health insurer, has launched a $25 million corporate venture fund to invest in early and growth-stage health-tech startups, positioning itself as a long-term strategic backer rather than a returns-driven VC. (Capital Brief)
Chief executive Lachlan Henderson said the fund will prioritise member outcomes and health innovation over pure financial performance, in contrast to previous corporate VC efforts such as 1835i and Reinventure, which were wound down.
The Perth-based insurer, which has more than 1.2 million members nationally, will target 15–20 investments over a 10-year horizon across digital healthcare, analytics, preventive and population health, and new models of care delivery.
The fund has been established from HBF’s existing investment portfolio and will be led internally by chief information and technology officer Sanjeev Gupta (not the coal mine owner), with venture firm Artesian managing sourcing, due diligence and portfolio oversight.
HBF’s move follows rival initiatives from Bupa, which launched a $20 million fund in 2024, and HCF, which has invested via XT Ventures.
😬 EVP ordered to post $750,000 security in Strong Room lawsuit to continue pursuing claims tied to its failed $10.4 million investment in Strong Room Technology. (Capital Brief)
The funds, held by the Federal Court of Australia, are not a penalty or damages award but a safeguard: if EVP loses against businessman Divesh Dipak Sanghvi and his related entities, Morton Court and Pharmarix, the money may be used to cover their legal costs.
The security order was made by consent, meaning EVP agreed to post the amount rather than contest it at a full hearing, signalling its intent to keep the case alive.
EVP alleges that $7.5 million of its $10.4 million February 2025 investment in Strong Room AI was diverted to Sanghvi-linked entities via the acquisition of Member Benefits Australia; Sanghvi denies the claims and argues the funds were received under enforceable contractual rights.
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⚡ Startup Retro ⚡
Andora lands $10M Seed round at a $50M valuation to detect bad user interactions and stop churn
Founders: Omar Salem and Nathan Scully
Former Canva growth lead Omar Salem is betting the AI coding boom will break more products than it builds. His new start-up, Adora, has just raised US$7 million (A$10 million) at a valuation just shy of US$35 million (~A$50 million), backed by Blackbird Ventures and Skip Capital.
Founded in 2023 by Salem and former Amazon engineer Nathan Scully, Adora builds software that shows product teams how users actually experience their apps and websites — in real time. Customers, including Canva, Linktree and Chess.com, use it to detect broken flows, dead ends and UI glitches before they spiral into churn.
Unlike traditional analytics tools, Adora observes user journeys visually, capturing screenshots of friction points, such as pop-ups blocking buttons or translation bugs breaking checkout, and alerts teams via Slack.
Salem says the idea was born from frustration at Canva, where rapid experimentation made it difficult to see the “true” product experience across different users. As AI coding agents accelerate feature releases, he argues, products risk becoming chaotic.
Adora processes millions of screenshots each month, training its models to detect emerging UX failures. Investors believe that as software ships faster, tools that safeguard usability will only grow more critical — even in an AI-saturated world.
Due Diligence: AFR
Neara becomes a unicorn with USD $90M Series D for its physics-enabled digital twin platform for the energy industry
Founders: Dan Danilatos, Karamvir Singh and Jack Curtis
AI infrastructure start-up Neara has joined Australia’s unicorn ranks, raising a US$90 million Series D at a valuation north of US$1 billion.
The round was led by growth investor TCV, known for backing Netflix and Spotify, with support from existing investors including Square Peg, Skip Capital, EQT and Partners Group. Skip’s Kim Jackson has now backed Neara across five rounds since its 2018 seed investment. The raise brings total funding to $180 million.
Founded a decade ago by Dan Danilatos, Karamvir Singh and Jack Curtis, Neara builds physics-based digital twins of critical infrastructure, starting with electricity grids. Its platform creates detailed 3D models of networks, allowing utilities to simulate stress scenarios, unlock under-utilised capacity and plan renewable connections without costly physical upgrades.
As AI workloads, electrification and climate volatility strain ageing infrastructure, Curtis argues grids are being pushed beyond their original design limits. Neara’s simulations, grounded in real-world physics, aim to give operators confidence to extend asset life while managing risk.
The company works with major utilities, including Southern California Edison, ESB Networks and nearly 90% of Australian network providers such as Ausgrid and AusNet. Fresh capital will fund machine learning development and global expansion.
Due Diligence: AFR, Startup Daily
Iceberg Quantum secures $6M Seed round for fault-tolerant quantum computer architectures
Founders: Felix Thomsen, Larry Cohen, and Sam Smith
Sydney-based quantum start-up Iceberg Quantum has unveiled its first full fault-tolerant quantum computing architecture, alongside a $6 million Seed round backed by Blackbird Ventures, LocalGlobe and DCVC.
The company positions itself as an “architecture layer” for the emerging quantum stack, aiming to define how next-generation hardware computes as the industry edges closer to practical fault tolerance. Its newly released architecture, dubbed Pinnacle, claims to dramatically reduce the physical qubits required for large-scale applications.
As proof of concept, Iceberg compiled a benchmark task: Factoring a 2048-bit RSA integer, often cited as requiring millions of physical qubits. Pinnacle suggests the same task could be achieved with fewer than 100,000, potentially bringing forward timelines for cryptographically relevant quantum machines.
Founded to accelerate the transition to fault-tolerant quantum computing, Iceberg is building a dedicated research lab and partnering with leading hardware developers. The team is expanding beyond Sydney, with a new Berlin office and growing US presence, as it recruits leading experts in quantum fault tolerance.
Fresh capital will fund continued research and deeper design partnerships, as investors bet architecture innovation can compress the path to utility-scale quantum computing.
Due Diligence: Iceberg Quantum Announcement
Fluency finds $9M to replace consultants with work
Founders: Finnlay Morcombe and Oliver Farnill
Melbourne-and San Francisco-based start-up Fluency has raised $9 million at a valuation above $30 million, in a round led by Accel, one of Facebook’s earliest backers. Pre-IPO Facebook investor DST Global also participated, alongside Carya Venture Partners, Mixture of Experts, Archangel Ventures, NextGen Ventures and angel syndicate Exhort Ventures.
Founded in 2024 by Finnlay Morcombe and Oliver Farnill, Fluency positions itself as a “work intelligence” platform that maps how tasks are performed across large organisations and identifies where AI can deliver measurable ROI. Instead of deploying consultants for months-long workflow audits, Fluency installs a lightweight desktop plugin that captures screenshots and system logs, allowing AI agents to analyse repetitive processes and surface automation opportunities in under an hour.
The company counts Aon, PVH Corp (owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger), Specsavers and BoardRoom among its clients, with more than 50 enterprise customers and a reported $15 million pipeline.
Unlike LLM-based tools, Fluency claims to use “world models” to understand operational context. Seventy-five per cent of the new capital will fund engineering hires across Australia and the US, as enterprises race to apply AI beyond experimentation.
Due Diligence: SmartCompany, AFR
Wellumino secures $6.2M pre-Series A for portable stroke diagnostic tool
Founder: Dr Shieak Tzeng
New Zealand medtech Wellumio has raised NZ$7.28 million (A$6.2 million) in the first close of its pre-Series A to bring portable stroke diagnostics to the bedside.
The round was led by Nuance Connected Capital, with backing from Icehouse Ventures, New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (via its Aspire Seed Fund), Pacific Channel, Booster, Cure Kids Ventures, angel groups and retail investors through Snowball Effect. International capital also flowed in under the government’s Active Investor Plus programme. If anyone is interested, the round still remains open.
Founded by Dr Shieak Tzeng, Wellumio is developing Axana, a 50kg, battery-powered, AI-enhanced MRI brain scanner designed for rapid, point-of-care stroke detection. The system eliminates the need for contrast agents, cryogenics or shielded rooms, enabling emergency departments to diagnose acute stroke within the critical “golden hour”, when intervention dramatically improves outcomes.
Fewer than 5% of stroke patients currently receive treatment within that window. Axana’s proprietary Pulsed Gradient Free Mapping technology secured a US patent in December 2025, bolstering its defensibility. Fresh capital will fund team expansion, clinical development and scalable manufacturing as Wellumio advances towards commercialisation.
Due Diligence: Startup Daily, Tech In Asia
Operata lands $11M Series A to monitor call centres and customer interactions
Founders: Romilly Blackburn, John Mitchem and Andy Scott
Melbourne- and US-based contact centre analytics start-up Operata has raised an $11 million Series A at a valuation north of $100 million, as enterprises grapple with the rise of AI-powered voice agents.
The round was led by Tidal Ventures, with support from Ghost VC, Black Nova, Flying Fox Ventures and Glitch Capital. Tidal previously led Operata’s $2.2 million Seed round in 2021.
Founded in 2018 by Romilly Blackburn, John Mitchem and Andy Scott, Operata provides an observability platform for cloud-based contact centres, monitoring voice quality, system performance and end-to-end customer experience. As third-party voice AI agents, copilots and LLM-powered IVR systems proliferate, Blackburn argues legacy Contact Centre as a Service reporting tools can no longer diagnose the root causes of churn and poor CX.
Operata positions itself as the “all-in-one” monitoring layer for a fragmented, multi-vendor ecosystem of AI agents and human operators. The company says it already processes and analyses billions of customer interactions for major global enterprises.
Fresh capital will deepen integrations with platforms including AWS, Genesys, NICE and Twilio, while expanding Operata’s footprint across North America, APJ and EMEA — betting that real-time CX intelligence becomes core infrastructure in the voice agent era.
Due Diligence: AFR, Startup Daily, SmartCompany
Further Reading: Inside Operata by CX Today
Agovor grows with $3M pre-Seed for autonomous EVs for vineyards
Founders: Richard Beaumont and Simon Carroll
New Zealand agtech robotics start-up Agovor has raised A$3 million in a pre-Seed round to scale its autonomous electric tractors for vineyards and orchards. The round was led by Tenacious Ventures, with co-investment from the Hort Innovation Investment Fund (managed by Artesian) and a Kiwi investor via Invest New Zealand’s Active Investor Plus scheme.
Founded in 2022 by Richard Beaumont and Simon Carroll, Agovor builds lightweight, autonomous eTractors paired with smart towable attachments such as mowers and sprayers. Designed for vineyards, orchards and berry farms, the battery-powered units can operate for up to 10 hours across narrow rows and varied weather conditions.
The start-up was born out of the founders’ own nursery challenges: labour shortages and rising input costs. Early adopters across Australia and New Zealand are reportedly seeing more than $30,000 in annual savings, alongside a 90% reduction in water use and a 12.5% cut in chemical inputs.
Agovor’s cloud-based Portal enables growers to deploy and monitor a single unit or an entire fleet. Fresh capital will fund R&D, expand manufacturing and build out sales and field support teams across Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Sydney and New Zealand — as the company broadens its range of interchangeable attachments.
Due Diligence: Farmers Weekly
Splose secures $46M Series A to scale its AI-infused allied health practice management system
Founder: Nicholas Sanderson
Adelaide-based allied health SaaS start-up Splose has raised a $46 million in Series A funding, claiming the largest round ever secured by a South Australian software company. The raise was led by US growth equity firm Spectrum Equity, with participation from Athletic Ventures.
Founded in 2016 by Nicholas Sanderson, Splose provides an all-in-one practice management platform for physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists and other allied health professionals. Its software handles appointments, onboarding, invoicing, and compliance and is now used by more than 20,000 practitioners across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, doubling year-on-year.
AI has become central to its pitch. Since launching Splose AI in late 2024, the company has rolled out tools for transcription, automated note-taking, referral drafting and workflow automation. The platform now delivers more than 200,000 AI-driven outputs per month, with its AI scribe transcribing notes up to four times faster than manual processes.
Fresh capital will accelerate UK expansion, where the company reports 300%+ growth, and deepen AI integration across the product, as Splose competes in a crowded global practice management market.
Due Diligence: Startup Daily, AFR
HAMR Energy fuels up with $10M Series A for sustainable aviation fuel
Founders: David Stribley & Alex Smith
Australian clean fuels start-up HAMR Energy has closed a $10 million Series A backed by aviation heavyweights Qantas and Airbus, alongside Thyssenkrupp Uhde (plant engineering company). The investment was made via the Qantas–Airbus Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) fund and will accelerate HAMR’s push to convert plantation forestry residues into low-carbon methanol for hard-to-abate sectors, including aviation and shipping.
At the centre of the strategy is the Portland Renewable Fuels (PRF) project in regional Victoria, designed to produce 300,000 tonnes of low-carbon methanol annually. The fuel can be used directly in marine transport or upgraded into SAF. Technology partner Honeywell will support production using its UOP eFining process.
HAMR is also developing what it says will be Australia’s first large-scale methanol-to-jet fuel facility, targeting more than 135 million litres of SAF per year. The project is expected to generate hundreds of construction jobs and around 130 ongoing operational roles.
With global SAF demand forecast to reach 500 million tonnes by 2050, backers argue domestic production is critical to meeting decarbonisation targets while strengthening energy security, positioning methanol as a key bridge in aviation’s transition to lower-carbon fuels.
Due Diligence: HAMR Announcement
eGuarantee lands $5.5M to help commercial tenants release cash from lease bonds
Founders: Shaun Sergay and Cedric Fuchs
Sydney proptech eGuarantee has raised $5.5 million, with specialist insurance investor Correlation lifting its stake from 25% to more than 60% and taking a controlling position.
eGuarantee enables tenants to avoid locking up as much as 12 months’ rent in a bank guarantee. Instead, businesses can secure a digital bond online, freeing up working capital while reducing administrative burden for landlords.
The capital injection follows rapid growth in the adoption of eGuarantee’s digital Lease Bond platform, which replaces traditional bank guarantees for commercial property leases. The total value of bonds facilitated through the platform has surged from $8 million to more than $100 million in under four years, with bond volumes up 338% over the past 12 months. eGuarantee describes itself as the first and only provider of a digital Commercial Lease Bond in Australia & New Zealand that doesn’t require cash collateral.
The company is targeting more than 5% of Australia’s $10 billion commercial lease security market over the next three years. Fresh funding will scale operations, deepen landlord acquisition, expand national distribution, and support a planned move into New Zealand.
Due Diligence: SmartCompany
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📆Notice Board 📆
📅 25 February | Melbourne: founders, operators and investors come together for a full day of practical, no-fluff insights at Growth Summit
Built for startups and SMEs who are scaling, raising, hiring and planning their next phase of growth. Hear directly from founders, investors and operators on what’s actually working across funding, tech, leadership and strategy right now, with a headline keynote from Leigh Jasper (Aconex co-founder, Firmable founder, SecondQuarter Ventures chair).
Exclusive $50 ticket discount: use code PARTNEROS2026 at checkout or grab your ticket via this link!
🤘 Blackbird Giants is back with Cohort 11 with an IRL twist.
Giants is a free mentoring program designed for ambitious, early-stage startups; 5 IRL meetups in Sydney, 4 IRL meetups in Melbourne and 1-1 virtual mentoring. It includes a dedicated founder community, access to the Blackbird investment team, and connects you with world-class mentors from the ANZ tech ecosystem to supercharge your startup idea.
👐 Startmate Launches Social Enterprise Stream via LaunchClub, a new initiative supporting founders addressing major societal issues. (Startup Daily)
Kicking off in late March with 4-6 fully-funded scholarship spots available through LaunchClub. Applications open until March 1.
The social enterprise stream is seeking founders committed to creating sustainable solutions with economic and social value. Open to for-profits, hybrids, and purpose-driven non-profits focused on independence and meaningful impact.
🤝 Rampersands Giant Warm Intro is partnering with SOUTHSTART 2026 to run a 90-minute, in-person founder–investor matching session in Adelaide this March, focused on high-quality, curated connections.
Since 2019, GWI has facilitated 1,200+ meetings and supported over $10m in capital raised, using a peer-driven group format built around feedback and real outcomes. Open to SOUTHSTART attendees (17–19 March 2026), in-person only, with limited sponsored tickets available for early-stage founders. Apply here!
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 💁 The race is on by Niki Scevak (blog post)
There has been plenty of hand-wringing about AI making traditional software companies obsolete, but Blackbird’s Niki Scevak argues that’s the wrong framing.
He suggests, historically, new technology (cloud, mobile, open source) hasn’t killed software; it has expanded it — and AI is likely to create far more software and developers, not fewer. Scevak puts forward that the real battle is whether incumbents innovate fast enough or startups achieve distribution first, with winners defined by who makes customers dramatically more productive.
Blackbird points to Canva as an incumbent reinventing through AI, while newer bets like Heidi Health show how startups can create entirely new categories in the AI era.
Have we missed something? Got some feedback? We love emails, so send one over!
👔 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Overnight Success, Will Richards
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‘Til next time,
👋 Will