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. 🚀
Another massive week in Australian startups, with the 3rd Unicorn of the year being crowned: Eucalyptus being acquired by Hims & Hers for $1.6B.
The first edition of Chque Mate went live on Tuesday! The new newsletter that shares simple-to-read investment memos for startups mid capital raise! Check out the write-up for Tribal, the B2B and B2C dating app with clinical psychology smarts throughout it. Rumour is their round is almost fully subscribed 👀.
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 👀
💰 Eucalyptus has agreed to be acquired by Hims & Hers Health in a deal valuing the business at $1.6 billion, marking one of Australia’s largest startup exits and marking Australia’s 3rd Unicorn of 2026. (Hims&Hers Announcement, AFR, Capital Brief)
The seven-year-old company runs weight-loss and digital health brands Pilot, Juniper, and fertility service Kin, and will become Hims & Hers’ international division.
Co-founder and CEO Tim Doyle owns 10% of Eucalyptus (worth ~$163m) and will stay on to run international operations across Australia, the UK, Germany, Japan, and Canada.
Major Australian backers, including Blackbird Ventures, Airtree Ventures, and Woolworths’ W23 Ventures, are set for a significant payday, alongside US firm BOND.
Eucalyptus had been preparing a funding round at a $1.37b valuation, up from $560m in 2023, before being approached by Hims & Hers. Eucalyptus reports an annual revenue run rate above US$450m, is nearing profitability, and cut its FY24 after-tax loss to $15.2m; the acquisition includes upfront and deferred payments, with earn-outs through 2029.
I have a full deal write-up on the history of Euc further down this week's newsletter.
👀Queensland Premier distances himself from PsiQuantum deal, with David Crisafulli notably omitting the project from a major National Press Club speech and stressing it was inherited from the previous Labor government. (InnovationAus)
Government signals tougher stance on delivery, warning that PsiQuantum will be held to its contractual obligations, with no further public funds flowing unless clear milestones are met.
US site races ahead while Brisbane lags, as PsiQuantum’s Chicago manufacturing facility is already under construction, heightening concerns about local timelines.
Company reiterates commitment to Brisbane, confirming that cryogenic infrastructure is under construction, with delivery expected in 2027, and that a new quantum test lab at Griffith University is due to open in May.
🍔 Me&u reports monthly profitability since July 2025 and ~$1 million in earnings during December-January, after years of heavy losses following the COVID-19 boom. (AFR)
Revenue surges despite restructuring, growing from $33.7 million to $57.5 million in 2024, alongside a 10% workforce reduction and consolidation of duplicate systems.
AI and loyalty partnerships drive product expansion, including personalised menus powered by AI and a deal with Virgin Velocity to earn and redeem frequent-flyer points.
New consumer app ‘Spots’ enters trials, with Me&u flagging a potential capital raise in 2026, its first since 2021, if new growth initiatives scale quickly.
🛰️ The federal government is launching a $1B co-investment fund (ACI Fund) for defence-aligned startups, with the government tipping in $500M to attract private partners. (Innovation Aus)
Six critical tech areas, including AI, Quantum, and Hypersonics. Defence is currently seeking fund managers to lead the vehicle by 2026. If you’re one of the fund managers who’re chomping at the bit to apply, the tender is available here and closes on the 30th of April.
This addresses a massive disparity in federal spending. According to research put together by Pinery Capital, despite a $347B total procurement budget (2022-2025), local startups received less than 0.2%. This fund signals a shift from passive support to active co-investment and guaranteed procurement for top-tier local tech.
Mat Voller, director of Pinery Capital, said, "The Government is not just saying ‘buy Australian.’ It is saying: we will invest alongside you... And if you build the best capability, we will buy it."
📈 Breakthrough Victoria has notched a landmark win after its $29 million investment in Infleqtion delivered a fivefold unrealised return following the company’s New York Stock Exchange debut. (Startup Daily, Innovation Aus)
The listing marks Breakthrough Victoria’s first publicly traded portfolio company. Breakthrough intends that all future returns be recycled into new investments across the Victorian startup ecosystem.
The fund backed Infleqtion in October 2022, when the company was still known as ColdQuanta, despite criticism that public capital was supporting a foreign-based quantum firm. Breakthrough Victoria argued the investment would build local quantum capability and talent, strengthening Victoria’s position in strategically important technologies and supporting national quantum sovereignty.
Since the investment, Infleqtion has partnered with CSIRO, the University of Melbourne, and RMIT University, embedding its operations more deeply into Australia’s research and industry ecosystem.
👋 Seek is selling its remaining stake in Employment Hero, formally ending a long-running investor–competitor despite Employment Hero delivering 30%+ revenue growth, reaching $300m ARR, and being labelled a “standout investment”. Seek’s Growth Fund is exiting as part of a planned liquidity window. (AFR, Capital Brief)
According to reports, the sale is driven by the fund's structure rather than business performance, with the Seek Growth Fund required to meet investor cash-out requests over the next 12–24 months.
Employment Hero remains one of Australia’s most valuable private tech companies, last valued at just under $2b following a $263m Series F in late 2023.
This marks the second partial exit by Seek in a year, following KKR’s $95m secondary purchase in early 2025.
⚖️ Superpower, the longevity healthtech optimisation platform, founded by 25-year-old Australian Max Marchione, is facing a trademark and competition lawsuit from US rival Function Health. (AFR)
Function Health, valued at US$2.5bn, alleges Superpower ran a “sweeping campaign of deception”, misleading customers about its clinical services, pricing and diagnostic capabilities.
Central to the claim is Superpower’s marketing around 100+ biomarkers, with Function arguing some results are generated by AI predictions rather than clinical diagnostics, breaching advertising and competition laws.
Superpower, which charges around US$200 per year and offers biannual blood tests and rapid access to doctors, rejects the claims as “factually untrue and meritless”.
The cap table includes Airtree Ventures alongside high-profile celebrity and tech investors such as Vanessa Hudgens, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul, and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
☹️ Techstars Sydney is shutting down after three years, after the NSW government declined to renew funding when its initial contract expired. (Startup Daily)
The closure follows a string of pullbacks by Investment NSW, including the loss of SXSW Sydney, the shutdown of the Sydney Startup Hub, cuts to MVP grants and the delayed rollout of new support programs.
Since launch, Techstars Sydney invested over $6 million into 36 startups across three cohorts, with 58% receiving their first-ever cheque from the accelerator.
Managing director Christie Jenkins will depart alongside the program team, with the 2026 accelerator cancelled.
Investment NSW says funding “concluded as scheduled” and points to a $4m diversity pre-accelerator announced in the 2025 budget… but no delivery partner or start date has been named.
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⚡ Startup Retro ⚡
Appetise secures $7M Series A for meal planning and shopping insights platform
Founders: Elise and Toby Hilliam
New Zealand startup Appetise has raised $7 million in Series A funding, doubling down on a business model that turns free meal planning into high-value market research for global food brands.
The oversubscribed round was led by Icehouse Ventures, with participation from OIF Ventures, Brand Fund, NZVC and K1W1. It follows a $3.6 million raise in 2024 and comes less than a year after Appetise expanded into Australia.
Formerly known as MenuAid, Appetise runs a free consumer meal-planning and grocery app, using aggregated and anonymised behavioural data to power its B2B product, Appetise Insights. The platform tracks what households actually do, from meal planning to checkout, positioning itself as an alternative to survey-based market research built on self-reported behaviour.
The team deliberately walked away from $400,000 in consumer subscription revenue to scale the data engine. The bet has paid off: Appetise now generates $3.5 million in B2B revenue, which has tripled in the past six months. The platform counts 110,000+ active users across Australia and New Zealand, creating what it claims is the region’s largest food and beverage behavioural research panel. Australia now drives around 70% of growth, with roughly 70 brands onboard, including Kraft Heinz and Lee Kum Kee.
The new funding will be used to deepen the insights platform, expand further in Australia and prepare for a US market entry, as brands look for earlier signals of shopper intent beyond sales data and surveys.
Due Diligence: SmartCompany
Fluent Commerce snags $46M in funding to be the AI backend for commerce
CEO: Graham Jackson
Sydney-based retail infrastructure startup Fluent Commerce has raised $46 million in fresh funding as it doubles down on becoming the backend engine for AI-powered commerce.
The round was led by Bain Capital, backing the Sydney-based company’s push to modernise how large retailers manage inventory, fulfilment and increasingly, AI-driven shopping experiences. Fluent Commerce works with global brands including JD Sports, L’Oréal and LVMH, helping them orchestrate complex order flows across stores, warehouses and delivery partners.
Founded in 2015, Fluent Commerce made its name enabling click-and-collect and omnichannel fulfilment before moving deeper into high-complexity inventory management. More recently, the company has leaned hard into AI. In January, it launched a new integration layer designed to rapidly connect Fluent’s data with third-party POS systems and payment gateways. Last year, it also introduced a “multi-context protocol server”, acting as a bridge between AI agents and legacy retail systems so bots can query order status, resolve issues and operate at scale.
The timing reflects broader shifts in retail, as AI chatbots and agentic buyers begin placing orders on behalf of consumers, a trend that will require far more flexible backend infrastructure.
Due Diligence: The Australian
Affinda finds $25M at $220M valuation for AI-powered document workflows
CEO: Ben Toner and Tim Toner
Melbourne-based AI software company Affinda has doubled its valuation to $220 million after raising $25 million from a group of high-profile existing investors, betting that AI-native companies will be the real winners of the current software shakeout.
The round was led by Toll Group founder Paul Little, with participation from Ellerston Capital co-founder Ashok Jacob and former MYOB and REA Group CEO Greg Ellis. Affinda was last valued at $120 million in mid-2024, making the latest raise a $100 million step-up despite growing scepticism in public markets around traditional software businesses.
Founded in 2012, Affinda builds AI tools that help organisations extract and structure data from large volumes of documents. Its products include Draftable, used by law firms such as Allens to compare and mark up documents, and its core Affinda platform, which parses and organises unstructured data at scale.
Affinda is forecasting $20–25 million in revenue this year and recently acquired Australian AI consultancy Pathfindr in a $15 million deal. The fresh capital will be used to build AI agents and new products designed to help enterprises adopt AI.
Due Diligence: AFR
Parachute lands $1.8M pre-seed at $8.5M valuation for AI first operating system for small and medium-sized law firms
Founders: Ryan Zahrai and Dave Berner
Byron Bay-based legal AI startup Parachute has raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding to build what it hopes will become the default operating system for small and medium-sized law firms, a segment it says has been largely ignored by global legal tech heavyweights.
The round was led by Rampersand partner Andrew Poesaste, valuing the company at $8.5 million, and attracted backing from Co Ventures.
Founded by former law firm owner Ryan Zahrai, Parachute was born out of frustration with enterprise-focused tools like Harvey and Legora, which Zahrai says price out and overlook firms with one to 10 lawyers. While these SME firms make up more than 80% of Australia’s legal market, they lack purpose-built AI platforms designed for their workflows.
Parachute offers an AI-powered legal operating system that combines drafting, document review, collaboration and client-facing tools into a single, white-labelled platform that law firms can extend directly to their clients. Zahrai argues the real moat in legal AI isn’t models, but distribution and ease of adoption — particularly for firms paralysed by too many tech choices.
The startup will use the funding to accelerate product development and expand across Australia and New Zealand, betting that plug-and-play legal AI will help smaller firms move beyond hourly billing and modernise faster than the incumbents expect.
Due Diligence: Capital Brief
Breaker secures $9M seed round for AI-powered interface between military operators and drones
Founders: Matthew Buffa, Michael Irwin, and Vanja Videnovic.
Sydney and Austin-based defence tech, Breaker, has raised $9 million in seed funding to scale its AI-powered software that lets military operators control fleets of autonomous systems using natural voice commands.
The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with follow-on investment from Main Sequence, less than a year after Main Sequence backed Breaker’s pre-seed. The funding places Breaker in the top quartile of US seed rounds and is roughly three times larger than the median Australian seed raise.
Breaker is tackling what it calls one of modern defence’s most expensive bottlenecks: the one-operator-per-robot model. Its platform-agnostic AI agents run fully onboard autonomous systems across air, land and sea, allowing a single operator to coordinate multiple robots through the radios they already carry — even in GPS- or communications-denied environments.
The technology has been tested globally, including demonstration contracts with US Special Operations Command and Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency. More recently, Breaker completed a joint demo with Rheinmetall Defence Australia, integrating its AI agents into the Boxer armoured vehicle to task uncrewed aerial systems via voice commands while on the move.
With headquarters in Sydney and Austin, Breaker will use the funding to accelerate product development and adoption as militaries race to orchestrate autonomous systems at scale.
Due Diligence: DefenceConnect, Forbes
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👀 People Moves 👀
🏛️ Kate Cornick has resigned as CEO of LaunchVic to become the new CEO of the Tech Council of Australia as LaunchVic merges with Breakthrough Victoria. (Tech Council Media Release)
She replaces Damian Kassabgi, who announced his departure in October 2025 and will remain on as a special adviser to the board.
Katherine McConnell, founder and CEO of Brighte, was also appointed to the Tech Council board, while Scott Farquhar was reappointed as chair for another three-year term.
Tech Council chair Scott Farquhar said Cornick brings deep startup, investment and government collaboration experience, while LaunchVic chair Leigh Jasper credited her with significantly boosting startup creation and transforming Victoria’s VC landscape.
💰 New Fund, Who’s this? 💰
💰 NextGen Ventures has raised $4.3m for its first fund, backing the idea that Australia’s best startup founders are still on university campuses and being missed by traditional VCs. (Capital Brief)
Founded by Mitchell Hughes and Jerry X’Lingson, the fund writes $70k pre-seed cheques into startups led by university students, with an average founder age of 21.
The thesis caught early support from Blackbird Partner Niki Scevak, who wrote a $500k personal cheque before Hughes had ever made an investment himself.
NextGen has made 11 investments so far, including Fluency (now backed by Accel) and Lucent and Graze Mate, both currently in Y Combinator.
The fund runs a student scout model, embedding 15–20 scouts across six universities (Melbourne, Monash, UNSW, Sydney, UTS and Queensland), which historically produce ~85% of VC-backed student founders.
🫰 Aussie Raisins🫰
🔋 Energy Bay is raising $150m–$500m from an institutional investor, as demand grows for asset-backed, distributed renewable energy models. (AFR)
Founded in 2016 by CEO James Doyle, the company installs rooftop solar and battery systems on commercial buildings, leasing roof space from landlords and selling power directly to tenants under long-term contracts.
Energy Bay is backed by high-profile family offices, including Skip Capital, Grok Ventures, and Soletto, which collectively hold the majority of the business.
The capital raise is being run by Barrenjoey Capital Partners, with interest from infrastructure investors such as KKR, Stonepeak, Morrison and CVC Capital Partners.
🍃 The Euc Timeline🍃
Eucalyptus was founded by four ex-Koala Mattress and tech alumni: Tim Doyle, Charlie Gearside, Benny Kleist, and Alexey Mitko. The thesis they were testing was that friction in traditional healthcare could be reduced through a direct-to-consumer model. What Euc is most known for is its house of brands. They’ve launched several brands since their founding, including men’s health brand Pilot and Software Skin. What’s been clear in the execution is the mindset to pivot and jump at new and exciting opportunities like GLP1 for weight loss. Below is their funding timeline!
Pre-Seed & Seed Rounds (January & October 2019): Eucalyptus got its start with early backing led by Blackbird Ventures
Series A (May 2020): After successfully launching Pilot (men's health) and Kin (fertility), they raised their Series A. This round was notably led by W23 (Woolworths' venture arm), bringing major corporate retail backing to the startup, alongside continued support from Blackbird.
Read more: Blackbird's Investment Notes (Covers their early seed investments alongside the Series A)
Series B (July 2021): Raising A$30 million, this round marked their serious push into chronic care and behavioural health. It was led by Silicon Valley-based NewView Capital, which also notably backed Hims & Hers early on, with participation from AirTree Ventures, Blackbird, and W23. It was around here that GPL1s were starting to make noise.
Read more: StartupDaily
Series C (January 2022): Eucalyptus secured A$60 million at a reported A$450 million valuation. Led by global heavyweights BOND Capital, this capital was earmarked for software development and their first major international expansion into the UK market.
Read more: OPEN MINDS Market Intelligence
Growth Round (April 2023): They quietly raised another $50 million, bumping their valuation up to $560 million. This fueled further expansion, navigating the telemedicine boom, and scaling higher-tier services like their "Compound" medical concierge and their massive weight-loss brand, Juniper.
Read more: Forbes Australia Report
Unicorn Round (November 2025): Driven by surging global demand for GLP-1 weight-loss treatments and a massive 130% year-over-year revenue jump, they raised a whopping $190 million. This round was set to double their valuation to $1.37 billion, officially crowning them an Aussie unicorn. Backers included Bond, Blackbird, Airtree, Marbruck, World Innovation Lab, and several direct investments from superannuation funds. Before this round was closed, Hims&Hers have swooped in with a full acquisition.
🚀 Wins 🚀
🚀 Startmate have unveiled their largest cohort ever with the summer26 cohort of 19 startups, splitting $2.28M (Startmate Post)
👷 Alloovium — AI workspace helping construction teams find answers fast and cut admin by centralising documents, emails and industry tools.
🧠 Ascenda — Helps psychologists support patients between sessions with structured, AI-assisted check-ins.
Brainwaves — Accelerates marketing strategy by turning fragmented research into sharp insights and bold ideas faster.
🧪 cascayd — Let's growth teams create and launch website A/B tests in seconds without developers.
CheckGen — Helps skincare brands and clinics prove results and personalise treatment through molecular skin testing.
🏘️ CrossCourtAI — Delivers real estate and private credit investment screening and reporting in minutes, not days.
🧑⚖️ Deeligence — Uses agentic AI to produce legal due diligence reports in hours instead of weeks.
💬 FlowGo — AI accounting workforce that runs inside WhatsApp, Telegram and email to automate finance operations.
iBnkVault — Enables faster, lower-cost cross-border payments using modern financial infrastructure.
🔒 Lockii — Contactless rental system using smart locks and identity verification to enable 24/7 asset hire.
🏘️ Neuralindex — Intelligence layer that turns property listings into decision-ready insights for buyers.
🎥 Guin — Agentic video editor that turns company video libraries into on-brand marketing videos in minutes.
🏀 Superstat — Uses AI to give sports teams actionable performance insights, not just raw stats.
🧑🤝🧑 Talentsheet — Shows brands where their ideal customers already pay attention and how to reach them.
📋 Tendor — Automates government tenders end-to-end, from discovery to compliant submission.
🏭 Vixia — Prevents manufacturing downtime and defects with AI-powered camera systems.
🪽 Wiingman — Enterprise AI system that automates admin, risk and decision-making for major events.
📦 Zabidou — Enables low-cost, real-time AI inspection on production lines to catch defects early.
🔋Thermal Dawn — Makes home heating and cooling cheaper using thermal storage powered by solar or off-peak energy.
📆 Notice Board 📆
🤘 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.
🧑🎓 Airtree Ventures is launching Airtree Pathfinders, a four-week program giving university students hands-on exposure to the startup ecosystem.
The program skips traditional lectures, focusing instead on practical, real-world learning led by the Airtree team. Participants will get five learning sessions, two in-person events, and direct connections to founders, operators and ecosystem builders. Apply via this form!
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 💁 Uplevel or Replace? A CEO’s Dilemma at Series B by Liz Christo
Thanks to Abhi Maran for sharing this article in his latest edition of Superfluid here. This article is a handy tactical reminder when thinking about hiring for future growth as you go from seed through Series B and beyond. The article is full of food for thought around what to look out for in talent and team members for successful transitions.
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