Australia
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Startup initiatives from Down Under may offer inspiration to the failing US Postal Service
Earlier this week, the US Postal Service reported another dismal quarter of financial results. It’s the latest in a string of bad news for a national service that has been in slow decline since private carriers began emerging to challenge its dominance in the marketplace, and email rendered the written letter all but obsolete. According to a report from ABC News the Postal Service last… Read More
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Crunch Report | Facebook Launches ‘Watch’ for Original Shows
Facebook launches Watch Tab, Coinbase raises a $100 million Series D, Consumer Reports pulls its Microsoft Surface recommendation and 500 Startups Australia falls apart. All this on Crunch Report Read More
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500 Startups’ Australia accelerator program is axed by its partner before it even launched
500 Startups continues to feel the impact of a sexual harassment scandal involving its co-founder and former managing partner Dave McClure. Two weeks after the closure of its Canada-based fund, its maiden venture in Australia is getting the chop before it even began. The U.S. firm doesn’t have a dedicated fund in Australia, but it did announce an accelerator program — 500… Read More
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TechCrunch Startup Battlefield is coming to a new continent: Announcing Australia!
TechCrunch is headed to Australia to find the most disruptive early-stage startups poised to compete on a global stage. How? We are bringing TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield to Australia this year in partnership with ELEVACAO. Read More
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500 Startups admits it kept Australian partner in the dark over investigation into Dave McClure
500 Startups has apologized to its Australian partner LaunchVic after the U.S. firm admitted that it failed to disclose an internal investigation into sexual harassment claims against co-founding partner Dave McClure. LaunchVic is a $60 million entrepreneurship scheme backed by the government of Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state. It’s a major investor in 500… Read More
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Australia wants Five Eyes to squeeze tech firms on encryption
The political rhetoric against strong encryption continues to crank up. Reuters reports today that Australia will be pushing for greater powers for countries to tackle the use of encrypted messaging services by terrorists and criminals at an upcoming meeting of ministers from the so-called ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence network. Read More
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Qwilr, which turns boring business documents into attractive websites, raises $1.5M
Qwilr, an Australian startup that helps companies turn boring PDFs and other static sales documents into attractive websites, has grabbed $1.5 million to develop its product and expand its global reach. Sydney-based Qwilr raised $500,000 from Sydney Seed Fund and Macdoch Ventures in 2015, but its new financing is provided by Germany’s Point Nine, a VC firm that specializes in… Read More
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Google invests in new subsea cable that connects Singapore to Australia
Google today announced that it will invest in a new subsea cable that will connect Singapore to Perth and Sydney in Australia (with a branch to Jakarta, Indonesia). The so-called Indigo cable will be almost 5,600 miles long and will be built by a consortium that also includes AARNet, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telsta. Read More
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Australia details plan to replace passport stamping with biometric scans
A badge of pride among frequent travelers, the battered passport could become a relic of the past, as sophisticated technology aims to replace more traditional means of identifying passengers. Australia is steadily working to update its own international processing, with a sort of self-service check out involving face, iris and/or fingerprint scanning designed to take some of the pain out of… Read More
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Seatfrog’s auction app lets you grab a last-minute flight upgrade on the cheap
From time-to-time here at TechCrunch, we see companies tackling problems or painpoints in a way that makes you wonder why it wasn’t done long ago. Seatfrog from Australia is one that gives me that feeling. Read More
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Australia’s largest banks unite to challenge Apple Pay
A number of Australia’s top banks have come together to challenge Apple and its Apple Pay service in the country. Read More
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SwagBot will autonomously roll them little dogies along rough Australian ranchlands
Is nothing sacred? The rugged trails that over history have been trod by cowboys, gauchos, ranch hands, and in Australia, swagmen, are now to be presided over by cold, calculating machines. SwagBot is the vanguard of our incoming steer-driving overlords, its independent all-wheel drive churning carelessly the mud in which once toiled our manly forbears and their snorting charges. Read More
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Asia Pacific cross-border payment startup Airwallex lands $3M
Fintech companies are continuing to draw interest from investors in Asia. The latest company to pull in financing is Airwallex, a China-Australia startup that specializes in cross-border transactions. Read More
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Australia’s PromisePay, a payment platform for online marketplaces, raises $10M
PromisePay, an Australia-headquartered fintech startup that specializes in payments for online marketplaces, has raised $10 million in fresh capital for growth. Read More
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New fantasy sports app SportsHero raises $2.4M ahead of planned Australia IPO
SportsHero is a new app that lets sports fans dabble in match predictions and show their skills off against friends and other game-watchers. The app is made by the team behind Singapore-based TradeHero, a virtual trading app backed by more than $10 million from investors, and it launched officially this week. Read More
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Researchers are using Land Cruisers in the Outback as a wireless network
Communication in the harsh, uninhabited and undeveloped environment of the Australian Outback is a huge challenge. That’s why Paul Gardner-Stephen, a senior lecturer at Flinders University in Adelaide, has partnered with Toyota and the communications and advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi on a solution. The three partners are building a literal mobile network, using fleets of… Read More
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