Mike Langford

The Australian VC landscape is thriving, but gender disparity still casts a long shadow. As revealed by Cut Through Venture's Cut Through Quarterly Q3 report, women-led startups are gaining traction but face an uphill battle as they mature through funding rounds, with participation dropping dramatically from 50% at pre-seed to just 14% at Series A. In our latest Antler article, we explore how persistent barriers are widening the funding gap and why it’s critical to support women founders from day zero - supporting them from the start and providing continued backing throughout their journey. https://lnkd.in/gZds-cyk We're dedicated to pushing forward for a more inclusive and resilient ecosystem and invite all ambitious founders to join our February 2025 residency in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

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🌟 Exciting news in Australian tech! 🌟 Cyan and Collis Ta’eed, co-founders of Envato, have achieved a $375.2 million exit as Shutterstock acquires their company. Envato, a marketplace for creatives, was built from scratch without external funding, proving you can build a massive business and a fulfilling life. 🌐 Key Highlights: $375.2M exit with Shutterstock acquiring Envato. Co-founded by Cyan, a notable female entrepreneur. Bootstrapped success, no external funding. Continued focus on work-life balance and philanthropic efforts. Cyan and Collis remain directors, with Cyan continuing to inspire women in tech. This story highlights the power of innovation and dedication. 🚀👩‍💼 Inspire future women entrepreneurs with “When I’m an Entrepreneur” https://ow.ly/MF4Q50SmWaN Read more: https://ow.ly/ROAa50SmWaM #TechNews #FemaleFounders #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #Envato #Shutterstock

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Aussie Founders Club has always been about building an open-source community where founders, investors, and supporters can connect, grow, and thrive together. Recently, a few awesome people reached out to me, wanting to share some exciting opportunities – like workshops (with special discounts for AFC members!), news about grants, and open accelerator programs. It got me thinking: how can we better spread this information to benefit everyone? So, I’ve set up a dedicated submission space where you can easily share valuable opportunities, events, jobs, cofounder openings, and resources with the AFC community. This way, we can keep each other in the loop about all the things that can help founders get ahead. Here’s what we’re looking to share in the AFC newsletter: 🎉 Events – Whether it’s workshops, networking sessions, or panels, if it’s helpful to founders, we want to know about it. 💼 Job Openings – Let’s connect great talent with exciting roles in the startup world. 💸 Funding & Grants – Got tips on grants or funding opportunities? Share them with the community! 🚀 Accelerator Programs – Let founders know about accelerator programs with open applications. 🤝 Cofounder Opportunities – If you’re searching for a cofounder or business partner, share it here. 📚 Free Resources – Guides, templates, and other tools that help startups thrive. If you’ve got something to share, head over to the submission page on Aussie Founders Club or through my Linktree (via my LinkedIn profile). If you want to sign up to recieve the newsletter, you can sign up via our website too! Looking forward to seeing what you all have to share!

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Hello everyone! Although many of us are based on the Gold Coast—working remotely for global enterprises, local startups, or even commuting to Brisbane—opportunities to connect locally are rare. To help foster a strong tech community here, Pedro Giesel and I would like to invite all tech enthusiasts, innovators, and entrepreneurs to the first Build Club event on the Gold Coast. The idea is to come together to share ideas, build, learn, and have fun. Maybe you're stuck on a problem that's been nagging you for days, and chatting with other builders might help solve it in a few hours. Maybe you need a partner to bring your idea to life. Perhaps you want to practice your pitch and get feedback from the community, meet other builders and founders to form a team or find a co-founder. Maybe you just want to have fun and meet new people. You can probably do all this! Event Details: 📅 Date: 21/09/2024 📍 Location: TAFE Robina 🔗 Event Page: https://lu.ma/mi8wpovd What to Expect: - Networking: Connect with like-minded builders and founders. - Brainstorming: Explore ideas and problems that AI can solve. - Building Sessions: Collaborate on projects—whether you’re coding or using no-code tools. - Speed Demos: Present your creations and receive valuable feedback. - Feel free to bring your own lunch and some fruits or snacks to share. About Build Club (www.buildclub.ai): 🌐 Global Community: Join over 4,000 founders and builders worldwide. 🚀 Opportunities: Demo your products and get feedback from the global AI community and VCs. 🎁 Perks: Access benefits from leading companies like Nvidia, AWS, Stripe, Vercel, and more. 🏆 Hackathons: Participate in frequent events with exciting prize pools and rewards. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. We can’t wait to see you there! Annie Liao 🇦🇺, Christie Whitehill, Kirk Reynoldson, Kate Morgan, PhD, Kim H., Barry Pryce, Eden Shirley, Sayan Bhattacharyya, Andrew Ge-Hall, Aninda Saha, Leonardo P., Nissan Dookeran, Corey Fraser, Queensland AI Hub

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With over 110 companies including the likes of Canva, Linktree, Employment Hero, Zoomo, Athena & many more, in their fast-growing portfolio, having helped over 250 founders create more than 17000 jobs, Airtree as the one of the most iconic Venture Capital firms in Australia & New Zealand doesn't need an introduction. I am super excited to have joined forces with Airtree as an Angel through their Airtree Explorer initiative for Angels across ANZ. Having just relocated to Australia from Southeast Asia last year, as a part of this initiative, not only do I intend to pick up the nuances of angel investing in Australia but more importantly I am so looking forward to meeting the like-minded individuals, investors, and founders building the next generation of tech companies out of Australia. If you're a founder based in Australia, working on a game-changing idea, please do feel free to reach out for a chat. And, if you're a startup that is already getting good traction & therefore intends to scale within Australia and to larger markets like India, Southeast Asia, USA, I will be happy to share my experience and help with introductions within our network. Also open to helping Aussie founders with their tech & product development, marketing, revenue growth initiatives for the ventures across B2B Tech, AI, Cyber Security, Robotics & Automation, Sustainability, Decarbonisation & Energy Transition, Manufacturing, Carbon Accounting, etc, areas that may have synergies with any of our group companies. If you're building in Australia with a mindset of Global from Day 1, and would like to bounce of ideas, or request an introduction to the Airtree team or any of the fellow angels, I will be open to helping if it is something that aligns with the fund thesis at Airtree. Until then, let's keep the hustle on... 🚀

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“Gatekeeper has exceeded what we were hoping for.” Explore Clayton Utz's collaboration with Gatekeeper. From leveraging data analytics for actionable insights to standardising contract templates for consistency, every aspect of their strategy fosters a robust supplier ecosystem and gives the business more control. Find out more in our joint case study: #LegalInsights #SupplierTransformation #GatekeeperPartnership https://lnkd.in/e-sMPsfv

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A big year-on-year increase in ANZ buyers purchasing software from 3rd party marketplaces like the AWS & Azure Marketplaces. Most buyers still prefer to buy direct, but the percentage using marketplaces has been increasing each year in ANZ.

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Helping startups thrive in Australia requires a deep understanding of their needs. The previous Startup Muster report offered crucial insights into the sector's current state. It's essential to refresh this knowledge base to gain an updated perspective on opportunities for fostering innovation. #Startups #Innovation #AustraliaTech

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🎬 New Episode Alert! 🎬 This week on The Growth Cartel's Weekly Wrap, we dove into the latest insights on startup investments and the importance of diversity in leadership. 📊 The release of the Cut Through Venture's report and its impact on the Australian startup ecosystem 👩‍💼 Why diversity in leadership is not just important but essential for driving innovation and success in the startup world. 🚀 Watch the full conversation for even more on AI, Quantum tech, and major investments shaping the future! We cover the biggest developments of the week, what we have coming up and you won’t want to miss it. 👉 Catch the full episode here and stay up-to-date with all things startups, funding, and leadership: 📺 YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gV3vb3cb 🎧 Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gzUMQVH7 🍎 Apple - https://lnkd.in/gg_wuMQ3 #InvestmentTrends #Diversity #Leadership #GrowthCartel #StartupCommunity #Innovation #CutThroughVentures

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I contributed to the outstanding 🚀 Cut Through Quarterly Report Q3 It's an in depth report and a highly encourage all Australian tech Founders and CEO's to read it A few key Insights for Q3 2024 📊 The latest report highlights some major shifts in the Australian startup and M&A ecosystem: • 💡 Total funding dropped to $695M in Q3, but deal volume hit a five-quarter high with a surge in accelerator activity. • 🌱 Seed-stage deals dominated, showing strong early-stage investor sentiment even as larger deals slowed. • 🌍 Investor focus continues to shift towards alternative exits, like secondary sell-downs and private equity buyouts. On page 24 of the report I have provided a less talked about perspective on sub-scale M&A -- While unicorns often steal the spotlight, a crucial driver of the entrepreneurial landscape lies in 6 & 7-figure exits. These deals provide life-changing outcomes for founders and serve as a foundation for long-term ecosystem health. In Australia, only 2% of businesses exceed $10M in revenue, making the sub-scale M&A market both vibrant and undervalued. This is similar to global markets like the US and EMEA. Smaller acquisitions fuel entrepreneurship, offering liquidity and the chance to reinvest in new ventures—proof that the startup engine is powered by more than just billion-dollar valuations. #Entrepreneurship #M&A #Startups #GrowthExits #Flippa #VentureCapital #AustralianStartups Chris Gillings Five V Capital Cut Through Venture

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Where is the opportunity for Aotearoa NZ in blockchain and crypto? As these technologies progress from hype (and disillusionment) to realistic expectations, NZ has an opportunity: to attract talent and align with leading global regulators to look at on-chain and fintech solutions that can amplify NZ solutions and drive global impact. This can be a powerful conversation - Aya Miyaguchi and Paul Salisbury (with a third Fellow to be confirmed) will paint a picture of the future and where NZ might fit. Cannot wait!

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A valuable swan song report into New Zealand's SaaS sector by kiwiSaaS Community, summarised well here by Timothy. "4. Content is easily accessible, but knowledge from lived experience is scarce and its hampering our ability to produce more scale-ups." Letting my community know that from late July, I have 2 days' deep SaaS leadership knowledge and lived experience available for fractional or project hire. If you have a commercial acumen gap in your team; need to drive new pricing and packaging; improve your product positioning, value propositions and product marketing; or align your product and GTM teams and motions for revenue growth - let's talk. #growth #commercial #SaaS #leadership

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"Ever wondered why your favourite online store knows exactly what you want to buy next? 🌟" "In today's digital age, data isn't just numbers on a spreadsheet—it's the secret sauce that’s transforming consumer behaviour and driving businesses forward. Let's dive into how data is reshaping the way we shop, interact, and make decisions." 🛍️Personalized Shopping Experience: "Gone are the days of generic ads. With data analytics, companies can now offer personalized recommendations based on your browsing history, past purchases, and even social media activity. This means a more tailored shopping experience for you and higher sales for businesses." 🛍️Predictive Analytics: "Data allows companies to predict trends and consumer needs. By analyzing patterns and behaviors, businesses can forecast demand, manage inventory, and launch new products at just the right time. Imagine knowing what customers will want next season before they do!" 🛍️Customer Segmentation: "With data, businesses can segment their audience into precise groups. This segmentation helps in creating targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with specific customer needs and preferences. It's all about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time." 🛍️Improved Customer Service: "Data-driven insights enable companies to enhance their customer service. By analysing feedback and interactions, businesses can identify pain points and improve their service, leading to happier customers and stronger brand loyalty." Example: "Consider Netflix: They use data to understand viewing habits and preferences, which allows them to recommend shows you’re likely to enjoy. This personalized approach keeps users engaged and coming back for more. 📺" "How has data transformed your shopping or business experience? 

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The ANZ Startup Capital Raise Retro Powered by Overnight Success. $58.3M deployed across ANZ. The full digest below includes discounts on community events and more. 👇 Veyor Digital raises $2.75M Series A to expand its logistics scheduling software into the U.S. market. NextWork (NZ 🥝) secures $2.3 Pre-Seed to build a learning platform to get more people into tech jobs. Check them out for a free AWS certification. Foremind finds a $400K follow-on investment for its mobile-friendly worker wellbeing platform. RayGen shines with $51M Series D to scale photovoltaic solar module system Kindling. raises $500K pre-seed to empower niche content creators to monetise CoraMetix secures $500K at $2.25M valuation to create durable 3D printed heart valve Outread raises $750K to revolutionise academic research using A.I. Deeligence lands $1M pre-seed to help legal firms streamline work with A.I.

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🇦🇺Australian AI companies made a powerful impact at Tech Week last week, showcasing how they’re transforming industries like health, financial services, and supply chain. With 650+ AI companies leading in areas such as AI-powered diagnostics and compliance management, Australia’s AI sector is on track to add up to $600 billion to GDP by 2030. Exciting times ahead for AI innovation! If you’re looking to connect with the forefront of Australian fintech and AI solutions, reach out to me for more insights on the game-changing opportunities in this space! #AIAustralia #Fintech #Innovation #TechWeek Kirstyn Thomson | David Wise | Diana Pang | Dinie Halim | Dila Raffar | Madeline Ferguson | William Johnson

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After six years of bootstrapping - I’m excited to share that Slice has raised a $17.5 million equity and debt round led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) and Roadnight Capital. Our journey began over a decade ago - when I met my co-founder Yannick D. while working in a big bank's Collections and Hardship department. We spoke to numerous customers who had used credit cards to pay for a trip overseas - often for a family reunion or a cultural event. These customers wanted to be financially responsible, but because they had used a product with such a high interest rate, they were falling behind and feeling powerless. We wanted to create a product that would allow customers to book their flights, and then repay in manageable instalments before their trip. Our vision was to help customers access travel - while also helping them to budget sensibly and avoid financial hardship. In 2018, we launched our first product - PayLater Travel. In the beginning, we spoke to every customer on the phone - we manually made bookings, and paid upfront with our own credit cards (the irony!). Despite the janky product, our customers loved being able to lock in flight prices and having the ability to pay it off before they travel. We knew we were onto something! But behind the scenes, there have been plenty of unglamorous moments. When the pandemic hit in 2020, we lost 95% of our revenue overnight. We were terrified - but we were also too busy to feel sorry for ourselves. We hunkered down, made hundreds of calls to airlines, and ensured maximum refunds and credits for our customers. To survive COVID, we had to dig deep. Limping along wasn’t an option - unless we did something decisive, we’d slowly run out of cash.  With our backs against the wall, we decided to launch in the US. I had to sell my car and Yannick refinanced his home. In other words - we bet the farm. What happened next is… too long for a LinkedIN post! I’ve shared an expanded version of the story in our blog, Instalments by Slice (link in comments). Fast forward to 2024 - I feel deeply fortunate to have secured an additional $10 million debt facility from Roadnight Capital alongside a Seed investment led by Peak XV Partners. What's more - I feel blessed with a wonderful team, supportive friends, and to have helped 70,000 customers go on wonderful trips and create core memories. The best part - we’re only getting started! There are still millions of customers worldwide, falling into unsustainable debt and we’re here to do our part to change that! To read more about Slice and our first round of external funding, check out this article in The Australian Financial Review - #venturecapital #startup #fintech #funding #slice

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Over the past year, we’ve been heads down at Superhero building our product and platform. We’ve quietly grown to over $2.7 billion in funds under management with 350,000 customers. Today, we’re ready to make some noise as we soar into a multi-year partnership with some of the most iconic and most beloved organisations in Australia - the Sydney Swans and Hawthorn Football Club. In Australia, AFL is more than a sport - it’s a religion. We even have a public holiday dedicated to the grand final! As a growing superannuation fund, we know we have a lot to learn from how AFL clubs deeply engage with their members. We’re looking forward to opportunities to integrate Superhero’s message of financial empowerment into the clubs’ engagement strategies. As a relatively young company, a big investment in ‘brand marketing’ always feels risky - particularly when digital marketing channels are tried and true. But John Winters and I started Superhero because we’re driven by a mission to increase Australians’ engagement with their financial futures, and to offer them more choice on their superannuation. To read more about what this partnership means to us and to the Swans and the Hawks, read more in Hannah Wootton’s article in the AFR #afl #superannuation

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Mark "Z" Zmarzly 🦄 substack brings all the startups to his yard. And the startups are like, it's better than yours. And Mark's like "Damn right it's better than yours ... I can teach you, but I have to charge." Good thing he's got access to plenty Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits. See you in Melbourne at Intersekt next Wednesday and the AWS Financial Services Symposium in Sydney on Thursday. #AWSStartups #CloudInnovation #StartupEcosystem #AWSActivate #ScalableSolutions #TechForStartups #CloudForStartups #AWSGrowth #BuildOnAWS #StartupSuccess #AWSPartners #CloudFirst #FounderSupport #StartupJourney #TechInnovation #AWSCloud #ScaleWithAWS #StartupResources #AWSFunding #EntrepreneurSupport #AWSStartupsAccelerator

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Day 286: Meet James Matheson from Stripe 🚀 I had the pleasure of connecting with James Matheson from Stripe today. What many might not know is that James is not just a key player in the Aussie Stripe team—he's also a former Winter Olympian in Freestyle Skiing! 🏔️⛷️ While Stripe is a US-based company, James and his Australian team, operating from Sydney & Melbourne, work closely with fast-scaling startups. Stripe’s focus? Helping Aussie businesses thrive by increasing revenue and streamlining payments. 💰 Here’s what you may not know about Stripe/payment gateways: - Not just online: Many retail and hospitality stores use Stripe as a local payment gateway 🏬🍽️ - Beyond payments: Stripe helps with billing, managing subscriptions, and memberships 💳 - Enhanced customer journey: Use Stripe as a backend payment gateway to level up your customer experience 🚀 #Stripe #BusinessGrowth #OlympianMindset #ScalingWithStripe #CROFTI #Day286of366

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