It’s been a solid week for startup funding news, with six local startups revealing details of their latest investments.
Hailing from the medtech, marketing, spacetech and AI sectors, these startups have only been operating for a short period of time, but are already making a name for themselves.
Keep reading to learn more about six Australian startups that collectively raised $56.7million this week.
Heidi Health: $26.5 million
Medtech startup Heidi Health leads this week’s funding round-up with a $26.5 million ($US16.6 million) Series A follow-on round, which represents the company’s first major international capital injection.
The funding round was led by San Francisco-based venture capital firm Headline, and included participation from the UK’s Local Globe and existing investors including Blackbird and HESTA.
Launched in 2019 by founders Dr Thomas Kelly, Yu Liu and Waleed Mussa, Heidi Health previously raised $10 million in Series A funding in October 2023.
The startup aims to help doctors save time by transcribing and processing patient visits and was this week spending time with US doctors and hospital decision-makers at the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference in Las Vegas.
From the sidelines of the conference, Heidi Health co-founder and chief executive Dr Thomas Kelly told SmartCompany awareness about Heidi Health is growing in the US.
“It’s exciting to see people who might have heard of us through word-of-mouth, a friend of a friend or through a health system we have started working with,” he said.
However, Heidi is focused on becoming the market-leading AI tool for clinicians in several regions, not only the US, with Kelly also highlighting the impact the technology could have in the UK, for example, where access to GPs is challenging.
Heidi’s technology is now being used in more than one million healthcare consultations across its global markets every week.
Instant: $18 million
The co-founder of automated marketing startup Instant says the platform’s recent momentum in the market was a key factor in helping it raise $18 million in Series A funding.
Liam Millward founded the company with William Gao when the duo were in their late teens and during the peak of the pandemic-driven e-commerce boom.
Instant launched in 2022 with a platform to help brands re-engage online shoppers who abandon their carts and now works with the likes of July, Toys R Us, Peppermayo, and Fayt the Label.
This week, the startup revealed details about its latest funding round, which was led by Belgium’s Hummingbird Ventures.
Existing investors Blackbird, Ten13, and Reinventure also participated in the Series A round, which follows Instant’s $2.2 million pre-seed round in 2022.
Instant is now reportedly valued at $100 million and, according to Millward, is differentiating itself by continuously outpacing competitors in execution and innovation.
“Copycats are fine because we outpace their execution. They keep us ahead of our game and ensure we continue moving quickly — as we have always done,” Millward told SmartCompany.
“As long as we continue to innovate and be the first to market with new features not created before- brands will continue to love us.”
Esper: $5 million
Also revealing new funding this week was spacetech startup Esper, which has secured $5 million in seed funding.
The new capital, which comes from lead investor Paspalis Capital along with Islamic financial services company Hejaz, will be used to scale Esper’s satellite constellation and bolster its ability to detect critical minerals from orbit.
Esper was founded by Monash University graduates Shoaib Iqbal and Przemyslaw Lorenczak in 2021, and previously raised $1 million in pre-seed funding in March 2024.
The startup is building a network of hyperspectral imaging satellites designed to detect lithium, cobalt, rare earths, and other critical minerals from space.
The technology can detect hundreds of different colours across the spectrum, which sets it apart from traditional satellite imagery, and allows it to act like a “fingerprint scanner from space”, according to Iqbal.
While this has clear applications in the mining, oil and gas sectors, Iqbal says Esper has also been approached for less conventional applications, such as archaeological surveys.
“We can look through foliage or canopies… that really allows us to capture imagery and find hidden burial sites or ancient buildings,” he told SmartCompany this week.
Trusst AI: $4 million
Customer experience startup Trusst AI, which helps businesses digitally “clone” their best staff, this week announced $4 million in investment.
Trusst AI deploys AI agents capable of interpreting inbound voice calls, and automatically responding to both text and voice queries with the help of LLMs.
Its backend solution also analyses customer data, helping businesses to better understand their needs and streamline internal processes.
CX veterans Sarel Roets and Ryan Kohler founded the startup, which counts bases in both Sydney and the US state of Colorado.
In a statement, Roets said Trusst AI is capable of delivering “real-time deep data insights” power AI agents with “capable of “natural language, empathy, and other human-like qualities”.
“Our clients report a reduction in churn, a continuous increase in sales and greater confidence in customer retention and [net promoter score] through continuous optimisation,” said Roets.
The investment includes a major contribution from OIF Ventures.
“We’re incredibly excited to be backing Sarel and Ryan,” David Shein, partner at OIF, said.
“Their deep domain expertise, combined with the best-in-class product they’ve built, puts them in a fantastic position to take on what is an immense opportunity for disruption in the CX space.”
Flowing Bee: $1.6 million
Melbourne-based AI startup Flowing Bee is planning on expanding into the US market, after securing $1.6 million in fresh funding.
The funding round was led by Archangel Ventures, Genesis PSF, Antler, M8 Ventures and LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund.
Founded in 2023 by Sara Khorasani and Michael Sankey, Flowing Bee aims to help brands achieve their marketing goals by automating behavioural science and customer analysis with the help of AI agents.
The Flowing Bee platform incorporates data insights, campaign execution and measurement, to provide a holistic view of a brand’s marketing efforts, while still maintaining human oversight over the outputs.
The startup is already working with the likes of Movember, reverse mortgage lender Inviva, and leaders in the superannuation and supermarket sectors.
GonGlobal: $1.6 million
Traditional IVF treatments involve regular injections, with some recipients requiring injections multiple times per day.
Those jabs can be invasive, painful, and difficult to fit around daily life — and those with a fear of injections may be deterred from IVF altogether.
GonGlobal, a medtech startup founded by father-daughter duo Ellen and Igor Gonda, is developing a non-invasive drug delivery alternative.
GonGlobal this week announced $1.6 million in pre-seed funding, led by doctor and entrepreneur Peter Cronin.
Other backers include Flying Fox Ventures, UNSW Founders, The George Institute for Global Health, LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund, and Australian Medical Angels, along with family and friends.
In a statement, Flying Fox co-founder and partner Kylie Frazer explained the decision to back GonGlobal.
“For too long, the experience of women undergoing IVF has been overlooked in innovation cycles. The process is invasive, exhausting, and riddled with inefficiencies—but it doesn’t have to be,” said Frazer.
“It’s our first investment in biotech, and we couldn’t think of a better place to start,” she added.
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