This week, we heard from Australian luggage startup July, which has been successfully launched in the US, as well as celebrating the launch of Australia’s new Tech Council.
In between all of that, Dovetail has secured $ 5 million and v2food saw its valuation skyrocket to half a billion dollars.
The news about financing has still been pouring in quickly and quickly and as you all know, we can’t cover everything.
So from legal tech to batteries to even more plant-based meat, here are some of the funding stories you might have missed.
Kiwi legaltech earns $ 16 million from global backers
On the other side of the ditch, a kiwi legal tech startup tailored to in-house legal teams has raised a whopping NZ $ 17 million ($ 16.2 million) in Series A funding, led by the venture capital giant with New York-based Insight Partners.
The round also included repeat endorsements from Australian VC AirTree Ventures.
LawVu tripled its annual recurring revenue in 2020, with more than two-thirds of it coming from outside of its local market.
The team will use this new funding to recruit key roles overseas and continue to grow its global reach, with a focus on the US.
“Internal legal teams perform a critical function within each corporation,” said co-founder and chief Sam Kidd in a statement.
“However, you will often find that the only ‘technology’ they have is email and word documents, and legal teams are becoming a bottleneck as the rest of the business leverages technology to accelerate.”
It is the latest in a series of significant investments Insight Partners has made in the region in recent times. Perhaps most significantly, he recently invested a whopping $ 223 million in Brisbane startup Octopus Deploy, contributing to SafetyCulture’s $ 99 million raise and Employment Hero’s $ 140 million Series E.
Rachel Geller, CEO of Insight Partners, will join LawVu’s board of directors.
“LawVu’s global growth speaks volumes for its future as a business and its ability to provide high-value results to legal teams,” she said in a statement.
“Its combination of intuitive user experience and excellent customer feedback makes LawVu stand out in the legal technology industry.”
AirTree Ventures partner James Cameron added that the founders “have found the right product, in the right market at the right time.”
“As we have seen from other global leaders that have emerged from our region, such as Canva and Linktree, there is great demand from global investors to invest in the fast growing Australian technology and kiwi businesses,” he added.
“This is a testament to the emerging technology ecosystems that are developing here.”
Fable Food Co. secures $ 6.5 million and celebrity chef association
Fable Food Co, the plant-based meat startup led by Shoes of Prey founder Michael Fox, has secured $ 6.5 million in seed funding, in addition to a partnership with celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal.
The increase was led by Blackbird Ventures, and included support from the food-focused AgFunder, Aera VC and Better Bite Ventures VCs, as well as Ban Choon Marketing.
Warren Hogath, a former partner at Sequoia Capital, also contributed.
Founded in 2019, Fable has put its products on the shelves at both Woolies and Coles, and Harris Farm Markets. The products have also been featured in Marley Spoon and Dinnerly, and have been found on restaurant menus in Australia, the UK, and Singapore.
Earlier this month, Fable’s Meaty Mushroom Burger Pattie made its debut on the Grill’d burger chain’s menu, and is now ready to be included in the fantastic dinners of Heston Blumenthal, in its chain of Michelin-starred restaurants.
Blackbird Ventures partner Nick Crocker called Fable “a pioneer in the alternative meat industry.”
He also praised Fox himself, whom he has known for about two decades.
“Seeing a founder like him be so driven by mission is one of the great joys of this job,” he said.
This increase marks a continuation of the plant-based meat boom in Australia. Last week, v2food announced that it had closed another round of $ 72 million, as it expands to the Asian and European markets.
