The Ignition Lane Wrap: Canva’s prime o’ the clouds, VCs battle to boost, returning Fyre

Cloud one hunnid. Bessemer Enterprise Companions, Salesforce Ventures and Forbes launched the eighth annual Cloud 100 checklist of the world’s greatest non-public cloud computing firms. At #4 Canva, which this month turned 10 and was revalued at a decent $US25.5bn, was the one Australian firm to make the checklist.

Not surprisingly, the checklist has been overrun by the generative AI growth. OpenAI debuted at #1 – unprecedented within the checklist’s historical past. Databricks (#2) overtook Stripe (#3). And, based on Bessemer information, 55% of the Cloud 100 are already incorporating generative AI into their merchandise.

Nonetheless, reflecting the overall state of tech and enterprise worlds, variety stays missing. Solely six firms on the Cloud 100 checklist have a lady CEO, down from eight final yr.

Security in numbers. Office security software program agency SafetyCulture raised $34m at a $2.7bn valuation, and confirmed it now has over 75,000 companies and greater than 1.5 million employees worldwide utilizing its merchandise. Income was up 32% within the final monetary yr to $132m. The elevate serves as a strong reminder from CEO Luke Anear that after you’re on the VC rollercoaster, it’s laborious to get off:

“I don’t assume we had been ever absolutely off [venture capital money],” Mr Anear mentioned. “Attempting to wean what’s almost a $3 billion child off the milk takes time. However I believe you consistently need to assess what’s one of the simplest ways to construct the enterprise.”

Using excessive. What recession?! Carsales CEO Cameron McIntyre says enterprise is booming – “Shoppers are nonetheless on the lookout for comparable worth vehicles to what they had been this time final yr.” The corporate reported a 43% improve in adjusted revenue to $278m for the yr ended 30 June. Income rose 5% to $781m, with greater than half of that generated exterior of Australia. Shares are up 37% YTD.

Work it. Office-collaboration software program big Atlassian beat market expectations, with This autumn FY23 revenues of US$939.1m (up 24% YoY) and a web lack of US$59.0m (down 54% YoY). It has round 262,000 prospects. Not like Zoom and the complete company world, Atlassian is standing by its 2020-esq philosophy that “distributed groups are the way forward for work… The extra we lean in right here and prepared the ground, the deeper our aggressive benefit.”

Work laborious, play laborious. Regardless of being within the midst of defending worker allegations, ecommerce advertising and marketing tech agency Rokt is getting ready to include as a US firm and pursue a 2024 Nasdaq itemizing. It was final valued at $3.5bn for a secondary share sale final December, led by Tiger World. TBD if that valuation will maintain up.

Exceeding expectations. LaunchVic and Deloitte report that Victoria has out-performed development expectations. Since 2020, the worth of Victoria’s complete ecosystem has virtually doubled from $50bn to $91bn and the startup workforce quickly expanded from 37,000 to 52,000 FTE.

Gobble, Gobble. Liven, which gives restaurant loyalty reward and operations know-how, has acquired 4 tech firms for $152m: Abacus, a Melbourne-based supplier of POS techniques, on-line ordering and self-service kiosks; OrderUp, which lets venues provide smartphone desk ordering, on-line orders and lodge room service; Singapore-based meals procurement product Zeemart, and US-based cost and information startup Copper.

Liven additionally wins our “Awkward Turtle Article Title of the Yr” award:

(to be honest, the precise quote within the article says she has aspirations to be Perkins).

I bought 99 issues, and securing LPs is one

Money guidelines all the pieces round me. VCs are popping out of the woodwork explaining how laborious it’s for them to boost funds as they battle in opposition to one another for a share of restricted accomplice (LP) wallets. With increased rates of interest, comfortable M&A and capital markets, and investor cash locked up in present funds, capital isn’t as available because it as soon as was.

Traditionally, VCs would solely formally announce a brand new fund as soon as the complete fund goal had been raised, however now “first shut” and “coming quickly” bulletins are frequent. This month, Important Sequence introduced a AU$450m first shut of its third fund, Potential Ventures is approaching a primary shut on a brand new €60m (AU$101m) early-stage fund (we anticipate this can shut given managing accomplice Chris Hitchen’s observe report), and Aspect Stage Ventures raised the primary $15m of a brand new $30m early-stage fund.

Associated: good piece by Hunter Stroll on why many VCs have extra ache coming.

Began from the underside. One VC that seems to be flying pretty unscathed by this time is Blackbird, which has loads of money within the coffers after elevating $1bn in late 2022 (which additionally means it most likely didn’t deploy insane quantities of cash into the 2021 craze), and respectable secondary gross sales underway – together with a recent $150m from promoting down a tiny proportion of its stake in Canva, with extra prone to come from SafetyCulture within the subsequent yr.

Founding Associate Niki Scevak is assured we’ve discovered the underside of the VC market – an statement that TechBoard’s new report helps.

Blackbird has been busy doing offers, together with NZ-based Kiki (invite-only peer-to-peer subletting platform), Cyble (unified platform for cybersecurity) and Marqo (an open supply vector search engine for AI functions).

Who run the world? Flying Fox Ventures and Bounce Begin Studio have every obtained $300,000 in funding through LaunchVic to run applications that provide girls startup founders recommendation, assist and networks required to construct an MVP and discover their first buyer.

AgTech cash timber. LaunchVic additionally introduced the Hugh Victor McKay Fund, a brand new sidecar fund for Victorian AgTech startups. The fund was named in honour of the inventor who patented the mix harvester within the Eighties. LaunchVic will co-invest with non-public buyers, who match the federal government contribution by a minimal of two:1. There’s additionally an equity-free $50,000 grant out there to aspiring agtech founders.

Mo cash, mo issues. The AFR slammed crowdfunding platforms like Birchal and Equitise for enabling firms to boost at lofty valuations:

These with not less than $100,000 in annualised income, lots of which promote client items and generate heavy losses, raised at a mean valuation greater than 23 instances their earnings.

I bought 99 pitches, however funding ain’t received

Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) raised $50m after getting down to elevate $130m. SQC has developed the world’s first built-in circuit manufactured on the atomic scale. The circuit, which operates as an analogue quantum processor, offers SQC the power assemble quantum fashions for a variety of latest supplies, together with prescription drugs, supplies for batteries, and catalysts. SQC can also be creating a full stack quantum pc.

Haventec, which developed tech to cease digital identities (usernames and passwords) and information from being stolen and was as soon as valued at $50m, has shut down after failing to boost additional capital.

Melbourne meals waste recycling startup Bardee reduce most of its workforce (round 30 individuals, who’re ready for excellent funds), because it struggles to boost extra capital. Bardee has been plagued with a number of challenges, together with a office demise, and exec upheaval following a dispute with the founders (which can also be reported to have induced lead investor Blackbird to give up the board, simply months after investing in early 2022). Rival Goterra lately raised $10m in a bridging spherical.

Useful information from Carta on dilution at every stage of a enterprise spherical. Be aware, this information is from 1,229 main rounds raised on Carta in 2023 and is US solely (though we’d suspect ANZ to be comparable).

I bought 99 scams, however the fact ain’t one

All that glitters shouldn’t be code. Advertising and marketing “AI” Metigy execs fronted as much as Federal Court docket this month, revealing that CEO David Fairfull lured over $20m funding with exaggerated AI know-how claims, inflated buyer counts and manipulated monetary forecasts.

“Did you ever present false financial institution statements, that’s fraudulently ready financial institution statements, to anybody?” Condon requested.

“Sure,” Fairfull responded, asserting authorized privilege earlier than every reply in order that his phrases couldn’t be used in opposition to him in authorized proceedings.

The corporate’s collapse reveals the darker aspect of the funding frenzy throughout the low-interest charge, speedy due diligence period.

Regulators. ASIC is in sizzling water with the Senate over its dealing with of investigations, together with into alleged insider buying and selling at forensic information analytics firm, Nuix. ASIC investigated Nuix CFO Stephen Doyle and brother, Ross Doyle, over the sale of $18m shares… proper earlier than the 2021 half-year outcomes triggered a crash within the inventory worth. In 2022, ASIC discovered “no proof” that Ross knew concerning the outcomes previous to their launch, and dropped the case.

In the meantime, a former Nuix VP (who was by no means interviewed by ASIC) has since divulged that, on the time of the share sale, Ross Doyle: (1) was figuring out of the Nuix workplace – swipe card entry and all, (2) was “seen in finance employees conferences,” (3) was dwelling along with his bro, the CFO, and (4) was “having a private relationship with certainly one of Stephen Doyle’s direct experiences.”

p.s. Fyre competition is again.

Step proper up – Free issues

We’re persevering with our FREE Ignition Lane workplace hours in September. Founders, operators, buyers – ask us your greatest questions on development, fundraising, M&A, product or individuals.

SafeStack launched OneHourAppSec, a free utility safety program that can assist you construct safety into your functions and SDLC in only one hour per dash.

Functions for Blackbird’s ANZ researcher mentor program Foundry closes on 8 Sept.

That’s a wrap! We hope you loved it.

Bex, Gavin and the workforce at Ignition Lane