Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
Salesforce shed 1.2 million square feet in San Francisco, dropping from #1 to #3 tenant. OpenAI and Anthropic combined now occupy 2.15M sq ft, more than double Salesforce's current footprint. The shift maps where enterprise software headcount is actually growing.
Private equity firm Thoma Bravo handed Medallia back to creditors after a $5.1 billion equity wipeout, three years after the $6.4B take-private. The wider story: AI agents are choosing which software vendors and models they prefer, and those choices are reshaping enterprise software valuations. OpenAI is gaining ground because agents prefer its API, not because humans like the interface better.
Jack Zhang launches Latitude 37, annual program giving 10 Australian AI founders $100k equity-free plus access to Airwallex's global network. Program includes immersion tours in San Francisco and Singapore. Zhang wants founders to keep early-stage equity instead of selling cheap to overseas investors.
Canberra's Liquid Instruments secured $70M Series C, bringing manufacturing back to Australia. The round included $28M from the National Reconstruction Fund and was co-led by US firm Keysight Technologies. Marloo, Aigentsphere, and Manifest raised the remaining $20M combined.
Gold Coast startup HiSmile scaled from A$20k to A$700M in sales with zero funding. Founders Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic built the teeth whitening brand on influencer distribution, high margins, and product-led growth. Here is what the DTC model looks like when it actually ships.
Jason Lemkin's team cut Salesforce seats but the bill jumped 80%. Their AI marketing agent ships campaigns autonomously while Marketo failed to honour unsubscribes for 10 days. The fix took 20 minutes in Replit. This is what happens when legacy SaaS pricing hits AI-era ops.
Jon Addison restructured Okta's GTM around product specialisation and partner-led deals, driving a $1.6B operating income swing. New product deals now close 40% higher ACV. The playbook: 95% of top 100 deals are partner-influenced, and the AI agent security gap opened a new TAM.
VentureCrowd Pty Ltd is in administration with creditors chasing $7.3 million. The equity crowdfunding platform's operating subsidiaries continue trading, but the parent company that raised $3.9 million in 2022 now faces liquidation. Worth noting: this follows a $2.4 million court judgment last year.
Q1 2026 funding rebounded hard, but 60% went to just 10 deals. Early-stage and late-stage rounds are getting done. Mid-stage startups ($1-10M revenue) are stuck in the gap, which means fewer expansion hires and territory builds.
Mastercard ran live trials in ANZ where AI agents analysed business data, made payment decisions, and executed transactions without requiring human sign-off. The trials involved Hnry, MYOB, and Pay.com.au. Target market: SMEs spending 10-20 hours weekly on payment admin.
Andreessen Horowitz carved out $1.7 billion from its $15 billion raise specifically for AI infrastructure investments. General Partner Jennifer Li is leading the bet, with portfolio companies including ElevenLabs (valued at $11 billion), OpenAI, and Cursor. The firm is rebuilding the entire tech stack: storage, compute, orchestration, and memory built for AI workloads, not cloud legacy.
One-third of Australian SMEs now use AI, but most are juggling chaotic piles of logins and half-adopted copilots instead of strategic workflows. The pitch: less AI, not more, might actually drive better outcomes for small sales teams drowning in subscriptions.