Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
Airtree launched a San Francisco Frontier residency with US$250k ($350k AUD) SAFE notes for ANZ founders based in the US. The program targets early-stage builders, solo founders seeking cofounders, and employees at tech companies looking to start something. Applications open now.
Melbourne DevOps scaleup Buildkite closed a $21 million convertible note in January 2026, according to ASIC filings surfaced this week. Operating cash burn hit $23.4 million in FY25, up from $4.9 million the prior year. The round followed CEO changes and comes as AI coding tools drive demand for developer infrastructure.
SaaStr mentioned Replit 214 times in 12 months, generating 5.9M impressions to 450k B2B executives. Zero dollars spent. The product worked, the customer shipped production code, the coverage followed. Most B2B companies have power users doing smaller versions of this right now and have no idea who they are.
Sydney medtech Medow Health closed another $3.5 million from existing investors, bringing total seed funding to $8.5 million across three raises since January 2025. The company sells AI front desk software to specialist medical clinics and says it now serves 1,000 practices across ANZ. Worth noting: This is not a new startup. PitchBook lists Doctor AI (possibly related entity) as founded in 2017 with $52 million raised, suggesting this may be a rebrand or spin-out rather than early-stage venture.
The ATO is treating cross-border software payments as taxable royalties, targeting Apple's $13B ANZ revenue and Google's $2.1B local operation. The ruling affects how multinational tech groups structure billing between Australian subsidiaries and offshore headquarters, with implications for vendor contracts and enterprise procurement across ANZ.
Meta is now charging Australian businesses for human customer support through its new Meta One subscription service. The platform will connect subscribers to real support staff, prioritise their cases, and offer phone support. Previously, Meta's advertiser support relied heavily on automated systems.
Nearly four in ten Australian small business owners paid themselves less than $40,000 or nothing at all in FY25, according to ACCI's latest survey. The sector generated $590 billion in revenue (one-third of GDP) while sales grew 6.5% year-on-year, but owner compensation is lagging. Three-quarters of full-time self-employed owners earn less than the average full-time wage.
Jason Lemkin's SaaStr runs 21 AI agents that have closed millions in revenue with a human GTM team of 1.5 people. The agents book meetings, resurrect dead leads, and handle billing. What they cannot do: close a real deal. Every dollar came from buyers already leaning in, not agents convincing hesitant prospects.
Legal AI company Harvey deploys 180 former practicing attorneys (8-10 years experience average) as legal engineers across every customer account. Base comp $220k-$320k OTE on 75/25 split, plus equity. The role splits three ways: pre-sales, post-sales, and custom solutions.
82 of the top 100 AI startups are led by technical CEOs, up from 49% in 2013. Databricks hit $190B with a Berkeley professor. Snowflake replaced Slootman with an engineer and growth jumped from 26% to 34%. The sales-guy CEO archetype that built enterprise software for two decades is being replaced by founders who ship product.
Treasury dumped the $10 million lifetime cap and shortened the required holding period from five years to three in the draft Innovative Business CGT Concession. The carve-out protects founders, early employees, and investors in qualifying startups from broader CGT changes hitting in July 2027. Submissions close 28 September.
Bending Spoons acquired Miro for $1.355B and Airtable for $1.285B, both under 3x ARR. Combined, the companies held $1.4B cash against $4B equity value. A third of what changed hands was money already in the bank. The deals show cash flow positive operations buy runway, not exit premiums.