Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
If your SaaS growth has declined linearly for two years, you are sliding toward the bottom of a bifurcated market. The top B2B and AI startups are hitting 515% growth at Series A while 35% of B2B companies are declining. Here is what works to recover, starting with brutal honesty about product-market fit.
Marshelle Mooney runs a remote SMB sales team at Mangomint (salon and spa software) generating $7.20 in ARR for every dollar of OTE paid. Context: 3x to 5x is typical for SMB SaaS, above 6x is rare. She is doing it with $4k ACV, five-day cycles, and a stack consolidated to two surfaces.
OpenAI closed its Sora text-to-video app six months after launch, with Disney canceling a planned $1.4 billion investment. The shutdown affects sales teams exploring AI video tools for demos and social content. No Australian operations were impacted.
Ramp data shows Anthropic captured 73% of new enterprise AI spending in the past ten weeks, up from a 50-50 split with OpenAI. The shift signals vendor lock-in is happening now, with enterprises committing to Claude for coding and data analysis workflows. For sales teams evaluating AI tools, the window to switch providers is closing fast.
ICONIQ's 2026 GTM survey of 150+ B2B firms shows companies embedding AI in sales processes run 20-30% smaller teams while hitting 67% quota attainment versus 59% for low adopters. Meanwhile, sales cycles dropped 6 weeks but contract terms are shrinking: 13% of new logos now sign sub-1-year deals, up from 4% in 2023.
Melbourne IT integration startup Support Fusion closed a $1M pre-seed round led by Func Ventures and Exhort Ventures. The company is hiring go-to-market, partnerships, and customer success roles across Australia and the US. No comp details disclosed yet.
Stela Solar takes over as CEO of Stone & Chalk, ANZ's largest startup accelerator. Solar spent 20+ years in AI solution sales at Microsoft, Accenture, and CSIRO. Signals shift toward AI strategy and corporate partnerships.
Eight ANZ startups raised $373.3M this week, led by NZ agtech Halter's $314M Series E at $2.9B valuation. Silicon Quantum Computing added $60M, Cauldron closed $35M Series A. Worth noting: these are deep tech and agtech plays, not sales software. Limited hiring data disclosed, but Halter's expansion into Australia signals potential AE and AM roles as they scale territory coverage.
The tech goes live in days. The training that makes it work takes 60 focused days. Most companies skip the training, then wonder why it failed. SaaStr breaks down the actual timeline: foundation work in weeks 1-2, optimization in weeks 3-4, ongoing maintenance after day 60.
Canva acquired Melbourne adtech startup Doohly for $30M, adding digital out-of-home advertising to its design platform. The deal marks Canva's sixth acquisition in two years and positions it to manage client branding from design through to in-store and outdoor advertising execution.
Teresa Anania, former SVP Customer Experience at Sophos (now CCO at Verint), breaks down how the cybersecurity firm manages customer success across 600,000 accounts when cyber threats evolve in hours, not days. The reality: by the time a support ticket lands, you have already lost the customer.
Cauldron Ferm closed $13.25M led by Main Sequence Ventures to scale hyper-fermentation tech in regional NSW. The 2022-founded biotech runs a 30,000-litre facility in Orange but hasn't disclosed sales team size, structure, or hiring plans. Worth noting for biotech sales professionals: no CRO, VP Sales, or revenue numbers public despite $19.5M total raised.