Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
NSW government opened applications for a new emerging tech commercialisation fund targeting the gap between early evidence and investable product. First round: $7m available. Worth noting: this is government money with the usual strings attached, but it targets a real problem for ANZ startups trying to scale before they can raise from VCs.
CrowdStrike posted its largest quarter ever: $331M net new ARR, 115% NRR at scale, $1.69B from Falcon Flex alone. Stock still traded down. The market is not impressed by strong growth anymore. It wants to see acceleration in the Age of AI, and CrowdStrike is guiding for more of the same.
Sydney medtech Lumonus added $3m to its Series B four months after the initial close, bringing total raise to $28m. The funds are going straight into US go-to-market and clinical success teams. Translation: they are hiring sales roles to scale their AI-powered cancer treatment platform across US health systems.
Dog food startup Lyka landed $67 million from New York VC LGVP, leading this week's funding round. Five other ANZ startups raised capital, totaling $123.2 million across consumer and B2B plays. Worth watching: B2B sales platform Firmable also secured funding, though specific numbers were not disclosed.
Australia's tech sector is moving backwards on pay equity. NextDC's gender pay gap more than doubled to 45% in FY25, while Canva jumped from 12.7% to 27.1%. AWS, Atlassian, and Xero also saw gaps widen. For sales orgs hiring in tech, this matters: top quartile roles skew male, which affects pipeline for diverse talent.
Melbourne-based Envato is cutting a third of its workforce, around 200 roles globally. The company cited AI-driven changes and strategic restructure following its $372 million acquisition by Shutterstock in 2024. Sales teams across ANZ, US, and Mexico are affected.
Hot AI B2B companies are running two opposite sales playbooks. Some are setting $4M+ quotas per AE and servicing massive inbound with tiny teams. Others are hiring 200+ reps with traditional $700K quotas to capture every lead. ElevenLabs split the difference: $2M quotas, 80% attainment, and a forced 50/50 inbound/outbound split.
Anthropic lost Pentagon contracts after refusing to remove safeguards on mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. As Australia pushes dual-use tech funding, local AI startups will face the same choice: accept military revenue or hold ethical boundaries. This is not theoretical anymore.
Sheila Vashee, Figma's CMO and former second marketing hire at Dropbox, breaks down how Figma captured 95% of the Fortune 500 by investing in enterprise sales far earlier than most PLG companies. The lesson: build the team before you need them, because enterprise buyers need to see you are serious before they commit. Plus, why AI is reshaping marketing strategy without replacing the human craft.
SaaStr has 30 AI agents in production across their GTM stack. The problem: agents do not talk to each other, onboarding one kills productivity on the rest, and all the knowledge lives in one person's head. Here is what actually breaks when you scale AI sales tools.
Bill Binch (Operating Partner, Battery Ventures) spent 29 years carrying a bag, including Marketo employee #16 through IPO and Pendo CRO scaling to $100M ARR. His framework: start every forecast with quota, track deployed quota against plan monthly, and measure pipeline momentum through six daily inputs. Most companies miss the gap between planned quota and actual quota deployed, which explains why they are short on pipeline.
Construction logistics startup Veyor closed $10.5M at a $50-75M valuation. US now accounts for 30% of revenue, growing 150% year on year. The round funds expansion: expect sales hiring across ANZ and North America as they target becoming the system of record for site logistics globally.