Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
ICONIQ data covering 390 companies shows hypergrowth SaaS firms hiring faster than 2022, while strong performers growing 50-100% cut headcount growth from 46% to 25% in one year. The 100%+ band is overwhelmingly AI-native B2B in land-grab mode. Companies below 25% growth are flat: 3% headcount growth for the year.
Australian business insurance policies are changing underneath customers, with insurers introducing AI-specific exclusions and standalone coverage. BizCover launched AI quotes through ChatGPT, while Zurich rolled out AI-underwritten cyber policies. For sales teams using AI tools, this means standard professional indemnity and liability cover may no longer respond to AI-related claims.
Australia's Treasury says AI will boost annual productivity by 1.2%, but warns of profound labour market effects including job displacement. Two-thirds of businesses have some AI adoption, but fewer than 10% report deep integration. The gap between deployment and actual productivity gains matters for sales teams facing automation pressure.
Sydney fraud-intelligence startup Apate.AI closed $11.4m Seed (Lobby Capital led) and is now US-incorporated. CCO Brad Joffe is building the commercial function from scratch. CPO Peter Eckermann moves to the US to lead expansion. Tech and research teams stay in Sydney.
Commonwealth Bank drops merchant service fees from 1.1% to 0.99% for in-store transactions on flat-rate plans, effective October 1. Same day the RBA surcharge ban kicks in. CBA serves 15.9 million customers: this move affects thousands of small business merchants who will no longer be able to pass card fees to customers.
U.S. restaurant SaaS company Owner.com crossed $100M ARR in 2026 after rebuilding its go-to-market around AI agents. More than 83% of new customers now begin inside an AI product, not a sales call. The company scaled from close to 50 sales reps in late 2024 to 17 new AEs starting at once in May 2026, with 20 to 30 BDRs set for promotion to closing roles.
Australia's consumer regulator is warning that AI-generated websites, product images, and reviews are making it easier for scammers to impersonate legitimate retailers. The ACCC says shoppers can no longer rely on professional appearance alone to verify if an online store is real.
New Kroll report tracking 2,672 software deals shows growth rate drives valuation, but margins above 25% add nothing. Two companies with identical Rule of 40 scores trade 73% apart based on category alone. Engineering software gets 5.2x, HCM gets 3.0x, same growth and margin.
Issue-tracking platform Linear reports agents installed in 95% of paid workspaces, creating half of all work items versus 3% twelve months ago. Issues with pull requests attached grew 7x since January. Atlassian reported growth rates but not composition. Linear is cash-flow positive at $2.5 billion valuation.
Jason Lemkin's team deployed 20+ AI agents against their CRM and hit storage overages without touching the UI. Meanwhile, ServiceTitan cut off Podium after their AI agent started writing directly into customer records. Systems of record are repricing for a world where agents write constantly and humans rarely log in.
Fintech giant Airwallex backed 10 Australian AI startups with $100k each through its Latitude 37 program. Equity-free funding, plus network access to a company doing $1.3bn in annualized revenue. Worth watching: what happens when fintech infrastructure players start acting like VCs.
Only seven public B2B software companies are growing faster than 30%. In 2021, that was the median. Five years later, the median is the 90th percentile. If you are running a $200M ARR company at 18% growth, you are not behind: you are the peer set.