Ignition Lane

Business advisory with a Startup Mindset.

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

This Month In Venture with @gavinappel and I are back - and the market is moving fast 💨

Like always we unpack the biggest stories shaping venture, startups, small business, capital, tech and the global innovation economy.

Locally, we cover: Federal Budget, proposed CGT changes and the founder backlash
@CutThroughVenture Q1 data showing $1.8B invested across 81 deals and 26 accelerator rounds
@SidestageVC securing $40M for its second fund @airtreevc Partner @eliciakmcdonald stepping into the CEO role @JoshFrydenberg joining @airwallex as a formal adviser
Catch Group brothers looking to revive Click Frenzy
Zip Co losing its High Court trademark dispute
Fishburners entering voluntary administration
@Atlassian stock soaring after strong cloud and data centre growth
@Uber Australia revenue jumping to $14.5B

Globally, we cover: @Google huge VC wins across @AnthropicAI and @SpaceX @nvidia marching past US$5T Google overtaking @Apple in market value Apple, @Microsoft and @amazon in the Big Tech race Anthropic’s growth and SpaceX compute partnership
SpaceX’s rumoured IPO @xai future inside the broader SpaceX ecosystem

https://t.co/O3l7Bbm96p closing after 25 years
Ask Jeeves LLC marking the end of another dot-com era

Money. People. Meltdowns. Obsessions. Big bets. That’s venture. That’s business. That’s the month that was.

Watch This Month In Venture 📺👇

[Gavin Appel @gavinappel]

Could be our best vlog to date 🍿

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

March in venture was absolute chaos.

AI is accelerating faster than anyone predicted.
Markets are reacting in real time.
Australia’s startup ecosystem just had one of its biggest months in years.
A few things that stood out 👇
🇦🇺 Local wins:

UpGuard raised $105M
Fluent Commerce secured $46M

Affinda doubled to a $220M valuation
Advanced Navigation became Australia’s latest unicorn
$250M raised to fund growth-stage tech loans
But the market is anything but linear.
📉 Techstars Sydney shuts down
📉 Major CEO shake-ups
📉 Tech stocks getting hit hard
📈 Stripe up to $159B
📈 Canva still holding at $60B

And then AI…

OpenAI raises one of the biggest private rounds in history.
Anthropic goes from $1B ARR to $19B in just 14 months and is now opening in Sydney.
This is no longer “what’s next”.
This is what’s happening right now.
Meanwhile Canva keeps quietly compounding:

$4B+ annualised revenue
265M monthly active users
24B AI tool uses
2 fresh acquisitions

March didn’t just move fast.
It changed the tempo.

@gavinappel and I unpack it all in this month’s venture vlog.

The pace is wild.
The opportunities are bigger.
The gap between builders and watchers is widening.
Watch here 👇
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#Startups #AI #VentureCapital #Canva #OpenAI #TechNews #Australia #venture

[Gavin Appel @gavinappel]

The first vlog for 2026 is live! 🎥 🍿 👇

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

This month on In Venture, @gavinappel and I step into 2026 like it’s Game 7. From December through mid-February, the scoreboard is flashing.

💰Funding Is Back
🤑VCs Sitting On Dry Powder EVP
🚀 Tesla invests
🏃People Moves

The game has changed. The serious players stayed on court.

Tune in 🎯

[Gavin Appel @gavinappel]

What began as a simple vlog on startup and VC news has now hit 50 episodes full of tech stories, insights, and plenty of fun. Thanks to everyone who tunes in each month and shares their thoughts. Here’s to the next 50!

[Gavin Appel @gavinappel]

The month's fly by and we are back again! This is a huge episode packed full of startup and VC news for you 👇👇👇

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

Wild 24 hours in tech. @gavinappel and I are covering it all

@AmazonWebServices went down last night and the kids went bananas. No @Snapchat . Total internet blackout.

While the world rebooted, the business world delivered its own shake-ups:

Closures

@GreatWrap - sustainable packaging startup collapses owing $39m after raising $20m+.

@carted - once a $13m seed rocket in e-commerce, shutting down after 4 years.

@ANZ_AU 1835i - the bank’s venture arm is over. Airwallex stake sold, CashRewards shut, doors closing.

Big Valuations

@MorseMicro - raises $88m, valued at $500m. Backed by MegaChips, Blackbird, Main Sequence.

@HeidiHealth - Melbourne healthtech raises US$65m ($98m AUD) hitting a US$465m valuation, fastest growth ever in @blackbird portfolio.

Big Deals

@Atlassian - US$1B acquisition of DX, weeks after buying The Browser Company (another near-$1B).

@Sekuro - acquired by Nasdaq-listed Insight Enterprises, following CyberCX’s $1B+ Accenture deal.

@OpenAI - secondary share sale worth US$6.6B at a US$500B valuation, now the world’s largest startup.

@nvidia - $100B into OpenAI for data centres, $5B into Intel, $2B into xAI. The $4.4T monster just keeps feeding.

Big Milestones

@instagram hits 3B monthly users.

Winklevoss twins’ @GeminiCrypto exchange lands in Australia.

@Tesla rolls out FSD + new Model 3 & Y Standard.

@netflix passes $500B market cap. If you’re scrolling tonight, The Playlist (Spotify’s origin story) is worth a watch.

[Gavin Appel @gavinappel]

A huge number of tech stories from the past month covered in just over 9 minutes 👇🎥🍿

[Gavin Appel @gavinappel]

Latest vlog is live 👇

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

🚨 From AI overload to cattle-tech unicorns 🐮💰

@gavinappel and I are here with your July startup + tech wrap:

@canva gives staff a week to upskill in AI

@Tesla robotaxis are live

@halterHQ hits $1B with cow collars

@figma IPO incoming

@Xero drops $4B on Melio

VC is tough, but funds are forming

Wild times. Stay building.
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#startups #AI #technews #ausbiz #AI #Startups #TechNews #VentureCapital #AUSbiz #Innovation #Canva #Tesla #Figma #Xero #UnicornStartups #CowTech #Musk #Fintech #IPO #Entrepreneurship #AustralianStartups #DeepTech #Robotaxi #SmartGlasses @CreativeCubesCo @IgnitionLane @Jason

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

@gavinappel and I are covering the biggest biz + tech moves 🚀

Hold onto your socks — this month has been WILD 👇
🛰️ Space
@GilmourSpace had to postpone their historic launch — safety first! They'll be back, no doubt.

📈 Scaleups on FIRE
Heidi Health just flew past @canva + @leonardoai to become the fastest-growing startup in Blackbird’s history – $23M rev in year one!

@airwallex just casually hit $800M ARR. Power moves.

💸 Money, Money, Money
@airwallex also bagged US$300M Series F at a spicy $6.2B valuation

@Eatclub_ gobbled up $18M to help restaurants fill last-minute tables

@Ambercharged up with $45M to take renewable energy global ⚡

Tracksuit (yep, that’s a startup) raised $38M at a $400M val to give your marketing superpowers

🎓 VC Vibes
@unisuperfund topped up Uniseed by $25M to fuel Aussie research

Unicorn founders from Go1, A Cloud Guru, Aconex launched @GlitchCapital — a $50M VC to shake things up 🦄

💥 Mega Deals
@AWSstartups pumping $20B into Aussie data centres 🇦🇺

@WiseTechGlobal buying e2open for $3.25B — Aussie muscle overseas 💪

@OpenAI buying Jony Ive + Sam Altman’s startup in a $6.5B all-stock deal — wild

@neuralink raised $650M at $9B val after Elon’s gov gig ended... then beefed with Trump... then made up. Classic Elon.

🚗 Self-Driving Buzz
@Waymo hits 10M paid rides

Tesla Robotaxi launches next week — strap in

📱 App of the Month

@WhatsApp FINALLY launched an i#Pad app. Took long enough!

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

This Month In Venture Is Now Live With @gavinappel from @IgnitionLane 👇

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

@gavinappel and I bring you the Q1 2025: Hype, Headlines & a Billion-Dollar Plot Twist

The VC world just dropped the mic 🎤

✔️ $1B+ deployed across 100 deals — strongest Q1 since the 2022 tech peak
✔️ 5 of Australia’s 11 richest? Tech founders. Combined wealth: $88B
✔️ @canva launched Visual Suite 2.0 — taking on Excel with design swagger
✔️ @OpenAI raised $40B. Yes, billion. Biggest PE round in history
✔️ @Google dropped US$32B on Wiz — Israel’s largest tech exit ever
✔️ @stripe 's still king of fintech. Patrick Collison now on Meta’s board
✔️ @StrongRoomAI raised $17M then hit admin — all in under 2 weeks
✔️ @AthleticVentures, @Qantas , @Airbus & @sydneyunisfc launch new Aussie funds

The startup world never sleeps — and sometimes it flips the script fast.
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#Startups #VentureCapital #TechNews #Canva #OpenAI #Stripe #Founders #AustralianStartups #Q1Report #VCFunding #AthleticVentures #ClimateTech #Fintech #Scaleups #Innovation #FounderLife #LukeAnear #CanvaCreate #Meta #StrongRoomAI #Wiz #Musk #xAI #SydneyStartups #GlobalTech

[Gavin Appel @gavinappel]

We are back with a superb vlog opener ( ⏰ ) and closer ( 🏀 ) by @TobiSkovron. Catch up on the startup and tech news you need to know in <8 minutes now 👇 🍿 🎥

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

The biggest moves in tech, startups, and money—packed into one epic vlog with @gavinappel and I!

��� Capital Raises: AI-powered real estate, fintech unicorns, pharmacy software startups—millions are flowing, and we break it all down!

💥 Exits & Shake-ups: @Zendesk $100M deal, @Telstra VC exit, @Atlassian leadership shifts, and the *official* end of Skype!

💳 FinTech Frenzy: @stripe $14T payments surge, @Klarna IPO play—who’s winning the money game?

⚡ @Tesla Drama: Musk, DOGE, and Trump’s new ride—yes, really.

🏎️ F1 x Startups: Tech startups everywhere on the F1 grid. Atlassian, @airwallex , @CultureAmp making moves in motorsport?

Get in, buckle up, and hit play—this month’s vlog is unmissable! 🎬 👇

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

@gavinappel and I back at it bringing you the biggest stories in #tech, #startups & #VC

The past two months have been massive! From #AI dominance to data centres heating up, here’s what you need to know 👇

[Gavin Appel @gavinappel]

Final vlog for 2024 with some @CreativeCubesCo breaking news from @TobiSkovron included 👇 🎥

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

Post:
@gavinappel and I are covering the Biggest VC & Startup Highlights from Mid-November to Mid-December 2024

👇get around it 🙌

#VentureCapital #Startups #TechInnovation #FundingNews #SaaS #GrowthStage #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #IPO #AustraliaTech #GlobalTech #WomenInTech

[Tobi Skovron @TobiSkovron]

🚀 October-November 2024: Big Moves, Big News 🌏

Here’s your quick hit of the month’s biggest stories from @gavinappel and I:

💸 Kiwi Cap Raise Blitz
@Alimetry_Ltd : $27M for gut health wearables.
@CrimsonEducation: NZ$67M Series D.
@Auror: $72M, now valued at $500M+.
Just Fund: $86M to fund divorces, crossing $100M in credit lines.

🛑 Not All Raises Are Rosy
@Equitise & @HIVERYai hit administration.

👥 People on the Move
Anthony Eisen (@afterpay_au ) steps down; Nick Molnar leads sales at @Block .
Dany Milham returns as Koala CEO.
@canva hires Zoom’s CFO for IPO prep.
@elonmusk now co-leads a government department (because, of course).

🤖 Robots & Rivalries
@Tesla, @zoox , and @Waymo battle it out in the robotaxi race.
@OpenAI ChatGPT pivots to search engines—@Google, watch out.

🚀 To the Moon
@GilmourSpace cleared to launch Aussie rockets, taking on @SpaceX .

Who’s winning this month? Let’s hear your take! 👇
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#StartupNews #TechInnovation #FundingRound #LeadershipChanges #Robotics #SpaceTech #CapRaises #FutureOfWork #Disruption #Entrepreneurship #AutonomousVehicles #RocketLaunch #AI #TechLeadership #GrowthMindset #BusinessTrends