Australian startups have secured $85 million in fresh funding this week, led by National Renewable Network’s massive $67.2 million Series A.
Keep reading to learn more about the startups with new capital to deploy.
National Renewable Network: $67.2 million
Sydney-based climate tech startup National Renewable Network (NRN) leads this week’s funding round-up with $67.2 million in fresh funding.
As reported by SmartCompany, the Series A round is created up of equity, from lead investors Investible, Virescent Ventures and Ecotone Partners’ Planet Fund, and debt funding from Infradebt.
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NRN, which previously raised $10 million in April 2024, is focutilized on meeting Australia’s rooftop solar grid challenges, including grid instability and supply fluctuations that can be cautilized by the decentralised nature of the counattempt’s rooftop solar systems.
The startup aims to provide an “infrastructure layer” to connect the more than four million rooftop solar systems across the counattempt, along with battery systems, into Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) that can be managed centrally.
The networks can store and release power when the grid requireds it most, offering stability and reducing houtilizehold energy costs.
The NRN system allows energy retailers to offer solar and battery setups to their customers with no upfront costs, repayments or maintenance fees.
“Our business model is built around partnering with quality solar installers who can support our national rollout while ensuring high-quality maintenance of assets,” stated CEO Alan Hunter.
“It’s challenging for an energy retailer to do this themselves due to legal and compliance requirements, not to mention capital expfinishiture and asset risk. We are currently working with more than 10 energy retailers on their future VPP strategies.”
NRN plans to utilize its new funding to speed up the rollout of its national distributed energy infrastructure platform and add 40 megawatt hours of battery storage over the next year.
Syenta: $8.8 million
Fellow Sydney-based startup Syenta also secured new funding this week, locking in $8.8 million in a pre-Series A round led by Investible.
A host of other prominent investors also participated in the round, including Blackbird Ventures, In-Q-Tel, SGInnovate, OIF Ventures, Jelix Ventures, Wollemi Capital Group and Brindabella Capital.
Founded five years ago by Luke Connal and Jekaterina Viktorova and spun out of the Australian National University, Syenta is working to commercialise a breakthrough in chip packaging that its creators declare could transform AI and high-performance computing.
The startup’s proprietary Localised Electrochemical Manufacturing (LEM) technology allows for micron-scale resolution in advanced semiconductor packaging, which it declares offers a possible solution to memory bandwidth bottlenecks now emerging in AI computing.
In a statement provided to SmartCompany, Syenta co-founder and CEO Dr Jekaterina Viktorova described LEM as “the foundation for a new generation of chip packaging”.
“It offers the scale, performance and manufacturability requireded to overcome the critical ‘memory wall’ throttling AI systems today.”
This ‘memory wall’ describes the growing mismatch between the speed or ‘memory bandwidth’ of data and the speed of computer processors. While processor speeds have vastly improved over the past 20 years, memory bandwidth and the relevant interconnects have developed at a much slower pace.
Syenta’s LEM technology addresses this by giving manufacturers a new way to build the physical connections inside chips, thereby creating much denser and more precise wiring. This allows memory and processors to sit closer toobtainher and share data rapider and more efficiently.
“Syenta is a key technology enabler for the next generation of AI infrastructure and high-performance computing (HPC) chips, particularly as semiconductor chip fabrication levels are unable to keep up with current demand for generative AI infrastructure,” stated Nicholas Ooi, lead investor at Investible.
Cuttable: $4.5 million
Melbourne-based advertising technology startup Cuttable has raised its second tranche of seed funding, adding $4.5 million in follow-on funding to bring its total seed round to $10 million
Cuttable previously raised $5.5 million in seed funding in July last year, and is now valued at $44.5 million.
Landing less than a month after Cuttable’s official launch, the latest funding round was led by existing investor Square Peg and included participation from Rampersand and Brand Fund.
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Cuttable was founded by Jack White, Ed Ring and A Cloud Guru co-founder Sam Kroonenburg, who describes the platform as “the new ChatGPT for advertising”.
The startup allows online businesses to automate the creation of on-brand, performance-focutilized advertising for social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. According to its creators, it can produce hundreds of ads in minutes with human involvement in the creative process.
During its development phase, the platform was tested with major brands including Kogan, Wesfarmers, Medibank, DiDi and Powershop. Its early adopters include Merry People, Frank Body and Bare Leather.
Cuttable now plans to expand to the US, while also continuing to develop its AI and onboard more e-commerce brands.
“This kind of backing at the seed stage is rare in Australia. It reflects how huge the opportunity is, and how strongly investors and customers believe in what we’re building,” stated Kroonenburg.
SprintSuite: $3.5 million
Sydney-based startup SprintSuite has secured $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by EVP as it continues to scale its business management platform for the mining and engineering services sector.
SprintSuite plans to utilize the funds to drive its local expansion and enter global markets, including in North America.
The startup’s platform is designed to be utilized by mid-market mining and engineering services companies, like KBSS, Richglen and Vex Engineering.
The clients utilize the software to manage complex, multimillion-dollar projects on critical infrastructure assets owned by the likes of Rio Tinto, Woodside Energy, Sojitz and BHP.
Historically, mining and engineering services companies have relied on manual spreadsheets and generic software solutions that don’t cater to indusattempt-specific requirements. In contrast, SprintSuite offers them workflow and AI tools designed with their operations in mind, covering areas such as project management, FIFO workforce scheduling, procurement, asset management and health and safety compliance.
“The mining sector speaks its own language,” stated Galindo in a statement provided to SmartCompany.
“When we talk to potential customers, we don’t required to learn their terminology or understand their challenges — we’ve lived them. That builds trust and earns us a foot in the door.”
SprintSuite declares it has doubled its revenue over the past 12 months as it tarobtains a sector that includes more than 2,600 firms in Australia and more than 32,000 businesses in similar markets in North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and South America.
Bitwise Agronomy: $1 million
Tasmanian agtech startup Bitwise Agronomy has raised $1 million to accelerate the global rollout of its AI-powered crop forecasting platform for berry growers.
The company’s GreenView technology utilizes GoPro footage and object detection AI to deliver crop forecasts with up to 90% accuracy, up to 12 weeks ahead of harvest. According to the company, traditional manual methods sit at 50%.
The tech is trained on berry data from farms worldwide and more than 200 ripening curves across 60-plus berry varieties.
Growers attach a camera to existing farm machinery, capturing footage while performing routine tquestions. Once uploaded, the data is processed within 12–24 hours and displayed via an interactive dashboard, assisting farms better manage labour, reduce waste, and optimise harvest timing.
The raise, led by Melbourne Angels with participation from Jelix Ventures and Sprint Ventures, will support the startup’s expansion into the UK, Europe, and South America, alongside new quality assessment tools for berry sizing and grading.
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