PHEME The Baseline Australian private market funding (venture), 2026 Q1–Q3

The signal beneath the headline

Australian private market funding (venture), year-to-date briefing

Three quarters into 2026, capital is going to fewer companies, concentrated in AI data centres, fintech and vertical enterprise software

Karen Chan and James Guo

Australian startups announced c.A$6.8bn in funding for the first three quarters of 2026, 2.7 times the same period one year earlier in 2025. Most of the funding sits in 18 rounds that each raised A$50M or more, representing 81% of total capital announced. Underneath the headline figures, rounds under A$50M together came to c.A$1.3bn across 153 rounds, versus A$1.2bn a year earlier. Funding concentrated in AI data centres and compute, which comprised 54% of the total, all of it raised by one company, Firmus.

01The highlights

The headline strengthened. The base narrowed.

Two markets, and two speeds. AI infrastructure on one side and everything else on the other. There was more concentration and fewer rounds.

1. The headline is AI infrastructure. Australian startups announced A$6.8bn in the first three quarters of 2026, 2.7 times the same period in 2025. AI data centres and compute comprised c.55% of the total, all of it raised by one company: Firmus, A$3.7bn across three rounds. The AI story is infrastructure, not the companies building on top of it.

2. Q3’26 was largely one financing. Firmus took c.80% of the quarter’s A$3.6bn. Outside Firmus, 57 rounds raised A$784M, and 47 of them were below A$20M.

3. Capital concentrated in the largest rounds. Eighteen rounds of A$50M or more took 81% of all capital announced. Below that threshold, A$1.3bn was raised across 153 rounds, against A$1.2bn across 176 rounds a year earlier (accelerator places included). Excluding Firmus, capital rose c.45% to A$3.1bn across 168 rounds.

4. Vertical software is the exception to concentration. A$519M spread across 39 companies, which is depth no other major sector has. Concentration from the top deal in major sectors is as follows: Fintech is c.65% (Airwallex), space and defence c.70% (Gilmour Space Technologies), cybersecurity c.75% (Upguard) and consumer c.85% (Lyka).

5. Fewer companies raised, and the median round rose. Based on our tracking, 164 companies raised in the period, against 181 a year earlier on the same basis. Leaving out accelerator places, the median round below A$50M was A$5.0M, against A$4.0M. This measures round size; a post-money valuation is held for about one round in ten.

6. Offshore investors are in many mid-sized rounds. 24 rounds fell between A$20M and A$50M, comprising A$721M, c.10% of the capital announced. Offshore investors appear in c.50% of rounds in the band, against c.25% of those below A$5.0M, accelerator places included. There are two readings: too few companies reach this band, or too few Australian funds can write cheques that size.

7. Rounds with a government investor totalled A$903M and most of it went to the “hard tech” sectors. There were 25 such rounds, comprising c.15% of all capital announced and c.30% outside Firmus. These are total round amounts; the government’s own cheques are only part of them. Such rounds accounted for c.85% of hardware, robotics and sensors capital and almost all of space and defence. The largest round led from Australia was Gilmour Space Technologies, co-led by the National Reconstruction Fund and Hostplus.

8. The exit and outcomes mix weakened. Sales of the company were c.50% of the 23 exits and outcomes, against c.70% of 19 in the same window of 2025, while insolvencies and wind-downs rose from c.25% to c.35%. Three floats completed: Sharon AI; and Koala, mostly a sell-down by existing holders; and Monvia. Firmus will be one to watch in late October.

02The quarter

2026 Q3: A$3.6bn announced, with Firmus taking c.80%

Headline capital rose on the strength of a single round.

A$3.6bnannounced in total

c.90%of it in five large rounds¹

A$391Min rounds below A$50M

Note: ¹ A large round is defined as a funding round where A$50M or more is raised.

Firmus' A$2.9bn is the largest of three rounds in the quarter above A$100M, ahead of Heidi Health at A$140M, and accounted for c.80% of the capital announced. Given the sheer size, the quarter is a description of one company. The round was backed by Coatue, Nvidia, Blackstone Tactical Opportunities (and other Blackstone vehicles) and Jane Street.

Excluding Firmus, the quarter comprised 57 rounds raising A$784M. Most were small: 47 of the 57 raised under A$20M, and at least 20 were seed or pre-seed, at a median of A$3.0M. Five rounds (including Firmus) cleared A$50M.

Firmus is easy to fixate on, but three climate and energy companies placed in the quarter's ten largest raises – Amber Electric at A$79M, Gridsight at A$36M and Jet Zero Australia at A$30M – and two of the ten were horizontal business software.

#	Company	Raised	Sector	Participating investors
1	Firmus AI data centre infrastructure	A$2.9bn	AI data centres and compute	Coatue, Nvidia, Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, Jane Street
2	Heidi Health AI medical scribe that records consultations and drafts clinical notes	A$140M	Healthtech	Blackbird lead, Phoenix Court, Point72 Private Investments, Headline
3	Future Secure AI AI co-workers that run back-office work for large organisations (company release, 30 Apr 2026)	A$112M	Horizontal business software	Macquarie Asset Management, Khuda, Square Peg, Yarra Capital Management, Firetrail
4	Amber Electric renewable energy retailer and home battery automation platform	A$79M	Climate and energy	1GT lead, ETF Partners, Breakthrough Victoria, E.ON
5	Constantinople "bank-in-a-box" platform for financial institutions	A$63M	Fintech	Airtree lead, Square Peg lead
6	HEO Robotics satellite imaging that inspects spacecraft in orbit	A$37M	Space and defence	Beaten Zone Venture Partners lead, National Reconstruction Fund, Dcode Capital, Airtree, Salus Ventures
7	Gridsight AI capacity-management platform for electricity distribution networks	A$36M	Climate and energy	Insight Partners lead, Galvanize, Airtree, Energy Transition Ventures, Aera VC
8	Jet Zero Australia sustainable aviation fuel producer (SAF Investor, 7 Sep 2026)	A$30M	Climate and energy	—
9	Farmbot agtech remote monitoring for farms	A$22M	Vertical enterprise software	Lewis & Clark Partners lead, Fulcrum Global Capital, Builders VC, Level VC, Cultiv8 Livestock Technology Fund, Macdoch Ventures
10	Buildkite continuous integration (CI) and pipeline orchestration platform for software teams	A$21M	Horizontal business software	Not disclosed

Note: The 10 largest raises in 2026 Q3. Ranked by round, so a company that raised twice appears twice. Investors are non-exhaustive – every investor our sources name is listed, and a round may carry others no article named. Leads are listed first, and marked where the source names the lead in so many words.

Figure 1.Capital by sector in 2026 Q3, and by the companies inside it

Note: Column width is the capital and each named band is one company, so a wide column drawn as one block is a sector that is really one company. In each column, one hatched Others band at the top holds the companies beyond the seven largest, and any too small to label where a column has more than three. It opens like any other band.

Firmus accounted for c.80% of the capital announced in the quarter. The headline moves with Firmus. The market beneath it moves separately. Based on our tracking, the remaining 57 rounds raised A$784M. Within that, the largest sector repeats the same shape: healthtech accounted for A$188M, c.25% of the remainder, and Heidi Health and Atmo Biosciences were c.80% of that.

03Year to date

Headline capital is 2.7 times the prior year

The funding increase reached the companies beneath the largest rounds. 18 rounds of A$50M or more accounted for c.80% of capital announced. Firmus alone took c.55% of the period total, across 3 rounds. Rounds below that line came to A$1.3bn in total, against A$1.2bn in the same span of 2025.
Fewer companies raised versus the same prior corresponding period. Those that were able to successfully raise ended up raising more on average. There were 153 rounds below A$50M, accelerator places included, against 176 a year earlier, while the typical round outside the largest is larger. On our reading this describes a narrowing funnel rather than a repricing. Investors are also demonstrating selectivity and willingness to concentrate capital into fewer names.
Capital is concentrating. The market has shown it can absorb large rounds, including from companies raising a larger size round for the first time. It is also concentrating on repeat raisers, who keep returning with the capacity to stay private for longer.

A$6.8bnannounced in total↑ c.175% vs 2025

c.80%of it in 18 large rounds²↑ 30pp vs 2025

A$1.3bnin all other rounds

164companies raised³181 in 2025

A$5.0Mtypical round, ex-large²↑ c.25% vs 2025

² A large round is defined as a funding round where A$50M or more is raised. Movement is against 2025 Q1–Q3, measured to the same day of the year in both.
³ Each company that raised in the period is counted once, however many times it raised. A venture round is counted once its amount is reported. Accelerator places are counted in every year, because a cohort cheque is a real investment on standard terms; where the programme states its standard cheque, each place is counted at that amount. Cohorts are announced in batches, so this count moves with the accelerator calendar as well as with the market. The typical round and the quartiles leave cohort places out in every year, since their cheques are not always published.

Rounds of A$50M or more move independently from those that are smaller. Headline capital is set by a handful of large rounds and is 2.7 times last year's; the capital reaching every other company grew, at A$1.3bn against A$1.2bn in the same span, across 153 rounds against 176.

Figure 2.Announced funding by quarter, split at A$50M²A$ billion

Capital in rounds below A$50M across the first three quarters of each year: A$1.0bn in 2024, A$1.2bn in 2025, A$1.3bn in 2026. The large rounds tell a different story: their share rose from c.55% to c.80% over the same three periods.

Note: ² A large round is defined as a funding round where A$50M or more is raised. Year-on-year compares the same period in both years.

Figure 3.Capital and deal count have trended independently since 2025⁴

164 companies raised, versus 181 a year earlier. The median round below A$50M was A$5.0M, versus A$4.0M. It should be noted that deal counts are a floor. Small rounds are the least reliably reported.

Note: ² A large round is defined as a funding round where A$50M or more is raised. ⁴ Year-on-year compares the same period in both years.

04Capital allocation

One company took c.55% of all capital announced in 2026 Q1–Q3

Counted by company – Firmus raised 3 times – five companies account for c.70% of the period. Take those five out and the remainder is still concentrated. The two largest raisers of the period are both pre-listing stories. Firmus has raised 3 times in the nine months to September at escalating valuations while signalling an ASX listing, and the April round was reported as its final private raise, yet a US$2bn round followed in August. Airwallex has taken the other path: Jack Zhang, its co-founder, said in January 2026 that no listing is planned before 2028, and its talk of being ‘IPO-ready’ is about preparedness more than an imminent listing. Between them these two companies are A$4.1bn of the A$6.8bn announced. Firmus is currently on track for an ASX listing and, if it succeeds, the single largest funding event in this dataset becomes the single largest liquidity event, and c.55% of the period’s headline capital will have been a pre-IPO financing.

Firmus raised 3 times in 2026 Q1–Q3 – A$2.9bn, A$725M, A$100M. Together A$3.7bn. This chart groups a company's rounds together, as the sector chart does, so one company is one block. Measured as separate financings the largest single round is A$2.9bn, c.40% of the period.

Figure 4.2026 Q1–Q3 capital, by the companies that raised it²

Firmus raised A$3.7bn of the A$6.8bn announced, c.55%. The five companies that raised the most took A$4.7bn; the other 159 companies shared A$2.2bn. At this distribution the total describes a handful of financings.

Note: ² A large round is defined as a funding round where A$50M or more is raised. ⁴ Year-on-year compares the same period in both years.

Figure 5.Inside that last block: 12 more companies that raised A$50M or more, then everything else

A further 12 companies raised A$50M or more in total, worth A$902M between them. They are c.15% of the period and were invisible in the bar above. Below them, 147 companies, c.90% of all companies, shared A$1.3bn: c.20% of the period.

Note: ² A large round is defined as a funding round where A$50M or more is raised. ⁴ Year-on-year compares the same period in both years.

Figure 6.2026 Q1–Q3: share of all capital held by the largest companies²Cumulative, largest first, of A$6.8bn announced

Beyond the first five companies, each adds little. The five largest hold c.70% of the period, and the next fifteen add c.15%.

Note: ² A large round is defined as a funding round where A$50M or more is raised. ⁴ Year-on-year compares the same period in both years.

Figure 7.Share of capital held by the largest rounds⁵Same period of each year

Concentration has tightened on both measures: the largest 5 rounds and the largest quarter of rounds. The largest 5 rounds went from c.30% of the period to c.65%, and the largest quarter from c.80% to c.90%. The largest quarter of rounds has always taken most of the capital. What has changed is the amount that now sits in five of them.

Note: ⁵ Rounds are ranked by size. The largest quarter is the largest 25% of rounds by count, rounded down, and the smallest quarter the smallest 25%. Both hold the same number of rounds, so what changes between years is how much capital each group receives; only rounds with a disclosed amount are ranked, with accelerator places left out in every year, because a round with no amount would sit in the bottom group at zero and pull its share and average down. ² A large round is defined as a funding round where A$50M or more is raised. ⁴ Year-on-year compares the same period in both years.

Figure 8.Share of capital reaching the smallest rounds⁵Same period of each year

Rounds below the median now take c.3% of the capital, against c.5% two years ago. In dollars these rounds went from A$127M to A$203M; the share fell because everything above them grew faster.

05Sector allocation

Capital is concentrated in AI data centres and compute, fintech and vertical enterprise software

AI data centres and compute accounts for c.55% of the funding for the period. Excluding this, the remaining A$3.1bn goes to fintech at c.20%, vertical enterprise software at c.15%, hardware, robotics and sensors at c.15%, healthtech at c.10% and space and defence at c.10%.

Figure 9. Capital by sector, as reported and with the largest one and two companies removed

Two companies took c.60% of the period. Firmus and Airwallex account for 2 of 164 companies and A$4.1bn of A$6.8bn, across c.2% of the deals. Excluding Firmus, fintech leads at A$689M. Excluding Airwallex as well, the largest sector is vertical enterprise software at A$519M, held across 39 companies.

For all the talk of a SaaS reckoning, vertical enterprise software has more depth than any other major sector – A$519M spread across 39 companies. The contrast is with sectors carried by one company or one backer: Airwallex is c.65% of fintech, Gilmour Space Technologies c.70% of space and defence, Upguard c.75% of cybersecurity, Lyka c.85% of consumer, and Advanced Navigation plus five National Reconstruction Fund-backed rounds together c.80% of hardware, robotics and sensors.

Software is still the volume story, even in the earliest rounds. Business software accounts for 13 of the 22 Pre-seed rounds (c.60%) and 10 of the 29 Seed rounds (c.35%), with vertical enterprise software the biggest single bucket across the two stages (12 rounds). Hardware and robotics, and space and defence, weigh more in dollars than in deals at Seed: four rounds, c.20% of Seed capital, at an average of A$8.1M against A$5.4M for the stage, reflecting the capital those sectors need.

Note: Vertical enterprise software is software built for a single industry such as construction, legal, agriculture or logistics. Horizontal business software is software that can be used across multiple industries, such as CRM, analytics, workflow or HR. Sector is read from the company's description against a keyword list, with a visible override file for what the keywords get wrong. All 11 sectors. N = 164 companies across 171 rounds. Average deal size is taken over rounds with a disclosed amount, accelerator places left out, the basis of every size figure here.

Figure 10.Capital by sector, and by the companies inside it

AI data centres and compute is the mirror image of vertical enterprise software. The former is A$3.7bn in one company while the latter raised A$519M across 39. Column width is the capital, and each named band is one company.

Note: Where a band is too small to carry its name, a numbered indicator sits on the column and the name and amount are given in the key beneath the chart. Sectors too small to read as a column are grouped as Other sectors and named beneath the chart. In each column, one hatched Others band at the top holds the companies beyond the seven largest, and any too small to label where a column has more than three. It opens like any other band.

Figure 11.Capital participation in AI infrastructure versus AI applicationsc.65% of the capital we can score went to a company that builds or sells AI. c.85% of it is infrastructure

c.65% of the capital we can score went into AI, and c.85% of that into the infrastructure underneath it. Outside AI, capital concentrates in fintech at A$687M, hardware, robotics and sensors at A$366M and vertical enterprise software at A$346M.

Note: Shares are of all 171 rounds, A$6.8bn: every round carries a description and is scored.

What counts as an AI application. The company’s own description says it sells AI: 58 rounds, A$707M. A further 10 rounds, A$235M, are AI-enabled: AI appears only in a source calling an established product “AI-powered”, so they count in the wide share and not the narrow one. Both are published: c.20–25% narrow, c.30% wide.

The call that moves this most. Airwallex is tagged not AI: we tag what a company sells, and it sells fintech. Counted as an AI application the share excluding infrastructure moves from 23% to 38%.

Figure 12.What the capital not counted as AI went toA$2.4bn across 108 rounds, by sector

Fintech is the largest non-AI sector at A$687M, and c.65% of that is one company.

Note: Rounds not counted as selling AI, including the AI-enabled rounds, which the narrow AI share leaves out, by the sector each company is already filed under in this report. A sector appears here only for the part of it that is not AI, so these figures are smaller than the sector table above and do not replace it.

06Investors

Australian investors hold c.80% of seats in rounds under A$5M and c.50% in rounds above A$50M

173 Australian and 122 international investors were named across the period. Australian firms hold the majority of classified seats at every round size, and a falling majority as rounds grow.

The following applies to the three exhibits in this section. An appearance is one investor in one round. It counts the same whether the cheque was A$500k or A$200M, because the announcement record does not carry cheque sizes. These exhibits measure presence, not capital deployed and not returns. Rounds led are not shown: a lead is stated for roughly two-thirds of rounds, so ranking on leads would rank firms by how their rounds were written up.

Figure 13.All 15 investors appearing in 4 or more rounds are Australian firms

Airtree appears in 12 rounds and Main Sequence in 11, more than any other investor outside the accelerators. 112 of 122 international investors appear exactly once in the period.

Note: Accelerators are excluded from this ranking and shown separately below, and so is Aussie Angels, a syndicate. Where the last places tie, the whole tie is left out.

Figure 14.Accelerators are the most active backers

An accelerator appears more often than any venture firm. The cohort model places many companies at a cheque size well below a typical venture round. Accordingly, we have excluded accelerators from Figure 13.

Note: Accelerators are separated because a cohort programme takes many small positions by design.

Figure 15.The larger the round, the more of its investors are offshore

The Australian share of investor seats falls from c.80% to c.50% as rounds get larger.

Note: Each share is Australian seats as a proportion of seats whose domicile we hold.

The two largest rounds with a named lead were led from offshore. Coatue led Firmus' A$725M round and Addition led Airwallex's A$460M, with Hummingbird and QED Investors among the participants; Octopus Ventures and Movac co-led AutoGrab's A$80M. The largest round with an Australian lead was Gilmour Space Technologies at A$217M, co-led by the National Reconstruction Fund and Hostplus.

07Exits and outcomes

More of the events were closures

23 exits and outcomes in 2026, against 19 in the same window of 2025. Insolvencies and wind-downs were 8 of them (c.35%), against 5 (c.25%).

Funding and exits describe two different cohorts. The rounds counted in this briefing were raised in 2026; our funding data, which starts in 2024, holds a raise for only 9 of the 23 companies in this ledger.

23exits and outcomes↑ c.20% vs 2025

8/23insolvencies and wind-downs↑ 10pp vs 2025

3completed floats: 2 on the ASX, 1 on Nasdaq

House of digital healthcare brands Eucalyptus produced the window’s marquee venture exit: a trade sale to NYSE-listed Hims & Hers, completed 2 June 2026. The headline is up to US$1.15bn (c.A$1.6bn); about US$240M was paid in cash at completion, with the balance deferred over 18 months and an earn-out running to early 2029. Headline and proceeds are not the same number. For local venture, it is the clearest demonstration this year of an Australian-built company becoming an attractive target for a global buyer.

Canva was the most frequent acquirer in our observed exits. Of the 23 events in the window, 11 were sales of the company; Canva bought two of them (Doohly and Ortto), and Australian buyers took 5 of the 11. This could reflect several things: buying is proving more attractive than building, and the sector is reaching the maturity where scale and balance sheet allow a dedicated corporate development strategy.

IPO activity remains limited, but with significant anticipation for one of Australia’s largest IPOs yet, Firmus. Two domestic floats completed: distinctive furniture business Koala, where c.70% of the A$68.1M raised went to existing holders selling down and Monvia, a A$17.5M raise for a life-insurance software business. The same window of 2025 produced one, Tetratherix. Offshore, Australian-built neocloud Sharon AI priced a US$125M Nasdaq IPO in February 2026, reached via a December 2025 SPAC merger, an unconventional path. It came soon after a US$100M convertible note in December 2025, another example of investor interest in neoclouds. The neocloud theme will soon be tested on the ASX as Firmus pushes towards its A$7bn (US$5bn) IPO raise at a targeted A$43.7bn market capitalisation. The textbook approach says elevated yields crush a long-duration asset, and a data-centre play is about as long-duration as equity gets. Yet Firmus is valued as if the discount rate did not apply, because its buyers are not buying distant cash flows. They are buying scarcity and a structural AI demand story, where the growth assumption overrides the discount rate, and on the ASX there is no other pure AI-infrastructure story to rotate into. The pressure lands on the debt side, as data centres are capital- and debt-hungry, so the rate conversation may show up as scrutiny of the funding plan rather than a discount on the equity book. Underneath this is a story of execution: build on time and the halo is validated; slip, and a refinancing wall arrives. The tell that the halo is doing the work is the move from a c.A$15bn valuation in August to c.A$45bn on the IPO term sheet two months later. Despite all the focus on Firmus, a trade sale remains the base case for most Australian private company exits, with an IPO an alternative pathway.

US IPOs show a selective window, not a broad growth reset. The 2026 US IPO market is open, though not equally to every kind of growth company. The clearest pattern is in AI hardware and infrastructure, space and defence, energy, and a separate biotech cohort. Our read is that investors are more willing to fund exposure to those themes than to underwrite a broad return of venture-backed software. Even then, the US window is cautious on the debt-fuelled AI boom: Anthropic has reportedly moved its listing to November, and OpenAI’s chief executive has told staff to expect one within the next year. Volatility has concentrated in the AI trade; the VIX, the broad market's gauge, stood at 14.3 on 3 September, well below its long-run average of about 20. For Australia the sector distinction matters: Sharon AI already sits in the favoured lane, and Firmus’s upcoming IPO sits closer to those themes than a generic growth company does. Whether it gets away, and whether it is an attractive investment, remain different questions.

There were many unexpected outcomes for high-profile venture-backed companies. Logistics tech company Sendle, which had raised more than A$100M, was liquidated in February 2026, weeks after an abrupt closure. Regtech Grow Inc, which closed a A$66.5M Series D in 2024 and raised a further A$40M in January 2026, agreed a sale to MUFG Pension & Market Services in August 2026. Expert360, the freelance-consulting marketplace, sold to US-based Swipejobs for a reported A$16M, a deal that may be an early warning of AI’s threat to the consulting economy. The implication is that cash burners either need to keep raising or get to profitability, and an exit needs to be read against the liquidation waterfall.

Figure 16.Exits and outcomes, 2025 versus 20261 January to 30 September, both years

Two years, two different mixes. In 2025, 13 of 19 events were sales (c.70%), 1 was a float and 5 ended in insolvency or wind-down (c.25%). In 2026, 11 of 23 were sales (c.50%), 3 were floats, 1 was a stake sale and 8 ended in insolvency or wind-down (c.35%). The count of events is a poor guide to the health of the market that produces them; the composition is the read.

Note: An exit is an event in which the institutional investors in an Australian company that was not listed beforehand get their money out, or get a market to sell into: a sale of the whole company, a sale of a stake where a source shows an institutional investor sold, or a first listing on a major exchange (ASX, Nasdaq, NYSE or LSE), counted at first quotation whether or not investors sell at the float. Institutional means a venture, growth or private-equity fund, or a corporate or government investor; angels, crowdfunding or private wealth alone do not qualify. Founder-only sales, sales by a controlling private-equity owner, take-privates of listed companies and secondary sales are not exits. An outcome is a closure of such a company: an administration, liquidation or wind-down. The ledger counts both as events.

The exits that did not happen. This is where the exit ledger meets the funding data. Firmus and Airwallex, the two largest raisers in this briefing at A$3.7bn and A$460M, took c.60% of the period’s capital between them and appear nowhere in the ledger above.

Company	Type	Counterparty	Announced	Value stated	Backers named
Clipboard School administration software	trade sale	Compass Education	27 Jan	undisclosed	Jelix Ventures, EVP
AlgoDriven Automotive data and AI	trade sale	Emergence Software	12 Feb	undisclosed	500 Global, Global Ventures, Oman Technology Fund, DTEC Ventures, Social Capital, Automotive Ventures, Oraseya Capital
Sharon AI GPU cloud and AI compute infrastructure (neocloud)	float	Nasdaq: SHAZ	18 Feb	undisclosed	Regal, Ellerston Capital, Canva
Eucalyptus Telehealth, behind Juniper, Pilot and Kin	trade sale	Hims & Hers Health	19 Feb	A$1.6bn	Blackbird, Airtree, W23, OneVentures, Athletic Ventures, BOND
Sendle Parcel delivery for small business	liquidation	–	27 Feb	n/a	Federation Asset Management, Touch Ventures
Advanced Navigation Navigation and positioning systems for air, land, sea and space	stake sale	–	18 Mar	undisclosed	OIF Ventures
Doohly Digital out-of-home adtech	trade sale	Canva	25 Mar	A$30M	Skalata, Archangel Ventures
Koala Mattress and furniture e-commerce	float	ASX: KOA	31 Mar	A$305M	Alium Capital, Perennial
Twine AI conversation analysis that turns sales calls into insights	trade sale	SafetyCulture	7 Apr	undisclosed	Airtree
Ortto Customer data and marketing automation	trade sale	Canva	8 Apr	undisclosed	Blackbird, Salesforce Ventures, Rembrandt Venture Partners
The Mintable Management training platform	trade sale	Humankind	11 May	undisclosed	Blackbird
AgriWebb Livestock management and supply-chain data platform for beef producers	trade sale	URUS Group	18 May	undisclosed	Grosvenor Food & AgTech, Germin8 Ventures, Telus Ventures, Munters Group
Spoony Social app for disabled and neurodivergent users	wind-down	–	31 May	n/a	Antler
Ultra Commerce Enterprise ecommerce software platform	administration	–	2 Jun	n/a	Alium Capital, Perennial
Goterra Insect processing of food waste	administration	–	3 Jun	n/a	Grok Ventures, Rampersand, Giant Leap, CAGES Foundation, Tenacious Ventures, Investible, Main Sequence
Carbon280 Hydrogen storage technology (Hydrilyte liquid carrier)	administration	–	10 Jun	n/a	Woodside Energy, Hive Energy
Hall Brand visibility inside AI assistants	trade sale	Tracksuit	21 Jul	undisclosed	Blackbird
Monvia Life insurance policy administration software	float	ASX: MNV	24 Jul	A$104M	Tidal Opportunities, Microequities Asset Management, Ellerston Capital
Academy Xi Digital skills and career-change training	liquidation	–	28 Jul	n/a	Alium Capital, Giant Leap, Pangaea Impact Investments, Perle Ventures, Milford Asset Management
Stralis Aircraft Hydrogen-electric aircraft	wind-down	–	19 Aug	n/a	Y Combinator, Liquid 2 Ventures, Collab Capital
Grow Inc Superannuation administration technology	trade sale	MUFG Pension & Market Services	28 Aug	undisclosed	Five V Capital, Hitachi Ventures
Expert360 White-collar talent marketplace for consultants, board advisors and fractional executives	trade sale	Swipejobs	3 Sep	A$16M	Airtree, Rampersand, Hyper Capital Startups, Perennial, UniSuper, Frontier Ventures
RedEarth Energy Storage Home and business batteries	administration	–	25 Sep	n/a	Ord Minnett Private Opportunities Fund, Perennial, Thorney, Queensland Business Development Fund

Note: All 23 events, in announcement order. A value appears where a party to the deal stated one or a news report gave one, a range at its midpoint; for a float it is the valuation at listing, and a closure shows n/a. Exits and outcomes are defined in the note to the figure above.

Source: Startup Daily and SmartCompany; acquirer and seller announcements; PHEME analysis

Policy watch, as at 30 September 2026. The 2026–27 Budget proposed replacing the 50% capital gains tax discount with inflation indexation of the cost base and a minimum 30% tax on gains, from 1 July 2027. That measure is now law, with Royal Assent on 26 June 2026. A consultation on capital gains tax arrangements for innovative start-ups closed on 10 July, and exposure draft legislation for the resulting Innovative Business CGT Concession was released on 11 September, with consultation closing on 28 September. For this dataset the changes matter in two places: the after-tax outcome of the exits tracked here, and the incentive to fund early-stage companies. Neither is visible in the 2026 Q1–Q3 figures.

08The read

More capital does not yet point to a broader recovery.

Australian private markets have shown they can fund large rounds. They have not yet shown a broad recovery in access to capital.

In the first three quarters of 2026, 18 rounds took 81% of announced funding, while capital in rounds below A$50M rose to A$1.3bn across fewer rounds. Our reading is a narrower funding market, with more capital available to the companies that get through it.

What this means

For investors, the headline is a poor benchmark for the opportunity set. Sector totals need to be read alongside the companies carrying them:
- AI data centres and compute is really one company.
- Vertical enterprise software spans 39 companies.
- Offshore participation rises with round size.
For founders, a stronger headline is not evidence that the next raise will be easier, and many raises are never announced. Financing plans should be built around the investors able to fund the company’s stage and capital needs. The exit evidence also argues against treating an IPO as the default. Trade sales remain the main observed route, and the selective US listing window does not establish an equivalent opening for every Australian growth company.
For LPs and allocators, money going into companies must be kept separate from money coming back. The funding and exit series cover different cohorts, so they cannot be read as a measure of conversion or fund performance. The count of exits and outcomes says little on its own, and the mix is weaker, with more closures. The questions are liquidity, concentration and the time needed to realise investments, and fundraising volume alone does not answer them.

What we will be watching

Whether funding broadens below A$50M, with more companies raising, or remains a larger total carried by a few repeat raisers.
Whether the mid-sized funding band deepens, and whether Australian investors participate more often. The current data cannot distinguish a shortage of companies reaching that band from a shortage of domestic funds able to finance them.
Whether funding translates into liquidity. Firmus’ upcoming float is a test to watch; it is not yet a completed exit. A successful listing and an attractive investment remain different questions. The mix of trade sales, floats and closures matters more than the event count.
How the CGT changes due from 1 July 2027, and the proposed Innovative Business CGT Concession, affect early-stage investment incentives and after-tax exit outcomes. Those effects are not visible in this period’s data.

This is a baseline of publicly announced activity. It is not a census of the market: small rounds are less reliably reported, undisclosed amounts leave dollar totals incomplete, and valuations are too sparse to establish repricing. The next test is whether access to capital and realised liquidity broaden beyond the companies driving today’s headline.

09Editors

Karen Chan

Private markets and crossover investor, adviser and board director. Previously a portfolio manager at Perennial and head of emerging companies at Investec, running venture capital and private growth investment. Earlier an M&A adviser, lawyer and investment banker at JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley. Australian Investment Council board member.

James Guo

Engineer, operator and investor across public and private markets. Previously head of strategy at eBay ANZ, leading a three-year enterprise transformation. Earlier in corporate strategy and diligence at Bain & Company, covering FMCG, financial services, technology and private equity. Founder of Megaptera Labs, an AI transformation lab.

Missing from this report? If The Baseline has missed your company's round, or has it wrong, tell us and we will correct it in the next edition. Write to us at hello@pheme.com.au.

Appendix

A1Methodology

Where the data comes from, and what it covers


1. Data source	Startup Daily and SmartCompany, with accelerator cohort listings and company and investor announcements.
2. What is included	Announced equity rounds into Australian companies not quoted on a public exchange, and the exits and outcomes of such companies. A company is Australian when it was founded here, is headquartered here, or was founded overseas by an Australian. Grants, debt and secondary sales are not counted as funding rounds.
3. How the data is checked	Every round is traced to the article that reported it, and rounds of A$50M or more are checked against a second source where one is open to read, usually the company’s or an investor’s own announcement. Automated checks recompute the figures before every release. Corrections are recorded with their reason and source in the data pack.
4. Disclaimer	The Baseline is compiled from publicly available sources: media reports and company and investor announcements. Amounts raised, valuations, investors and dates are as those sources report them, and none is independently audited. Headline figures may differ from realised proceeds or outcomes, and reported information may be incomplete or later corrected by the source. This is general information only and not financial product advice. It does not take account of any reader’s objectives, financial situation or needs, and nothing in it is an offer or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to its accuracy, completeness or currency and, to the maximum extent permitted by law, no liability is accepted for loss arising from reliance on it. The editors may hold interests in companies or funds named here.
5. Corrections	If you believe something here is inaccurate or incomplete, write to hello@pheme.com.au and it will be corrected in the next edition.

A2Data limitations and classifications

What the totals leave out, and how the data is sorted


1. Undisclosed amounts	A round that does not say how much it raised still counts as a round. It adds nothing to the dollar totals, so they may be lower than what was actually raised.
2. Instruments	Only new equity is counted. Convertible notes count as equity. Debt is left out, and so are shares sold by existing holders. Where a source does not separate new equity from debt or from shares sold by existing holders, the whole round is counted.
3. Investor domicile	A firm is Australian if it is headquartered in Australia, and offshore if it is headquartered overseas. An individual investor is placed by nationality.