Four Australian startups that raised $44.6 million this week

This week’s funding segment features startups building fintech, agtech and data analytics solutions.

Read on to learn more about four Australian startups that collectively raised $44.6 million this week.

Exchange: $35 million

Credit and payments fintech Shift is leading the funding round this week with a $35 million Series D funding round.

The round was led by venture capital firm Peak XV Partners, formerly known as Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia, and also included participation from other existing investors.

Peak XV Partners previously led Shift’s $27 million Series C round in early 2023.

Shift was founded by CEO Jamie Osborn in 2014 under its previous name Get Capital, and the fintech reached the Smart50 list of Australia’s fastest growing SMEs in 2016 and 2018.

The Series B financing follows a $230 million asset-backed securitization completed by the company in May 2024.

“We started in 2014 with the belief that SMEs were largely underserved by traditional funding models,” Osborn said in a statement this week.

“After ten years, we’ve helped solve credit and payment problems for more than 25,000 companies, providing more than $3.5 billion in aggregate funding.”

Osborn said the new funding will allow Shift to further invest in its proprietary data models and platforms, which are designed to “deliver better lending decisions and a vastly improved customer experience for Australian businesses and our commercial broker network “.

“We will continue to focus on growth in a profitable and sustainable manner, while effectively managing risk for our debt investors and delivering a strong return for our shareholders,” he added.

Inform Ag: $7 million

Queensland agtech startup Inform Ag has raised its first outside capital after 12 years of bootstrapping, locking up $7 million in a Series A round led by Rural Funds Group.

Inform Ag was founded in 2012 by Jennie Savill to develop technology solutions for farmers and agribusiness to help those companies become more efficient, reduce costs and improve data-driven decision-making.

The funding is allocated to support the company’s continued expansion efforts and technology development, and to strengthen its customer support functions.

“The business is and has already been profitable in itself. Funds raised are considered sufficient to accelerate growth, with profits from which will then be largely reinvested reducing the need for further short-term raises and creating added value for the existing set of investors,” Steve Lockyer, managing director of Inform Ag, said SmartCompany earlier this week.

Inform Ag aims for growth at home and globally. In Australia, it focuses on areas such as Sunraysia, the NSW Riverina, the South Australian Riverland, the Adelaide and North Queensland wine regions.

Globally, it looks at the key horticultural growing regions of Southern California, Florida and Washington state in the US.

Read more.

Cropify: $2 million

South Australian agtech AI startup Cropify has secured $2 million in funding in a round backed by Australia-based VC Mandalay Venture Partners and Singapore-based Hatcher+.

Mandalay and Hatcher+ contributed $850,000 to the funding round, their first joint investment in a new partnership that was announced this week.

The two funds said in a statement that they are working together to “accelerate the growth of startups focused on farm-to-fork solutions.” This will include on-farm technologies, farm gate solutions, supply chain innovations and point-of-sale advances.

Founded in 2019 by Anna Falkiner and Andrew Hannon, Cropify uses AI to improve the accuracy and efficiency of grain sorting.

The Cropify system is designed to be used by growers, bulk grain handlers and traders to grade or grade flea samples in an accurate way that is both objective and repeatable.

It promises improved efficiency in the sector, leading to cost savings as well as more sustainable processes that reduce CO2 emissions and plastic use.

The startup previously received a grant from the Australian Machine Learning Institute and funding from the South Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development AgTech Growth Fund.

Read more.

WhyHive: $600,000

Data analytics startup WhyHive has raised $600,000 in funding in a pre-seed round that includes three prominent Australian tech founders.

They include Alex Zaccaria, co-founder of Linktree, Dom Pym of Up Bank and Jon Williams, co-founder of Culture Amp and Pyn.

They joined forces with Skalata Ventures, who led the overwriting round for the Melbourne startup.

Billing itself as the “Canva for data,” WhyHive’s goal is to make “data analysis easy enough for anyone.”

The WhyHive app allows users to upload data from surveys, sales, product reviews or spreadsheets and then perform simple and quick analytical tasks for free.

The startup was founded by T Guthrie and Matt Cohen, who developed the idea while running a social enterprise data consultancy together.

It’s already used by ABC, Share the Dignity and founders like Ally Watson, CEO of Code Like A Girl.

“Businesses are drowning in data, but very few have a way to analyze it,” WhyHive co-founder T Guthrie said in a statement provided to him. SmartCompany.

“It’s too hard, too time-consuming, or too expensive. What if we built a tool that could do the most common analysis tasks and do them very easily?”

Investor Dom Pym said he is backing the startup because he believes in its mission.

“We love that they want to democratize data exploration for everyone, helping to grow the entire ecosystem,” he said in the same statement.

Never miss a story: sign up to SmartCompany free daily newsletter and find our best stories LinkedIn.