Cheque-in: 5 startups that raised $95.45 million this week

Vaxxas: $49.2 million

Needle-free vaccination delivery scaleup Vaxxas has raised $49.2 million in a Series D, but cut 10% of its workforce, including a clear-out of its executives.

The University of Queensland spin-out has moved founding CEO David Hoey, who’s been on leave for the past three months, into a strategic adviser role after 13 years at the helm, and made CFO Doug Cubbin redundant amid the loss of around 15 staff.

The $49.2 million Series D, at a $805 million valuation, is believed to have fallen short of the Brisbane biotech’s ambitions, and has been topped up with a $40 million debt facility, while additional commitments are under discussion for further investment.

The raise was led by SPRIM Global Investments, the venture arm of global life sciences firm SPRIM, supported by new investor LGT Crestone as well as existing backers OneVentures and Brandon Capital-Hostplus.

New Vaxxas chair Sarah Meibusch from OneVentures lauded the raise in what she described as a very difficult market for biotech. Meibusch replaced retired director and colleague Paul Kelly, who had led the board since Vaxxas was founded in 2011.

“This result underscores the confidence that leading investors have in Vaxxas’ disruptive technology and the progress the team has made toward scaling up and commercialisation,” she said.

“Coupled with our sharp focus on commercialisation, this funding provides Vaxxas with a runway into the second half of 2027 as we focus on bringing our technology to market.”

Read more on Startup Daily.

Skutopia: $38 million

Logistics startup Skutopia has raised $38 million to further scale its automated micro-fulfilment centres for retailers.

The funding round was led by private equity firm Pemba Capital and reportedly values the seven-year-old business at around $100 million.

MA Financial and Blackpeak Growth Partners also backed Skutopia in the raise, which is mostly comprised of equity investment with a portion of debt funding.

The business, which was founded by Emily Townsend and Talea Bader, has previously raised a total of $12 million in funding, including $2.75 million in 2021.

Townsend and Bader originally founded a co-working business called Workit, which provided office space for smaller e-commerce companies outside of major CBDs. However, they soon discovered these retailers also needed help with fulfilment costs and inefficiencies.

The Skutopia warehouses use robotics and software to handle most of the picking, packing and shipping of items, with a small team overseeing these operations.

Skutopia plans to direct the new funding towards rolling out more facilities in Australia and expanding into the US.

Read more at SmartCompany.

Send Payments: $5 million

Cross-border payments fintech Send Payments has raised $5 million as co-founder Paul Billing steps down as CEO.

Existing backers Regal Funds Management and Kelly+Partners Investment Office once again invested, with iPartners joining the cap table.

The new funding is for continued development of the platform and its ability to turn cross-border payments into new revenue streams for Send’s enterprise partners.

Meanwhile, payments industry veteran Matt Barr has signed on as CEO, after a 25-year career at the likes of Australian Payments Plus, eftpos, Mastercard, Telstra and Bank of New Zealand.

Billing has stepped away from Send’s operational side for personal reasons.

Barr said the new investment is validation of the strength of Send’s offering.

“The growth Send has experienced to date is nothing short of incredible,” he said.

“The cross-border payments landscape is rife with complexity and risk, especially for enterprise businesses looking to embed international payments into their existing offering. Send has managed to simplify the whole process with intuitive, scalable and secure technology solutions that seamlessly integrate into existing systems.”

Read more here. 

Apate.ai: $2.5 million

Cyber-intelligence startup Apate.ai, a countermeasure to Australia’s $2 billion scam industry, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding.

The round was led by OIF Ventures with participation from Investible.

The funds are for product development and international expansion, including hiring engineering and go-to-market teams, as well as expanding its partnerships with financial institutions, telcos, and governments both in Australia and key international markets.

Apate.ai was founded last year as a spin-out from Macquarie University. The startup has developed thousands of cutting-edge conversational AI bots that engage scammers across voice calls and messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram and SMS.

Last month, Apate.ai announced a partnership with CommBank to create AI-powered “victim bots” to engage with scammers and waste their time, while also gathering intelligence and data.

The close-to-real-time scam threat intelligence is used by CommBank to safeguard both customers and the wider community.

The bots simulate realistic conversations – right down to swearing and Aussie slang – to divert, distract, and gather critical intelligence scammers, turning those tactics against them.

Read more here.

Coursebox: $750,000

Perth-based ed-tech startup Coursebox has secured a $750,000 seed investment from local VC fund Purpose Ventures, marking a pivotal step in its mission to simplify and supercharge course creation with AI.

Founded by educational designer Travis Clapp and marketer Alex Hey, Coursebox has developed an AI‑powered tool to let organisations generate fully compliant and engaging training courses in minutes.

“Our mission is simple: to become the world’s easiest way to create and deliver engaging courses – globally, in any language, for any learner,” said Coursebox CEO Travis Clapp.

“This investment allows us to accelerate that mission by equipping HR teams, training providers, and learning designers with tools to turn knowledge into ready-to-deliver training.

“Partnering with a founder-focused fund like Purpose Ventures gives us the backing to scale faster while staying true to that.”

Since its launch in mid-2023, Coursebox has attracted over 100,000 sign-ups from more than 180 countries, with about 90% of its sales stemming from organic SEO traffic.

A 2024 graduate of Western Australia’s Plus Eight accelerator, Coursebox is becoming a standout example of the state’s growing innovation ecosystem. The platform already counts international clients, including German company TeamWorks, and strong Australian users like Academy Xi and Grower Group Alliance.

Read more here. 

This post first appeared on Smart Company. You can read the original here.