Nuheara - a company you will hear a lot about

Nuheara was founded by Justin Miller and David Cannington , and have developed  IQbuds  - an advanced hearing device which boasts the likes of noise cancellation and advanced hearing capabilities.

Justin who had hearing loss in one ear was fed up with every conversation feeling like a chore, and hearing aids seemed too extreme; there had to be an answer. As a result, the concept of IQbuds was born.

IQbuds² MAX gives the wearer complete control over sounds by offering active noise cancellation and sonic accuracy, with the average sales price being $417.

ASX listed Nuheara (NUH) is commercialising this product and has seen a 543 per cent growth in invoiced quarterly revenue for Q1 FY21of it’s IQbuds.

A few wins in the September quarter 

• it has received its ISO 9001:2015 quality certification, 
• It has negotiated a contract to develop an audio product with HP. 
• The National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom will include the company's IQbuds BOOST.

International sales now account for more than 85 per cent of all orders received with 50 per cent from the United States, 17 per cent from Australia and New Zealand, and Asia, and 7 per cent from the United Kingdom.

Justin and the team at Nuheara are on the path of fulfilling his mission of producing affordable and accessible intelligent hearing alternatives to those in need just like himself.

Justin’s hope is one day, you’ll be able to walk into a store, get your ears tested, and walk out with a solution—just like buying a pair of glasses.

A company to watch 

Start Up- Waddle exits to Xero for &80 million

WADDLE CO-FOUNDERS NATHAN ANDREW AND SIMON CREIGHTON. SOURCE: SUPPLIED.

Sydney-based fintech Waddle is set to be acquired by Xero for $80 million

What is Waddle 

Waddle, Founded in 2014 by Nathan Andrews and Simon Creighton, is a cloud-based lending platform designed to help small businesses access working capital. It’s effectively online invoice factoring .

The tech integrates with a business’ accountancy platforms and offers a line of credit based on their own invoices.

In 2018, the startup secured a $50 million wholesale debt facility, and in March last year, it raised $4 million in Series A funding.

In July 2019, just months after its Series A, Waddle announced a partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland Group in the UK, making the bank one of the first big banks, globally, to offer clients and automated working capital solution.

The six-month pilot project alone saw more than 400 client applications in the UK, and more than £10 million ($18.2 million) in funds loaned.

As of July last year, the startup had facilitated a total of more than $200 million in loans, and had a client base in the hundreds of thousands.

The Deal

Waddle has been an integrated Xero ecosystem partner since 2016, and Xero is looking to acquire it for $80million. 

It seems that this will be a win win win 

The transaction is subject to closing conditions and is likely to be completed by the end of the year.

COVID-19 has created an amazing opportunity for Australia

“Seen as Covid safe” and a stable, innovative place, Advance CEO Maria MacNamara said Australia has the "single greatest opportunity" to lure back highly-skilled workers the country needed - fuelling the innovation system and economy in an unprecedented way.

Case in point :- 

Hannah Durack - an Ozzie expat living  in New York and working at the Mellon Foundation managing a $75m business - returned for family reasons - covid struck - and is excited about staying in Oz - 

Hannah's story is repeated as almost 400,000 Australians return from abroad during the pandemic.

Overseas travel has increased from 2m per annum to 12m and at any one stage - there are 1m Ozzies luving abroad 

Challenge 

Unfortunately many returning expats are  still looking for work, and their experience reflected an uncomfortable truth: returned expats overwhelmingly struggle in their careers upon return.

“Establishing a local professional network and breaking into the Australian business community” said  Ms MacNamara said.

Opportunity and Government support 

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said that

we are positioning Oz as a stable and attractive investment destination - specifically in the high growth areas of advanced manufacturing, financial services, and health.

"With one in 10 jobs already supported by foreign direct investment, boosting investment and getting more global businesses to set up shop here will help drive more jobs and opportunities for Australians."

This will give high growth scale-ups, that are looking to international market access to people with global experience,

A new taskforce it says will operate like a "strike team" to "turbocharge" the economy and headhunt individuals and companies that would be a good fit.

Conclusion 

The 20’s  is a great time to be in Australia 🇦🇺 

We need to work together and find a way to channel this amazing resource to continue to build up Australia and to continue to be known as “the lucky country”.

Source :- the abc https://amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/12654606