Hobart Startup - Biteable Raises $7m Series A

Biteable - an online video platform and template-based online video builder has raised a  $7 million Series A round making total raise to date $9m 

The Series A funding has been  led by Cloud Apps Capital Partners supporting seed investors Tank Stream Ventures and Justin Lipman of Microequities Venture Capital Fund. 

The money will be used to hire and continue to develop the product.

What is it 

Biteable is to video creation to what Squarespace, Wix is to website creation. 

It has a  sizable content library, which includes a combination of stock photography, stock video footage, and hundreds of animations and scenes. 

Biteable focuses on assets that companies use and reuse — like video explainers for a business, online marketing and ads, videos that appear on product pages, and more. Its videos also tend to be between 30 seconds and 3 and half minutes.

The People 

Biteable CEO Brent Chudoba, joined the company at the end of last year to support 

Hobart  co-founders - Tommy Fotak, Simon Westlake, and James MacGregor.

After helping companies create  explainer videos, they realised the opportunity in the video creation market to create a video builder product that simplified a lot of the decisions that needed to be made when making a video.

Chudoba more recently joined the company as a result of Biteable wanting to bring in a CEO with more experience growing freemium software productivity businesses. Prior to Biteable, Chudoba worked in private equity, was an early SurveyMonkey employee (CRO), and also spent time at PicMonkey (COO), Thrive Global (COO and CFO) and Calendly (Head of Business Operations).

Customers 

Already, Biteable has found individuals from companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Disney, Salesforce, BBC, Shopify and Samsung have used its service, though it doesn’t have any official contracts with these larger businesses.

Pricing 

Today, the startup generates revenue via a freemium business model that includes multiple subscription plans.

A free plan for individual users offers access to the suite of tools for video creation, including the 1.8 million pictures, clips, and animations within the Biteable library. However, free videos are watermarked with Biteable’s branding. 

A $19 per month plan for single users removes the watermark and allows you to add your own, and offers HD 1080p resolution and other features, like commercial usage rights. 

Professionals pay $49 per month for shared editing and projects and use by unlimited team members, and more. Custom pricing plans are also available.

Combined, Biteable’s free and paid users total over 6 million. They create around 100,000 unique videos per month, and that number had roughly doubled over the course of 2020.

Competition 

Vimeo, Canva, Adobe and others, but focuses on creating video assets that have more staying power than temporary social videos.

The Investor

Matt Holleran, General Partner at Cloud Apps Capital Partners, states about his investment:- 

“As a firm, we look for great businesses in high growth industries with excellent teams that we can help reach the next level. 

In Biteable, we see all three of those elements and are incredibly excited to partner with Brent and the Biteable team on this next chapter of growth,” 

Fintech - Go Cardless raises $90 million making total raise to date $240m

London-based fintech, GoCardless , Has raised a Series F of  $95 million Led By Bain Capital Ventures-making a total raise to date of $240 million  

Since launching in Australia and New Zealand GoCardless has seen significant traction current year-on-year (YOY) growth at 251 per cent. 

Hiroki Takeuchi, chief executive officer, and co-founder, GoCardless, says that this new funding round will enable the introduction of instant first payments to more than 2800 of its Australia And New Zealand Customers.

What Go Cardless does 

Go Cardless is a next-generation global bank debit network  enabling Merchants to make  and receive recurring payments and  instant open banking payments with visibility and speed. 

The platform  helps merchants with their  cash flow and minimizes churn by pulling funds automatically from payers-all at a lower cost than other cards. 

Australia Young Enterpreneur of the year award goes to GO1

The Entrepreneur Trailblazer  of the year award goes to the Sydney team at GO1 , which has scaled their online training business with the help of a $40m series C round from Seek, Microsoft and Salesforce!

GO1 helps connect companies and individuals globally to training programs ranging from coding courses to first aid. 

The Conpany created massive goodwill feom the likes of Qantas and Virgin, when they let staff use its platform free when the airlines were forced to stand down most of their workforces.

Square Peg’s latest $600 million investment brings fun to $1.4b

The Square Peg Melbourne team: Dan Krasnostein, Jenna Sheils, Paul Bassat, Leila Lee, and Ben Hensman. Photo: supplied

Square Peg Capital has closed its fourth fund, raising $600 million bringing total committed capital of $1.4b 

Investors in this round include  

Super funds HostPlus and AustralianSuper,  Commonwealth Bank and  Roc Partners.

Square Peg has had some big wins and to date has returned $570 million to investors.

The company’s investment portfolio started in 2012  with Upguard,  Airwallex, Canva, Athena, HealthMatch, Deputy, ROKT and Q-CTRL, alongside international Fiverr, Stripe, and FinAccel.

Paul Bassat told Startup Daily:- 

This is the time for founders of all backgrounds and experience and to reimagine the world that they want the next generation to inherit.”

There has never been a better time to be investing in the future of the technology ecosystem. The pandemic has proven that the way we work, learn and socialise needs a radical reimagining. 

It’s all about the culture - says Brian Chesky - who has just listed AirB&B for 100B

On Monday, October 21, 2013, Brian Chesky sent a letter to his team - which , I believe shows the framework of his success - why he had someone believe in investing $150k in his startup at a $1.5m valuation, why he got Peter Thiel  to invest $150m into his business , and why he has just been able to list at a $100 billion valuation! 

This was the just of his letter to his team 

Peter Thiel said to Brian who had just invested $150m into AirB&B when asked what the single most important piece of advice he had for the team 

He replied, “Don’t fuck up the culture.”

He said one of the reasons he invested in us was our culture. 

How could AirB&B defend, and actually build the culture. 

How many company CEOs are focused on culture above all else? Is it the metric they measure closest? Is it what they spend most of their hours on each week?

Culture is simply a shared way of doing something with passion.

The thing that will endure for 100 years, the way it has for most 100 year companies, is the culture. The culture is what creates the foundation for all future innovation. If you break the culture, you break the machine that creates your products.

So how do we build culture?

By upholding our core values in everything we do. 

Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. 

It’s living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall. We have the power, by living the values, to build the culture. 

We also have the power, by breaking the values, to fuck up the culture. Each one of us has this opportunity, this burden.

Why is culture so important to a business? Here is a simple way to frame it. The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs. 

When the culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do the right thing. 

People can be independent and autonomous. They can be entrepreneurial. 

And if we have a company that is entrepreneurial in spirit, we will be able to take our next “(wo)man on the moon” leap. Ever notice how families or tribes don’t require much process? 

That is because there is such a strong trust and culture that it supersedes any process. 

In organizations (or even in a society) where culture is weak, you need an abundance of heavy, precise rules and processes.

There are days when it’s easy to feel the pressure of our own growth expectations. Other days when we need to ship product. Others still where we are dealing with the latest government relations issue. It’s easy to get consumed by these. And they are all very important. 

But compared to culture, they are relatively short-term. These problems will come and go. 

But culture is forever.

Thank you Brian Chesky - and congrats on an amazing listing !!!

Boom 💥 is an understatement! 

Here is his article on medium Here is the link to Brian’s Article  https://link.medium.com/TSjyuOIQ7bb

Money pouring into startups in the land of Oz

Justin Lipman of Equity Venture Partners is excited to share the first close of their third fund of $50m 💥💥💥💥

EVP Fund III takes FUM to over $120m under management and caps a challenging but rewarding 2020. This fund, and Equity Venture Partners, is built on the shoulders of the amazing founders and startups that they have been lucky to support. 

Justin Lipman and his team of  Howard Leibman, Les Szekely, Daniel Szekely, Mark Velik, Britt Nabarro, Craig Butcher and Carlos Gil are rocking it!!!

OneVentures,  has just raised the first $75 million tranche of its fifth fund

 Square Peg Capital closed a $350 million tranche of a new fund in June, 

Blackbird Ventures also raised $500 million this year and Our Innovation Fund banked the first $60 million of its new fund.

There seems to be a lot of money looking for some good ideas and great teams!

Here’s to 2021!!!

Coviu raises $6m - poised for exponential growth

Chief executive and co-founder’s Silvia Pfeiffer - Coviu - a Telehealth startup - a CSIRO spinout - raises $6m led by Equity Venture Partners -after record growth from Covid-19.

The growth - a beneficiary of covid-19

It has grown  from having 400 video visits a day on its platform to 25,000 at the height of the crisis - it is achieving 13,000 to 14,000 consultations per day, with its team growing from  7 to 35 and revenue surging 11,553 per cent - enabling a decade worth of progress in a year.

This fast growth earned it second place in the Rising Star category of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards for 2020.

“COVID-19 has caused a fundamental shift in Australia’s healthcare system enabling a transition of Australian healthcare ‘overnight’ into a powerful, easy to use telehealth platform,” Phil Morle, of Main Sequence Ventures shared with the AFR 

What Coviu does 

Coviu is a platform enabling healthcare practitioners to conduct private video consultations with patients securely online. 

It allows healthcare providers to replicate essential business operations digitally, such as Medicare payments, triaging patients, giving prescriptions and a digital waiting room.

Who invested

Led  by Equity Venture Partners and Impact Investment Group's Giant Leap Fund, in addition to Main Sequence Ventures and medical investment group Medical Angels.

Equity Venture Partners investment director Daniel Szekely has joined Coviu’s board as a non-executive director.

Dr. Mian Bi, Lead Investor at Australian Medical Angels, said doctors were taking matters into their own hands by investing in technology that they believe to be critical for their futures. L, and Telehealth is a vital part of how we as a profession will meet the challenges of an ageing population and potential future pandemics.

The benefits and the future  

Dr Pfeiffer said that People have jumped on it, retained it and patients love the flexibility 

Pfeiffer believes telehealth is just the start of the digital health transformation, which will be centred on more home-based medicine, and we will be looking to do a further raise in 2 years time. 

Buildxact raises $6m for overseas expansion

The raise 

Construction technology start-up Buildxact has completed  a $6 million funding round, with Aconex co-founder Rob Phillpot (supported by Leigh Jasper leading the investment after the business recorded more than 140 per cent year-growth revenue since March.

What it does 

The business, which was founded in 2010 by John Allison, provides residential construction companies with quote estimating and job management subscription software.

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Buildxact CEO David Murray says the business has boomed in North America. 

Buildxact will use the funds to increase marketing spending and fuel its overseas expansion.

The secret sauce 

Social media marketing works 

"The Australian business has really taken off and the reason for that we believe is we spent a couple of years working hard to build our brand," he said.

"Now people on private Facebook pages are talking about us and people recognise the brand."

Booktopia lists at a 25% premium

Shares in Booktopia jumped 25% on the opening day of trade after a four-year ambition for founder and CEO Tony Nash came true.

The company (ASX: BKG) opened at $2.86, a 24% premium to the $2.30 issue price, when trade opened at 11am, before ending the day at $2.72 (+18.26%).

1% of the business is worth $3million 

The oversubscribed IPO raised $43.1 million for a market capitalisation of $315.8 million on the offer price. 

Nearly $18.1 million of the raise went to existing shareholders with $25.1 million allocated to growth through the company’s 14,000 sqm Sydney distribution, increasing stock and working capital, listing costs, employee shares and paying down debt. 

Booktopia’s listing is the latest twist in the 16-year history of the country’s largest Australian-owned online book retailer.

In February this year, before Covid-19 hit  Champ Ventures CEO  Su-Ming Wong and JBS Investments CEO John Sampson led a consortium of investors in a $20 million capital raise.

Those investors did quite well!

Since its inception, Booktopia Group has sold over 35.5 million items to more than 5 million customers across Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Nash said the Australian book and publishing market was in its strongest position in many years, with demand across numerous categories at record levels and major new releases, expected to drive sales right up to Christmas.