From zero to $2.5 billion in 20 years.

It was 20 years ago when Luke Anear started SafetyCulture in his garage  in Townsville and is now stepping down as CEO as it looks to list, after raising $165m in September last year!

What Safetyculture does 

After numerous jobs Luke saw the l impact workplace incidents had on businesses and their employees, and built a simple checklist app for workplace inspections to help reduce hazards and accidents. 

SafetyCulture has since grown into an all-in-one workplace operations platform, serving nearly 2 million customers globally and targeting 100 million users by 2032. 

Its software is predominantly used by frontline workers across construction, manufacturing, hospitality and retail.

Luke will remain  SafetyCulture’s largest shareholder and owns just under a quarter of the company.

Luke’s huge shows will be filled by  Kelly Vohs, who will be based in the USA ahead of a listing! 

Support by the greats 

Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht , Blackbird partner Rick Baker , Atlassian Scott Farquhar and Kell Reilly of Airtree are among Luke’s inner circle.

The Safety Culture Growth Path 

SafetyCulture has doubled in size in the last 2 years - having  85,000 businesses and close to 2 million users around the world using its platform!! Luke believes that Kelly has what it takes to get to 100m users 

Another game changer -  started in Australia 

See more https://bsivc.blogspot.com/2024/09/safetyculture-hits-home-run-with-airtree.html

Mesoblast is looking to get FDA approval for Ryonci!

This is pretty exciting !! 

I have recently  invested in Mesoblast (AsX :MSB) - after listening to a great panel discussion with Sarah Murdoch and 3 panelists talking about how medicine is going to change over the next 5 years with the development and x fertilisation of stem, crispr and  AI .

This is what made me invest:- 

Cell therapy company Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) has entered into a convertible note subscription agreement with its largest shareholder, Gregory George, to issue up to US$50 million convertible notes at its discretion.

The issue of the convertible notes is linked to the US

FDA's approval of Mesoblast's lead product candidate, Ryonci (remestemcel-L), for the treatment of children with steroid-refractory acute graft versus host disease (SR-aGHD).

The company said the funding will enable it to implement its go-to-market commercial strategy.It said it expects a decision before or on the FDA's Prescription Drug User Fee Act goal date of 7 January, 2025.

Mesoblast chief executive Silviu Itescu said: "We appreciate the ongoing support from our major shareholder in ensuring that the Company is well capitalised for commercial product launch and can hit the ground running immediately following approval of RYONCIL by FDA."

Mesoblast chief executive Silviu Itescu said: "We appreciate the ongoing support from our major shareholder in ensuring that the Company is well capitalised for commercial product launch and can hit the ground running immediately following approval of RYONCIL by FDA."

Mesoblast said its go-to-market strategy includes hiring senior executives, market access, medical education, and ongoing engagement with key opinion leaders.

https://biotechdispatch.com.au/news/mesoblast-option-to-issue-up-to-us50-million-convertible-notes-for-product-launch

VCs don’t fund great ideas

Great post by Kayode Odeleye

This is something else I wish I knew when i started 

I hear founders say “we’ve validated the idea and built MVP, we just need money to scale”

Hmm… you’ll be waiting a long time 

VCs fund two things and two things only:

1️⃣ Pedigree: name recognition say by exiting a previous company or leadership team of big tech

2️⃣ Out of this world growth and traction. Ideally, combination of user growth and revenue 

Founders, what did you have to do to finance your scaling process?

Luvin the #referron journey 

A kinde of unicorn in the making!!

Ivan kaye and Tanya Rose Kaye - Chief of Staff at Kinde

Kind  is about being constantly curious, nimble, and experimental - and total focus on servicing both customers and all stakeholders - says Ross Chaldecott from Kinde !

So what does Kinde do? 🤔

Says Tanya Kaye 

We’re a developer tool, on a mission to make SaaS product development as seamless as possible.

SaaS products typically require:

-  authentication - a way for users to sign into their product

- user management - ability to assign roles within the product eg admin versus team member

- feature flagging - gating of features for users on various plans, and 

- billing - ability to charge users for their use of their product. 

Until now, every new SaaS company needs to buy or build their software infrastructure in a fragmented way - taking developer time and resources and resulting in a labyrinth of integrations under the hood.

We believe that software infrastructure underpinning every SaaS product should be seamlessly integrated together - to unlock the powerful analytics that become enabled when you bring these pieces together and to accelerate SaaS development.

Right now, we're providing authentication, as the first pillar of our software infrastructure platform. We have a way to go to achieve our broader product vision (it turns out that building beautiful, stable, secure infrastructure takes time 😜) but we are very excited.

#SaaS #DeveloperTools #authentication

Celebrating Innovation: Congrats to The Australian's 2024 Top 100 Innovators

Congratulations to the brilliant minds behind The Australian's 2024 Top 100 Innovators. 

This year's list showcases an inspiring range of pioneers across medicine, healthcare, energy, technology, e-commerce, art, and more. 

Each of these leaders has pushed the boundaries of innovation, transforming industries and creating real impact in Australia and beyond.

From life-saving advancements in healthcare to groundbreaking developments in AI, energy sustainability, and digital technologies, these innovators represent the bold, ambitious spirit that drives progress. 

They are at the cutting edge of innovation   - solving complex challenges, improving lives, and shaping a better future for all of us.

A few notable mentions from this year’s list include:

• Lydia O'Donnell and Esther Keown, co-founders of Femmi, have created the world’s first running app that tracks menstrual cycles and provides tailored training advice, transforming women's health in sports.
• Farzaneh Ahmadi of Laronix, whose work in voice-cloning technology gives a voice back to those who have lost theirs.
• Mark Waller and Jingjing Guo, co-founders of Pending AI, who are using AI to revolutionize drug discovery and development, significantly speeding up the process.
• Bevan Slattery, founder of NEXTDC, a leader in the data center space, continues to drive digital infrastructure growth both in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Celebrating Pioneers Across Industries -making waves in the tech and social impact spaces:

• Michelle Deaker, founding partner of OneVentures, who has been instrumental in financing transformative healthcare and tech innovations, accelerating their growth and real-world impact.

• Adam McCurdie and Joshua Ross, co-founders of Humanitix, a revolutionary event ticketing platform where 100% of profits go toward educational projects. Their social enterprise model is a shining example of how business can drive positive change in the world.

• Michael Biercuk, founder of Q-CTRL, whose work in quantum computing is improving the stability and functionality of quantum technology. His AI software is helping industries like biotechnology, logistics, and cybersecurity harness the power of quantum.

To all 100 innovators, your work is inspiring the next generation of innovators  focussed on changing the world for the better. 

Thanks for inspiring and helping our world be  brighter, more sustainable, and more equitable for all

#innovation #leadership #technology #entrepreneurship #sustainability #top100innovators #theaustralian #healthcare #AI #startups #australiainnovation #OneVentures #Humanitix #QCTRL

Here is a categorized list of names and their companies from The Australian's 2024 Top 100 Innovators:

Medicine & Healthcare

1. Lydia O’Donnell - Femmi
2. Kavita Nadan - Locumate
3. Farzaneh Ahmadi - Laronix
4. John Fraser, Kristy Short, Arutha Kulasinghe - University of Queensland
5. Mark Waller, Jingjing Guo - Pending AI
6. Daniel Timms - BiVACOR
7. Alison Todd, Elisa Mokany - SpeeDx
8. Doug Ward - Lumos Diagnostics
9. Hugh Paterson, Michael Vallely, Paul Bannon, Ashish Mitra - Sydney Heart Valve
10. Grace Brown - Andromeda
11. Hon Weng Chong - Cortical Labs
12. Paul Ekert, Chelsea Mayoh - Children’s Cancer Institute
13. Tom Oxley, Nicholas Opie - Synchronon
14. Alex Naoumidis, Chris Naoumidis - Mindset Health
15. Kai Van Lieshout, Linus Talacko - Lyrebird Health
16. Aiden Roberts, Will Pamment - SimConverse
17. David Hoey - Vaxxas
18. Peter Vranes, Hitesh Mehta - Nutromics
19. Santosh Verghese, Rhys Parker - SA Health
20. Scott Kirkland, Stuart Crozier - EMVision

Art & Design

1. Jeremiah Siemianow, Brandon Crimmins, Alan Jin - Surreal
2. Ward Williams, Thananjeyan Shanmuganathan - Seminal
3. James Cuda - Procreate

Energy

1. William Jeremijenko, Ruby Jones - Aquila
2. Daniel Danilatos - Neara
3. Dean Spaccavento - Reposit Power
4. Christiaan Jordaan, Drew Minett - Sicona
5. Lewis Dunnigan - Bygen
6. Chris King - Splend
7. Raj Bagri - Kapture
8. Lisa Marsh - Elumina
9. Andrew Birch, Adam Pryor - OpenSolar
10. Dan Adams, Chris Thompson - Amber Electric
11. Paul Sernia, Sarbjit Giddey - Endua
12. Bex Rempel, Neil Mans - ZeroJet
13. Pete Tickler, Fabian Le Gay Brereton - GridCog

Fintech & Finance

1. Ada Guan - Rich Data Co
2. Michelle Deaker - OneVentures
3. Spiro Rokos, Paul Weingarth - Slyp
4. Alex Badran, Mario Hasanakos - Spriggy

Software & Tech

1. Keaton Okkonen - Black.ai
2. Todd Ryall - Tantsissa
3. Geoff Sizer - Genesys Electronics Design
4. Amy Benson - Diolog
5. Marc Washbourne - ReadyTech
6. Prem Naraindas - Katonic.ai
7. Michelle Simmons - Silicon Quantum Computing
8. Thom Mackey - Atticus
9. Numa Bertron, Zac Duff - JigSpace
10. Michael Biercuk - Q-CTRL
11. Aengus Tran - Harrison.ai
12. Dave Elkan, Nick Muldoon - Easy Agile
13. Mark Hartmann - Snapi

Manufacturing

1. Adam Jones - CLT Toolbox
2. Eric Peck, Joshua Tepper - Swoop Aero
3. Charlie McGill, Shaun Oosthuizen, Huanting Wang - ElectraLith
4. Amanda Siqueira, Michelle Aguilar - VAPAR
5. Bevan Slattery - NEXTDC
6. Jekaterina Viktorova, Luke Connal - Syenta
7. Dave Budge - Jaunt Motors
8. Kyle Hardman, Christian Freier, Paul Wigley - Nomad Atomics
9. Heba Khamis - Contactile

Retail & E-commerce

1. Danielle Johansen - Threadicated
2. Adam McCurdie, Joshua Ross - Humanitix
3. Hannon Comazzetto - AirRobe
4. Zac Leigh, Jason Webb, Denis Mysenko - Tixel

Space

1. Chris Shaw - Advanced Navigation
2. Peter Schultz, James Schultz, Patrick Neumann - Neumann Space
3. Michael Smart, David Waterhouse - Hypersonix
4. Matt Ryall, Dominik Daners - Mawson Rovers
5. Will Crowe, Hiranya Jayakody - HEO Robotics

Cybersecurity

1. Rachael Greaves, Gavin McKay - Castlepoint Systems
2. Michelle Price - Consultant (formerly AustCyber)
3. Ashwin Ram - Check Point Software
4. Shantanu Kulkarni, Tim Thacker, Tony Mao - Nullify
5. Dali Kaafar - Apate.ai
6. Casey Ellis - Bugcrowd

Travel

1. Justin Hales - Camplify
2. Marlon Law, Nathan Sampimon - Riparide

Food & Agriculture

1. Remo Carbone - MEQ Solutions
2. Jan Pacas - All G Foods

Impact

1. Barb Hyman - Sapia.ai
2. Sarah Jones - Sydney School of Entrepreneurship
3. Jodi Geddes, Kate Pollard - Circle In
4. Colette Grgic - Amazon Web Services (AWS)

For the full Australian article please click here 

Dr Michelle Deaker’s One Ventures has been recognised by her peers as fund of the year in 2024

2 legend of Australian Venture Capital Michelle Deaker and Larry Marshall chat as Michelle’s OneVentures Team is recognized by her peers as Fund of the Year, and was recognised as one of Australia’s top 100 innovators by the Australian 

Dr Michelle Deaker had the courage & determination to build her own VC firm during the GFC of 2008 and her team is now raising their 7th fund!! 

Larry says it’s a testament to the power of the Aussie entrepreneur, the power of thinking and being different, and why the best VCs start as entrepreneurs and live the pain and the joy of their investees. 

One Ventures vision was and still is, to empower innovators whose breakthroughs have the potential to transform industries and improve lives on a global scale.

Congratulations to all the Innovators recognised as the top 100 innovators of the year  Complete list here 

https://shorturl.at/d0aGV

Andy Kuper celebrates a massive success with Leapfrog

Another win for Australian Innovation on the global stage!!

President Clinton launched LeapFrog in 2008, inspired by the Profit with Purpose mission, and their ambition to change markets and 25 million lives. 

 

This year, as Andy Kuper  joined Clinton  and two dozen presidents, governors and chief executives over lunch at Clinton Global Initiative, he was able to share some results.

 

LeapFrog Investments companies now reach over half a billion people with essential services – 20X that ambition. 

 I think that merits the big thumbs up Clinton  is giving Andy!

 

Leapfrog’s portfolio companies also provide over 300,000 jobs and livelihoods directly. They support 28 million jobs indirectly by enabling millions of small and micro-businesses.

 Clinton’s  support for job creation continues, a quarter century after the Presidency.

 

Onward, with gratitude says Andy! 

#CGI #CGI2024 Gregory Milne #innovation 

Canva buys Leanardo to create massive synergies on creativity and AI

The power of having a successful startup like Canva  - and now a whale -as part of our Australian Ecosystem - has clocked another win for Australian Innovation!  .

In July 2024, Canva acquired Leonardo.ai, a generative AI content and research startup, to enhance its suite of AI-powered design tools.

Cameron Adams of Canva said the deal represented two Australian companies joining forces to bring “world-first breakthroughs in AI and creativity”.

 The 120 employees of Leonardo.ai led by founder JJ Fiasson had rapidly expanded its user base, amassing over 19 million users and facilitating the creation of more than a billion images.

Canva and Leonardo declined to disclose the price tag, but sources with knowledge of the deal told afr that it was higher than Leonardo’s last funding round valuation, which was understood to have been $US80 million ($122 million).

Its investors, including Blackbird Ventures, had described it as the “next Canva”.

What Leanardo does 

It has built a generative AI platform that is used to make images and 3D model textures from a written prompt, challenging rivals like OpenAI’s DALL-E, Midjourney, Scenario and Stable Diffusion. 

It has proven particularly popular with video game designers, product designers and architects.

The deal and the backstory 

Canva’s founders Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams had been chatting with Mr Fiasson about product collaboration, after Leonardo had launched its foundational AI model Phoenix.

Leonardo is less than two-years-old, and had raised $US31 million from investors including high-profile Canva investor Blackbird Ventures last December who own 28pc of the company 

The Opportunity

The acquisition opens up the market to 200m customers - Eliza H from Leanardo tells the AI hackers at sxsw2024 as she is recruiting for 25 engineers and ai enthusiasts to join Leanardo in their brand new offices in North Sydney!