Thursday, July 03, 2025

Tim Draper - a VC legend




Tim Draper is one of the most iconic people in the venture world who has been a part of creating $3 trillion in value 


Tim’s superpower

  • His incredible ability to see the future, 
  • To spot crazy ideas before they become obvious, 
  • To recognize founders bold enough to build them.


Tim’s  Values

Tim is not just as an investor, but as a person driven by deep values.


Values like beff 


  • Breaking down borders between countries. 
  • Empowering global entrepreneurship.
  • Freedom
  • And — above all — family.


Tim’s  mission 

To make world a better place through technology and innovation


Thanks Chingiz Dauletbayev for sharing this post 


Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Climate Tech Partners Raise $50m in Unique Vc Fund



Patrick Sieb and Tom Kline of Climate Tech Partners raise $50m for their first close of their fund 



Investors include 

  •  Ludovic Theau  CIO of Australian Ethical Investment, 
  • Ian Learmonth, CEO Clean Energy Finance Corporation, 
  • Daniel BESEN Family Office,
  • Qantas, and 
  • Airbus


The fund will focus on  #GridTech, #DER, and #storage #lowcarbonfuels and #climateadaptation, 



Patrick and Tom led set up a climate tech fund at Investible and grew it to $32 million, before striking out to set up Climate Tech Partners in early 2023.


Alliance Partners and players in the mix include 


Emily Bjorklund Drake Juliette Bourgeois Topaz Conway Noga Edelstein Duncan Murray Adam Roberts Malcolm Thornton Zoe Parkin Neil Stanford Fiona Messent Jonathon Curry Harry Jobberns Jorge Caro Terrón Julie Kitcher Fanny Mattens Stephen Forshaw  Julian Richman, CFA Adam Lindell Polar 993 PMC Legal Ranya Alkadamani


#climatetech #investment #VC #CorporatePartnership #Startup

Onwards and upwards 


Source afr


Thursday, June 12, 2025

Russian Billionaire Fires VCs. Raises $250m and Hires Algorithms and uses #ai Instead.



In 2022 Nik Storonsky , the founder of Revolut launched QuantumLight, an AI-driven investment platform that replaces traditional investors with machine intelligence and not only scaled a $45B fintech company - he’s now raised $250m and is challenging the entire venture capital model.


No coffee meetings.

No partner pitches.

No “gut feel.”


Instead, the system ingests over 10 billion data points across 700,000+ venture-backed startups. It looks for correlations, anomalies, and signals that even the sharpest GPs might miss.


So far?


It’s working. Their AI-led investments are outperforming top-tier VCs by 2x.


We already rely on #AI in trading, underwriting, even diagnosing disease.


So why are we still backing startups with human bias, pattern recognition, and anecdotal conviction?


versus 


a system that’s less emotional, more scalable, and possibly more accurate.


“Should we remove humans from the investment decisions entirely.”


Will QuantumLight  replace humans or enable humans to make investment decisions 


How important is human bias, pattern recognition, and anecdotal conviction?


Can AI truly understand the founder journey?

The vision, resilience, and timing that often live between the data points?


What happens to VC when the pitch deck matters less than the dataset?


Would love to hear your take in the comment 👇


Source Valerie Bartel - venture Capital Invedtor in Silicone Valley

 Substack for more news on #AI, #Investing and #Innovation 🧠

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Airwallex raises $300m at a $6.3b valuation - here’s the story!



Airwallex, founded by Jack Zhang is on track to reach a $1b revenue in 2025, and has just completed a $300 million Series F funding round at a $6.2 billion valuation.


Investors

Series F investors include: Square Peg, DST Global, Lone Pine Capital, Blackbird, Airtree, Salesforce Ventures, and Visa Ventures with participation from several leading pension funds in Australia.


Airwallex has a great Vision 

To create the largest money movement network

 in the world to completely displace Swift! 

(See full podcast with Jack Zhang below)




What Airwallex does 

Airwallex is a global payments and financial platform for modern businesses with a mission to redefine global banking, and to empower businesses everywhere to grow without limits.


“The global financial system wasn’t built for today’s borderless economy,” said Jack Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Airwallex. “Too many businesses are held back by legacy infrastructure that’s slow, costly, and fragmented. At Airwallex, we’re building a new foundation for the global economy – one that’s fast, seamless, and built for scale.”


Airwallex has built a tech-led global financial infrastructure from the ground up, with direct integrations into local clearing systems and card networks, and one of the most comprehensive licensing portfolios in fintech. 


This proprietary network gives Airwallex’s customers the unique ability to instantly generate local account numbers in 60+ countries and to send and receive funds across more than 150 countries, faster and more efficiently than traditional banks. Today, 95% of Airwallex transactions arrive within a few hours or the same day – 68% are processed instantly.


  • Global Business Accounts: An all-in-one multi-currency account to manage ‌global banking, FX conversion, and international transfers and to earn competitive rates on stored funds. 
  • Payments: Helping businesses accept online and in-store payments from their customers around the world with cards and 160+ local payment methods, all with a localized, multi-currency shopping experience.
  • Spend: Giving customers a single platform to efficiently manage all types of company spend across their global business, including multicurrency corporate and employee cards, expense management, and bill payments – all powered by AI. 
  • Platform APIs & Embedded Finance: Delivering Airwallex’s financial capabilities via API to tech-forward companies and marketplaces that want to embed and monetize financial services on their own platforms.


Rapid Growth and Global Expansion 


The company grew its customer base by 50% in 2024 – now serving 150,000 businesses worldwide. In 2025, Airwallex expects to hit $1 billion in annual run rate revenue.


In 2024, Airwallex moved into a permanent U.S. headquarters in San Francisco and recently opened new offices in New York and Toronto. 

Following the receipt of a payment institution license in Brazil and approval to close its acquisition of MexPago, a Mexico-based payment service provider, Airwallex is poised to launch services in Latin America’s two largest economies. 


In Europe, Airwallex recently opened a new office in Paris and made a series of senior hires in London and Amsterdam. In the Middle East, Airwallex made its first hires in the United Arab Emirates – in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai – and continued to grow strongly in Israel. 


Airwallex will use the funding to continue expanding its financial infrastructure into new markets including Japan, Korea, the UAE, and Latin America, and to accelerate go-to-market efforts in Europe, North America, and South East Asia.


Airwallex is well on the way to provide a global financial infrastructure to power the future of banking 


Interview with Jack Zhang and Brex by and Marcel van Oost of HD in HD


Sharing Jack and Airwallex story 



Monday, May 26, 2025

Tech Central Sydney - boosting Sydney’s Innovation capability



Exciting things are happening in #Sydney’s tech scene.

Mike Cannon-Brookes shared his vision for Tech Central Sydney in a powerful conversation with Ticky Fullerton at the Australian British Chamber of Commerce event — supported by a stellar panel including:

  • The Hon Paul Scully, Minister for Planning & Public Spaces (NSW Government)
  • Chancellor David Thodey, University of Sydney
  • Amy Glancey, Chief of Staff, Atlassian
  • Stuart FitzRoy, MD APAC at Rokt
  • James Tynan, Partner at Square Peg

As Ed Schmidt from Greenhouse noted:


Mike reminded us that physical spaces like Tech Central are not just symbolic—they are essential infrastructure for innovation. When people, ideas, capital, and talent collide, magic happens.


Mike’s key reflections:


🔹 “All technology is built by people” – Innovation thrives when we create spaces where ideas and talent connect

🔹 “We’re not competing with other states—we’re competing globally” – Sydney must think big and act fast

🔹 “We’re already exporting ideas at scale” – Australia’s tech talent is a world-class asset

🔹 “We need ecosystems, not silos” – Collaboration is the engine of growth


We’re on the cusp of something amazing. Let’s keep the momentum going.


The momentum is real — with world-class companies like Canva, Afterpay, SafetyCulture, Atlassian already rooted in or moving into the Tech Central district.


We’ve got the bones:

  • Global players
  • Brilliant talent
  • Leading universities


Now we need certainty — in vision and planning — to keep building a precinct that unlocks investment, attracts talent, and secures future jobs.


Here’s to backing what’s working and turning Tech Central into something the whole country can be proud of.


#TechCentral #Innovation #NSW #FutureOfWork #TechEcosystem #AustraliaTech


Wednesday, May 21, 2025

If Colonel Saunders can do it at the age of 65…. So can I !!



Colonel Saunders story of #kfc

“I was 65 years old. I had $105 and a chicken recipe… and no one believed in me. But that was more than enough.”

My life was a rollercoaster of rejection and failure.
I lost jobs, failed in business, got turned away by the military, and never even finished school.
By the time I was 65, I was living off a small government pension.

But I had something:
A fried chicken recipe I had perfected in an old gas station.
So I packed up my skillet, jumped in my car… and started knocking on doors.

I got rejected over 1,000 times.
I slept in my car.
Some days, I didn’t even have enough to eat.
But every time someone said “no,” I told myself:
“The next one will say yes.”

And one day — someone did.
A small restaurant agreed to give my recipe a try… and the madness began.

Today, KFC is in over 150 countries, and my face is printed on millions of boxes around the world.
All because I refused to quit when no one else believed in me.

I was never the youngest. Never the smartest.
But I was the one who never gave up.

So if you’re down right now… maybe that’s exactly where your real story begins.

Age doesn’t matter. Failure doesn’t matter.
The only thing that matters… is not stopping when your heart tells you: keep going.

Wishing you strength, purpose, and peace wherever you are on your journey.

— Rest easy, friends. Stay inspired. 🍗🔥

Thursday, May 15, 2025

SAASRISE - a community of SAAS CEOs and Founders


SAASRISE is a community of founders and CEOs
With $1m -100m in ARR looking to scale or exit 
Founded by Ryan Allis - founder of iContact -
Ryan exited for +$169m


Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Rippling Raises $460m at a $16.8b valuation



Rippling, founded in 2016 by Parker Conrad and Prasanna Sankar becoming a unicorn in 2020, has just raised $460m at a $16.8 billion valuation

Investors 

Rippling has raised a $450 million Series G round. with Y Combinator, Elad Gil, Sands Capital, GIC, and Goldman Sachs Growth, along with other existing investors.

What it does 

Rippling is a workforce management platform that unifies HR, IT, and finance operations into one system. It enables companies to manage the entire employee lifecycle — from onboarding and payroll to benefits administration and compliance — all in one place. 


The platform also offers IT tools for device management, software access, and security oversight. With its integrated approach, Rippling helps organizations streamline operations, reduce complexity, and improve overall efficiency.


Rippling supports businesses in over 100 countries, offering global payroll and compliance tools designed for modern, distributed teams.


Martian Logic is well placed to ride this wave 

In Australia - a story is unfolding with an innovative HRIS  ((Human Resources Information System) Company,  founded in 2001 by Physicist and Tech Engineer, Anwar Khalil. 


 Anwar  literally started his business from his 2 bedrooms unit in the Inner West - and the blood, sweat and tears from a small group of 5 techsters, and Jeannine Winiata - with desks in his living room and bedrooms. 


In 2003 he came to BSI offices, a one stop shop for the entrepreneur  - needing funding and support . Anwar reminded me that we invested $50k on a handshake and then - with the help of BSI’s Investor Forum, the Comet Grant and  R&D Government Incentives , raised a further $1.5m from strategic Investors .


Fast forward to 2025 - starting as a simple multi- job posting system for recruiters, Martian Logic has slowly building growing its business to a solid comprehensive HRIS Platform (Human Resources Information System) servicing over 200 schools, healthcare , NDIS, Councils and medium sized businesses .


Built cohesively module-by-module and from scratch in Australia | Perfect for the desk-lessworkforce likeschools, healthcare, NDIS... etc.Talent acquisition, onboarding, full employee lifecycle, performance, surveys, compliance & learning, plus more.


Martian Logic is perfectly poised for exponential growth and on its way  to becoming a Unicorn in the making me thinks :) 


The new round by Rippling underscores the  need for companies to manage people, systems, and finances at scale.


Some articles 


Wednesday, May 31, 2023

AI in the HR industry and Aussie Tech


Saturday, July 02, 2022

“Product led growth” is the holy grail