This Month In Venture With Gavin Appel + Tobi Skovron

Описание: Wild 24 hours in tech.

Amazon Web Services went down last night and the kids went bananas. No Snapchat. Total internet blackout.

While the world rebooted, the business world delivered its own shake-ups:

Closures

Great Wrap - sustainable packaging startup collapses owing $39m after raising $20m+.

Carted - once a $13m seed rocket in e-commerce, shutting down after 4 years.

ANZ’s 1835i - the bank’s venture arm is over. Airwallex stake sold, CashRewards shut, doors closing.

Big Valuations

Morse Micro - raises $88m, valued at $500m. Backed by MegaChips, Blackbird, Main Sequence.

Heidi Health - Melbourne healthtech raises US$65m ($98m AUD) hitting a US$465m valuation, fastest growth ever in Blackbird’s portfolio.

Big Deals

Atlassian - US$1B acquisition of DX, weeks after buying The Browser Company (another near-$1B).

Sekuro - acquired by Nasdaq-listed Insight Enterprises, following CyberCX’s $1B+ Accenture deal.

OpenAI - secondary share sale worth US$6.6B at a US$500B valuation, now the world’s largest startup.

Nvidia - $100B into OpenAI for data centres, $5B into Intel, $2B into xAI. The $4.4T monster just keeps feeding.

Big Milestones

Instagram hits 3B monthly users.

Winklevoss twins’ Gemini crypto exchange lands in Australia.

Tesla rolls out FSD + new Model 3 & Y Standard.

Netflix passes $500B market cap. If you’re scrolling tonight, The Playlist (Spotify’s origin story) is worth a watch.


ABOUT

Tobi Skovron and Gavin Appel spearhead our monthly vlog – a must-watch for those seeking insights into the local startup and VC sphere. Captivating audiences with their infectious enthusiasm for the startup and venture capital landscape, Tobi and Gavin unpack the latest trends and events.

The vlog consistently delivers high-quality, engaging content, covering everything from fundraising, M&A, product launches, new venture funds, and more. Tobi and Gavin rapidly explore each topic, while making complex concepts accessible. It’s an indispensable resource for those hungry for knowledge about the local startup and VC scene.

Gavin is the Founder and CEO of Ignition Lane, where he advises founders and leaders growing tech companies. He has 25 years of experience in the technology industry across startups, corporates and venture capital. Gavin was a founding VC Partner at Square Peg, an SVP of Product and Technology at Experian, and was one of the first employees and CTO at Hitwise – a venture-backed startup that was acquired for US$240m in 2007.

Tobi is the Founder of Cubes.Co, and has over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience across Australia and the U.S.

Connect With Gavin
  / gavinappel  
Connect With Tobi
  / tobiskovron