In the first quarter of 2024, startups across Australia have raised more than $703M in capital across 66 publicised deals, according to a report published by Cut Through Ventures. While these data may not include 100% of deals conducted across Australia in Q1, it’s a good indicator of how the ecosystem is performing and follows the same methodology of their previous research spanning back to 2018.
A slow start to the year
While $703M sounds like a lot of capital, it’s only slightly higher than the amount invested during the same period in 2023 and significantly lower than in 2022. The number of announced deals (66) included in that figure is also the lowest number of deals in more than five years.
The graphs below show the total capital and number of deals tracked by Cut Through Ventures since 2018 and how that compares to previous years.
Size of fundraising rounds
The number of deals tracked in the sub $5M range is the lowest on record in the tracked dataset. This could suggest that fewer startups are raising smaller rounds or that these smaller rounds are being underreported in public channels. It will be interesting to see how Q2 and Q3 data look and the insights that come with them.
Quick insights
Median Round size
- Angel/Pre-Seed — $650,000, down 68% from 2023.
- Seed — $2.5M, up 67% from 2023.
- Series A — $9.3M, up 85% from 2023.
- Series B — $31M, up 39% from 2023.
Ten most popular sectors
- AI and Big Data
- Enterprise Software
- Cybersecurity / Privacy / ID
- Hardware / Robotics / IOT
- Healthtech
- Climate Tech
- Deeptech
- Space / Aviation / Defence
- DevTech
- Marketplace
Funding to female founders
Funding teams with at least one female founder made up 30% of all deals in the first quarter of 2024, and 21% for all-female teams, compared to 23% and 5% respectively in 2023 and 10% and 3% respectively in 2022.
The largest raise by a female founder was Aravax’s $66M Series B round.
You can see more insights by downloading the full report by Cut Through Ventures here.
