It doesn’t happen often, but this week’s funding round-up follows certain themes: there’s artificial intelligence, healthcare, and a startup using artificial intelligence in healthcare.
Then there are Ivo and Lawpath, not one, but two startups using AI to generate and decipher legal forms in the business sector.
Read on to learn more about the six Australian and New Zealand startups that raised $234.2 million this week.
AdvanCell: $178.6 million
AdvanCell has raised an oversubscribed US$112 million ($178.6) million Series C round, enticing investors with its plan to produce cutting-edge nuclear medicines and novel cancer treatments.
The Sydney-based company is focused on targeted alpha therapy, which shows great promise against tumours, but is limited by the cost and difficulty of producing the right isotopes.
AdvanCell says its alpha isotope generator is capable of producing those materials reliably and at scale.
It also develops its own radiopharmaceutical treatments, and is currently enrolling patients for a clinical trial of its metastatic prostate cancer therapy.
The raise was jointly led by SV Health Investors, Sanofi Ventures, Abingworth, and SymBiosis, with support from existing investors Morningside.
New investors, including Tenmile and Brandon Capital, also contributed.
The funding will help AdvanCell expand its manufacturing capabilities, and accelerate the development of its other treatments: targeted alpha therapies for skin, ovarian, breast, lung, and other cancers are in the works.
In a statement, AdvanCell CEO Andrew Adamovich said the raise “demonstrates strong confidence in our vision and capabilities”.
“With this funding, AdvanCell is well-positioned to scale our manufacturing operations and
progress our cutting-edge therapies towards commercialisation,” he continued.
AdvanCell is demonstrating strong progress with its prostate cancer therapy and a “best-in-class manufacturing platform,” said Jamil M. Beg, a partner at SV Health Investors.
“The company’s exceptional team, technologies, robust infrastructure, collaborations with some of the world’s largest pharma companies and ability to consistently execute, position it to truly change outcomes for patients.”
Ivo: $25.5 million
New Zealand-founded startup Ivo has raised $25.5 million (US$16 million) in Series A funding for its AI-driven tech that helps businesses cut down on the time, effort and costs spent on contracts.
Founded by CEO Min-Kyu Jung and chief technology officer Jacob Duligall, Ivo is primarily being used by larger corporates and in-house legal teams that need to process large volumes of contracts.
The startup counts more than 150 companies in its user base, including the likes of Canva, Eventbrite, Fonterra, WeightWatchers and several Fortune 500 firms.
The Series A funding round was led by San Francisco-based venture capital firm Costanoa Ventures, with participation from US venture firms Fika Ventures, Uncork Capital and NFDG (Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross), along with local VC Blackbird and New Zealand funds GD1 and Phase One Ventures.
To date, Ivo has now raised US$22.2 million in funding, which includes $4.8 million in seed funding secured in early April 2024 when the startup rebranded from Latch to Ivo.
Ivo CEO and co-founder Min-Kyu Jung told SmartCompany the startup plans to use the new funds to invest “heavily” in R&D for existing and new products, as well as hiring more staff to support its enterprise clients.
Lawpath: $10 million
Australian legal tech startup Lawpath has also secured new funding this week, with Westpac making a $10 million investment into the startup to deepen the existing partnership between the two companies.
Founded in 2014 by Dominic Woolrych and Tom Willis, Lawpath is used by some 500,000 businesses across the country to draft and review legal documents, and access both fixed-price and on-demand legal advice.
Lawpath has been working with Westpac for close to two years, with Lawpath customers who are establishing a company for the first time encouraged to do their business banking with Westpac. Meanwhile, existing Westpac clients with legal and compliance questions are directed to Lawpath, with the bank also offering Lawpath memberships with discounted fees to Business One Plus account holders.
“From the Westpac perspective, they often get businesses coming to them, or even private consumers coming to them, saying that they want to start a business,” CEO Dominic Woolrych told SmartCompany earlier this week.
“And the Lawpath platform is software that allows you to start a business and then run your business, and it covers all of your legal compliance and accounting needs.
“So given the good partnerships there and what we could offer, we wanted to integrate further.”
The investment deal involves a commercial partnership that will see Lawpath functions integrated into Westpac’s own systems, while Woolrych hopes to offer “one-click” Westpac bank account creation through Lawpath proper.
Woolrych did not disclose Lawpath’s new valuation, but said it is a significant jump on the valuation it commanded when it raised $7.5 million in 2021.
Lorikeet: $14.4 million
Agentic AI startup Lorikeet has booked a further US$9 million ($14.4 million) in funding, just four months after raising US$5 million ($9 million) to support its customer service technology.
Blackbird led the new raise, with contributions from earlier investors Square Peg and Skip Capital.
Lorikeet builds AI agents it says are capable of handling complex customer service cases, surpassing the capabilities of ‘traditional’ chatbots while keeping sensitive data secure.
Local startup successes like health-tech provider Eucalyptus, energy retailer Amber, and blockchain gaming platform Immutable are Lorikeet users, along with US companies like the digital bank Step.
While chatbots may suit the needs of simpler companies, Lorikeet co-founder and CEO said businesses handling more complex operations — like those listed above — need more power and nuance.
“We’re not satisfied with using AI to simply summarise FAQs, or implementing architectures passed on by OpenAI,” Hind said in a statement.
“Our intelligent graph architecture is purpose-built ground up to enable AI agents to reliably handle complex workflows in highly regulated industries that were previously impossible for AI to handle.”
Global tech giants like Salesforce promise productivity gains through AI agents, but Tom Humphrey, partner at Blackbird, said Lorikeet stands apart.
“The team’s product approach to solving complex customer support challenges through advanced AI workflows is differentiated,” he said.
“Support is perhaps the highest impact and lowest hanging fruit opportunity for enterprise adoption of AI, and the market scale is absolutely enormous.”
Nuj: $4 million
Fintech Nuj has raised $4 million via a funding deal that is comprised of both equity investment and a seven-year debt facility, according to Capital Brief.
Nuj operates a superannuation technology platform and was founded by CEO Matthew McKenzie in 2020.
The data platform is designed to help with regulation compliance for superannuation trustees and administrators. It is reportedly now serving 30 super funds and recorded significant revenue growth over the past 12 months.
The $4 million in funding comes from Mimecast co-founder Peter Bauer, who described the Nuj platform as a “powerful” one that “addresses an expensive challenge across the super industry — one of staying ahead in compliance with regulations”.
“At the same time as more firms seek to leverage AI, we know that AI is only as smart as the data that it works from,” he added in comments to Capital Brief.
Nuj is interested in expanding geographically, including into the UK, and other highly regulated sectors, such as life insurance and banking.
Ovum: $1.7 million
Health tech startup Ovum has secured $1.7 million in new funding ahead of plans to launch what it says will be the first AI-powered personalised health assistant for women.
Founded in 2022 by Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks, Ovum has developed a health app that acts as a hub for medical data for women. It gives users the ability to store data from blood test data and imaging reports, alongside letters and referrals from practitioners, as well as track their cycles and ask questions about health issues.
At the same time, the Melbourne-based startup is creating a longitudinal AI dataset that is specific to women, which it hopes will help address the current gendered AI landscape.
The funding round was led by Giant Leap and included participation from Antler, Wollemi Capital, Nakatomi Venture Studio, the Alice Anderson Fund, Dr Nick Engerer, and Tim and Casey Cosh.
According to Ovum, one in two Australian women suffer from a chronic health condition and its platform is designed to give women more control over their health data and journeys.
“This is about using new technologies such as AI to level the playing field,” said Heffernan-Mark in a statement this week.
“Women endure complex and nuanced health conditions and they deserve a solution that directly addresses them”.
Ovum completed a successful pilot program for its AI health assistant last year and now plans to take it to market. The ultimate vision, Heffernan-Marks told SmartCompany last year, is to “create an accessible resource that is designed with women, for women”.
Ovum has recently won several grants and awards, including a $20,000 grant through the LIFTwomen APAC cohort, and the award for Enterprise, Big Data and AI at SXSW Sydney’s pitch competition.
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