Insights & resources
Market insight for finance leaders and the founders who hire them
Perspectives from the market, real conversations with finance leaders, and practical tools built to support better hiring and career decisions
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Our research
When Australian startups hire finance, measured
Story Recruitment's study of 194 funded Australian startups dates every finance hire against the company's announced rounds. Of the 191 with a dated finance hire, 100 (52%) had a finance person before their first round and 91 (48%) hired after it
When Australian startups make their first finance hire
Before or after the first round, and how long after a seed, Series A or Series B the first finance hire lands. With the full method.
Your first finance hire: which seat, and what comes next
135 of 191 started below CFO, and 65 of those later added a CFO above them. The title mix, how fast the next hires follow, and where first hires came from.
Finance hiring benchmarks for Australian startups
Four questions, one page each: before or after the raise, how long after it, what to hire first and the second hire. For all startups, then for tech, fintech and deep tech on their own.
Open data
Ten years of Australian startup funding, free to use
The Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database covers 2,548 Australian venture deals from January 2016 to October 2026. Filter it, share any view and cite it under CC BY 4.0
Explore the funding database
Filter by year, stage, sector, city, AI and investor. Every deal links to its public source.
How we built the database
Where the data comes from, how we checked it, and how to cite it.
Series B went from 20% to 7% in Australia
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A$1.3M to A$3.5M: Australia’s seed round more than doubled
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Startup deals are down 23% since 2022. Big rounds aren’t.
Read the analysis
1 in 3 Australian startup deals is now AI
Read the analysis
Deep tech deals are exploding. Fintech is dropping.
Read the analysis
Health is now 1 in 5 Australian startup deals
Read the analysis
Melbourne overtook Sydney in startup funding in 2025
Read the analysis
The NRF is Australia’s 4th most active startup investor. Who are they?
Read the analysis
Bank-backed startup deals fell 89%
Read the analysis
Angel investors show up in only 7% of Australian startup deals, a ten-year low
Read the analysis
Climate tech fell from 12.4% to 8.1% of startup deals
Read the analysis
No Australian startup raises as often as Airwallex
Read the analysis
Just raised? The typical Australian startup raises again 14 months later
Read the analysis
Announcing a raise? You’re probably doing it in May or August
Read the analysis
Three ways to learn
Open resources, not gated downloads
Free, honest market insight is how we build long-term relationships. Everything here is open
The CFO Track podcast
Candid interviews with Australia's leading CFOs on the decisions and lessons that shape finance functions.
Guides & reports
Salary benchmarks, market updates and how-to guides for finance hiring and career moves. No forms.
TomBot
An AI finance career and market advisor, built on the advice Tom has given over the years.
What investors look for in your finance function
Four VCs and Michael Batko on the finance function bar from pre-seed to Series C, the first finance hire, and getting raise-ready.
Getting hired in 2026: CV, LinkedIn and AI
What 121 finance hiring managers look at first, how recruiters really search LinkedIn, and using AI in a job search without getting binned.
The CFO Track
The real stories behind finance leadership
Through conversations with some of Australia's best CFOs, The CFO Track digs into the challenges, decisions and lessons that shape finance functions in the country's strongest businesses.
- Real-world finance leadership experiences
- Navigating scale and rapid growth
- Finance strategy through complex or turbulent periods
- Honest insight from people who have done the job
Season 1, by the numbers
76,000+ impressions and 53,000+ finance professionals reached, averaging around 4,000 per episode. More than 60% of the audience are Senior, Director or CXO.
Want a candid read on your market?
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