The Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database

Most startups make their first finance hire at Series A and bring in a CFO at Series B. See the evidence.

The stories in this data

• Series B went from 17% to 6% in Australia

  What the shrinking Series B share means for a CFO hire.

  Read the analysis →

• A$1.3M to A$3.5M: Australia's seed round more than doubled

  How seed cheques grew, and when the first finance hire follows.

  Read the analysis →

• Startup deals are down 26% since 2022. Rounds of A$5M to A$20M fell 45%.

  Deal counts fell from their 2022 peak, and how the largest rounds held up.

  Read the analysis →

• 1 in 3 Australian startup deals is now AI

  How fast AI startups took a share of Australian rounds.

  Read the analysis →

• Deep tech deals are exploding. Fintech is dropping.

  The sector mix of Australian startup funding, year by year.

  Read the analysis →

• Melbourne beat Sydney in startup funding in 2024 and 2025

  Where funded startups are based, among deals with a known city.

  Read the analysis →

• The NRF is Australia’s 4th most active startup investor. Who are they?

  Government-backed funds and how often they show up on cap tables.

  Read the analysis →

• Angel investors show up in only 8% of Australian startup deals, a ten-year low

  How often angel investors are named in announced rounds.

  Read the analysis →

• No Australian startup raises as often as Airwallex

  The companies that raise year after year, and the many that raise once.

  Read the analysis →

• Announcing a raise? You’re probably doing it in May or August

  Which days and months funding announcements land on.

  Read the analysis →

• Just raised? The typical Australian startup raises again 19 months later

  How long Australian startups wait before raising again.

  Read the analysis →

• How we built the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database

  What the funding data shows, and what it means for your next finance hire.

  Read the analysis →

• Bank-backed startup deals fell 82%

  What the funding data shows, and what it means for your next finance hire.

  Read the analysis →

• Climate tech fell from 13.2% to 7.9% of startup deals

  What the funding data shows, and what it means for your next finance hire.

  Read the analysis →

• Health is now 1 in 6 Australian startup deals

  What the funding data shows, and what it means for your next finance hire.

  Read the analysis →

Use it. Just credit it.

This database is free to use under CC BY 4.0. Quote it, chart it, put it in your deck. Credit Story Recruitment and link back so readers can check the source rows.

How we built it

• What it is. 1,919 funding rounds announced by 1,399 Australian startups, Jan 2016 to 10 Nov 2026, drawn from 1,632 public source pages.
• Exclusions. We removed 52 rows that were not equity rounds (for example venture debt).
  Why each was removed

  • other: 10
  • amount contradicted by source: 8
  • listed placement/IPO: 7
  • venture debt: 4
  • fund close: 3
  • project finance: 1
  • acquisition: 1
  • fund (MRCF): 1
  • not Australian: 1
  • super fund: 1
  • ASX-listed company: 1
  • listed fund manager: 1
  • duplicate (Airwallex Jul 2016 seed; tag page): 1
  • duplicate (Airwallex Jul 2016 seed): 1
  • ASX-listed company (IGO): 1
  • misdated (Airwallex May 2017 Series A): 1
  • not Australian (Zoox, US): 1
  • fund commitment (Antler Fund III): 1
  • company not named: 1
  • duplicate (GrazeMate Jan 2026 round): 1
  • duplicate (MP Space seed, US$ figure): 1
  • duplicate (Mirugen Aug 2025 seed): 1
  • raise not closed (seeking): 1
  • duplicate (RedOwl AI seed): 1
  • VC fund raise (Scale): 1
  We also merged repeat reports of the same round (roundups, a second currency, name variants) and dropped rows that were not funding rounds: 647 rows in all, so each round is counted once.
• Spot check. We checked 50 rows against their source pages, weighted to Series B, government-backed and A$150M+ rounds. 28 matched, 14 had a minor mismatch (stage label, lead investor or date), 3 were wrong and removed, 5 could not be verified. 7 of the minor mismatches were a neighbouring month or year.
• Coverage. In 2025 we hold 189 deals. Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures count 390. Read this as about half of the market, weighted to deals the press covered.
• Staged deals. Stage shares use deals whose stage is named (pre-seed, seed, Series A, B, C, D+, growth or bridge); stage unknown is excluded from the denominator.
• Small cells. Fewer than 30 deals: direction only. Fewer than 10: no median.
• Partial year. 2026 covers January to 10 November.
• Dates. Dates come from announcement coverage, not the close date.
• Progression. Stage progression figures are lower bounds: a company we did not see raising may still have raised.
• Not in the data. No founder gender. No valuations. No dollar totals: for market totals, Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures count A$5.1B across 390 deals in 2025.
• City. City is blank for about half the rows. City shares use only rows with a known city.
• Niche. The niche filter uses the 30 niche labels as recorded. Rows whose niche is described another way still appear under all niches, so niche counts are a floor.

Every source, by month

1,632 public pages back this database. Each row below names the company, the round and the publisher, so you can check our work.

New rounds and revised charts four times a year, sent with The CFO Track. Unsubscribe any time.