The database holds 2,548 announced funding rounds by 1,522 Australian startups, from Jan 2016 to early Oct 2026. Each round was read from Google’s AI Overview answer for the day it was announced and links to its public source. It is free to cite under CC BY 4.0.
Why we built it
Australia has good reports on startup funding, but most give you a total and a few charts. If you want to see the rounds behind a number, you usually need a paid account. We wanted the opposite: a free list of Australian rounds that anyone can filter, check row by row and quote with a link.
We care about this because funding drives hiring. A Series A is usually when a startup makes its first finance hire, and a Series B is usually when it hires its first CFO. Our study of when Australian startups hire finance has the evidence. As I wrote on LinkedIn in July:
“Finance is usually thought of as the function that helped you close the round. It’s not wrong, but the best finance people are actually most valuable in the 6 months after the raise, not the 6 months before it.”
So the funding pattern tells founders, investors and finance people what is coming next. We publish it so that anyone can use it, not just our clients.
Where the data comes from
We asked Google the same question for every day since January 2016: “what australian startups announced raising money on [that date]?” We saved the AI Overview answer for each day, along with the pages it cited.1 Asking day by day matters. When we asked about a whole month, Google named only one to three companies. A single day brings back far more.
Claude, Anthropic’s AI model, then read each day’s answer and pulled out every raise it named: the company, the round, the amount, the sector, the city and the investors. It was told to use only the text in front of it, not its own memory. When the same round turned up on several days, we merged it into one row.2
Every row keeps the page it came from, usually a news story, a press release or a startup newsletter. That gives the database 1,924 source pages in all.3 You can open any of them from the deal table in the database or from the full source list at the bottom of this page.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseThe newest rounds in the database
5 of 2,548 deals, newest first
| Date | Company | Round | Sector | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diraq | Stage not stated | Deep tech | A$73M | startupdaily.net | |
| Skopos Bio | Seed | Deep tech | A$12M | smartcompany.com.au | |
| R2Crete | Pre-seed | Deep tech | A$750K | startupdaily.net | |
| Oct 2026 | Skopos Bio | Seed | Deep tech | A$18M | smartcompany.com.au |
| Trendspek | Series A | Tech | A$6.4M | tracxn.com |
Every row names the company, the round and the page that reported it.
How we checked it
An AI that reads Google’s answers can still get things wrong, so we checked the rows against their sources in two passes.
First, a random spot check. We picked 50 rows, weighted towards Series B rounds, government-backed rounds and rounds of A$150 million or more, because our articles make their biggest claims about those. A second Claude run opened each source page and compared it with the row. 28 of 50 matched. 14 had a small mismatch, such as the stage name, the lead investor or the month.4 3 were wrong and came out. 5 could not be checked because the page was gone or did not say.
Then every big round. We ran the same check on every round of A$100 million or more, because one wrong big round can move a chart. You can see the biggest rounds, largest first.5
Together the two checks removed 42 rows. This is why they came out:
- not a startup equity raise (for example a grant or a loan): 9
- the source page gave a different amount: 8
- a listed company raising on the ASX, or an IPO: 7
- an investment fund raising its own money: 6
- venture debt, not equity: 4
- project finance for a single asset: 1
- an acquisition, not a raise: 1
- not an Australian company: 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
Found a mistake we missed? Email info@storyrecruitment.com.au with the company and the source, and we will fix it in the next update.
How much of the market it covers
About two thirds. In 2025 the database holds 247 rounds. Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures’ 2025 State of Australian Startup Funding counted 390, so we have 63% of their number.6 The rounds we miss are most likely the ones that got little or no press, because Google can only cite what someone published.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseAustralian startup funding rounds in the database, by year
| Year | Deals |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 170 |
| 2017 | 172 |
| 2018 | 185 |
| 2019 | 198 |
| 2020 | 226 |
| 2021 | 273 |
| 2022 | 321 |
| 2023 | 278 |
| 2024 | 290 |
| 2025 | 247 |
| 2026 (YTD) | 188 |
Each bar is the number of announced rounds we found for that year.
That makes the database best at answering “what share” and “how has it changed” questions. What share of rounds are AI companies? Are seed rounds getting bigger? Is Melbourne catching Sydney? For the total amount raised in a year, use Cut Through’s report, which is built for that.
What the database doesn’t track
- Total dollars raised: we never add up the amounts, because missing rounds would make the total too low. For 2025, Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures counted A$5.1 billion across 390 deals.
- Valuations: we don’t record them.
- Founder gender: Google’s answers named a woman founder in fewer than 1 in 100 rounds, far too few to report.11
- Debt, grants and listed companies: the database is for private startups raising equity. Loans, grants, ASX placements and fund raises are left out.
What the terms mean
- Round
- One announced raise by one company, such as a seed round or a Series A. A round is dated to the month it was announced, not the month it closed.
- Stage
- Pre-seed, seed, Series A, B, C, D and later, growth or bridge, as the source names it. More than a third of rounds have no stage named.7
- Amount
- The amount in Australian dollars. Rounds announced in another currency are converted at a fixed rate for each year.8
- Typical round size
- The median: half the rounds were bigger, half smaller. Where a year or a filter has fewer than 10 rounds with a disclosed amount, the database shows the average of those rounds instead and labels it “Average”. Hover over or tap the (i) to see how many rounds it is based on.
- Sector and niche
- Each round has one sector: tech, deep tech, fintech or other. Deep tech covers biotech, medical devices, space, quantum, robotics, energy hardware and similar science-based companies. The niche is a short label such as healthtech, climate or payments.
- City
- Where the company is based, when the source says.9
- AI company
- A company the source describes as an AI or machine learning business. 348 rounds have this flag.
- Government investor
- A round where a named investor is a government body or government-backed fund, such as the National Reconstruction Fund, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Breakthrough Victoria, ARENA, QIC or LaunchVic.10
- Angel investor
- A round where an investor is named or described as an angel.
How to share and cite it
The database is free to use under CC BY 4.0. Quote it, chart it or put it in your deck. Just credit Story Recruitment and link back so readers can check the rows.
- Share a view: set the filters you want in the database and use “Copy link to this view”. The link opens the database with the same filters, so your reader sees exactly what you saw.
- Download a chart: each chart downloads as an image with the title, the filters and the source already on it.
- Copy the citation in plain text:
Source: Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database, storyrecruitment.com.au/insights/australian-startup-funding (CC BY 4.0).or in APA 7:Hunter, T. (2026). The Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database (2016 to 2026) [Data set]. Story Recruitment. https://www.storyrecruitment.com.au/insights/australian-startup-funding
There is no spreadsheet download. We would rather you link to the live view, because it picks up every correction we make.
Updates and contact
We update the database four times a year with new rounds and any fixes readers send us. Journalists and researchers who want a specific cut of the data, or who have spotted an error, can email info@storyrecruitment.com.au or use the contact page.
Just raised? You’ll need a finance lead to make the most of it. We’ll find you the best person.
Tom calls you back, usually within one business day. Or call 02 9099 7619.
Every source, by year and month
These are the 1,924 pages behind the database. Open a year, then a month, to see each company, its round and the site that reported it.
2026 (YTD) · 188 deals · 129 sources
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2025 · 247 deals · 200 sources
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2024 · 290 deals · 212 sources
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2023 · 278 deals · 225 sources
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2022 · 321 deals · 264 sources
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2021 · 273 deals · 234 sources
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2020 · 226 deals · 179 sources
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2019 · 198 deals · 156 sources
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2018 · 185 deals · 158 sources
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2017 · 172 deals · 140 sources
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2016 · 170 deals · 160 sources
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Notes
- The questions ran for each day from 1 January 2016 to 9 October 2026. Google gave an answer for 3,932 of the 3,935 days. 2026 runs to early October.
- Google’s answer for the day it was announced sets each round’s date. A round reported a few days after its press release can land in the next month. In the spot check, 7 of the 14 small mismatches were a date in a neighbouring month or year. Some rows share a company, month and stage with another row; we keep both, so counts match the database exactly.
- 1,924 distinct pages across 2,548 rows, as several rounds can share one page (a weekly funding newsletter, for example). 18 rows have no public source page; the source list marks them “source not public”.
- The spot-check verdicts: 28 matched, 14 small mismatch, 3 wrong (removed), 5 could not be checked. Small mismatches were left in, as the round itself was real. When we added January to September 2016, we checked 22 of the new rows the same way: 10 matched, 4 had a small mismatch, 3 were wrong (removed) and 5 could not be checked.
- The big-round check covered 162 rows of A$100 million or more, counted from the check’s own results file: 66 matched, 38 had a small mismatch, 31 could not be checked and 27 were wrong. 26 of the 27 were removed. The other one matched on company, round and amount but showed a different date, so it stayed in.
- 247 rounds in the database for 2025 against 390 in Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures’ count. Their method differs from ours, so the comparison is a guide to coverage, not an exact measure.
- Rounds with a named stage: pre-seed, seed, Series A, B, C, D and later, growth or bridge. When we give a stage as a share of rounds, we count only rounds with a named stage; rounds with no stage named are left out of the denominator.
- US dollars convert at a rate set for each year, between 1.30 and 1.55 Australian dollars per US dollar. Euros convert at 1.55, pounds at 1.85, New Zealand dollars at 0.92 and Singapore dollars at 1.08. Converted amounts are close, not exact.
- 1,193 of the 2,548 rows have a known city, about 47%. City shares count only rounds with a known city.
- Government investors are matched by name against a fixed list, which also includes CSIRO, the Medical Research Future Fund, Investment NSW, the Industry Growth Program and state venture funds. A round counts once however many government investors it has.
- Claude recorded a woman founder only when the answer said so. That happened for 23 of the 2,590 rows read, before removals. A missing flag does not mean the founders were men.
Common questions
Where does the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database get its data?
From Google. For every day since January 2016 we asked Google which Australian startups announced a raise that day, and saved the AI Overview answer with the pages it cited. Claude, Anthropic's AI model, then read each answer and pulled out every round it named. Each of the 2,548 rounds links back to a public source page, such as a news story or a press release.
How accurate is the database?
We checked 50 rows against their source pages. 28 matched, 14 had a small mismatch such as the stage name or the month, 3 were wrong and were removed, and 5 could not be checked. We also checked every round of A$100 million or more. In all, 42 rows came out.
Can I download the data?
No. There is no spreadsheet download. You can share a link to any filtered view of the database, download a chart as an image with the source built in, and copy a ready-made citation. Linking to the live view means your readers always see the corrected numbers.
Does the database show how much money Australian startups raised in total?
No. It does not hold every round, so adding up the amounts would undercount the market. It shows shares, counts and typical round sizes instead. For the total, Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures counted A$5.1 billion across 390 deals in 2025.
How often is the database updated?
Four times a year. Each update adds new rounds and fixes any rows readers have reported. The date at the top of each page shows the last change.
These guides set out how we see it, drawn from the searches we run and the finance leaders we work with. They are general information about the market, not financial, accounting or legal advice, and they are no substitute for advice on your own circumstances.