AI startups took 32% of Australian startup funding deals in 2025, up from 4% in 2017, in the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database. From 2024 to 2026 the median AI seed round was A$4.75 million, against A$3 million for other seed rounds.
AI went from one deal in 25 to one in three
For six years AI barely registered. It never passed 9% of Australian startup deals from 2017 to 2022. Then it took off: 16% in 2023, 22% in 2024 and 32% in 2025, according to our data. 2026 is running at the same rate.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseAI startups as a share of all deals, 2016 to 2026
| Year | Share | Base n |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2% (3 of 170) | 170 |
| 2017 | 4% (7 of 172) | 172 |
| 2018 | 6% (11 of 185) | 185 |
| 2019 | 7% (14 of 198) | 198 |
| 2020 | 8% (17 of 226) | 226 |
| 2021 | 8% (21 of 273) | 273 |
| 2022 | 9% (28 of 321) | 321 |
| 2023 | 15% (43 of 278) | 278 |
| 2024 | 22% (64 of 290) | 290 |
| 2025 | 32% (80 of 247) | 247 |
| 2026 (YTD) | 32% (60 of 188) | 188 |
AI went from 4% of deals in 2017 to 32% in 2025.
Our view on why: the jump starts the year after OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, and AI tools made a first product cheaper to build. As Forbes Australia’s Daniel Van Boom put it in July, at any startup event you will hear that “the power of AI makes now the best time ever to found a company”. Investors have followed. Cut Through Venture found that “the default positioning of AI is now embedded across a broad range of sectors”, so a lot of startups that sell software to lawyers, clinics or retailers now pitch as AI companies.
Cut Through Venture also counts startups that use AI inside another product, and its share is higher again. Writing about its Q1 2026 report, I noted on LinkedIn in May:
AI is now in more than 50% of all deals. It’s especially dominant at Accelerator and Pre-Seed stage.
Nearly half of early rounds now go to AI
AI deals are mostly first cheques. In 2025, AI startups took 45% of pre-seed and seed rounds, according to our data. From 2024 to 2026, 68% of AI rounds were pre-seed or seed, against 49% for everyone else.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseAI and non-AI startups: share of pre-seed and seed rounds
| Year | AI | Not AI |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 4% | 96% |
| 2017 | 4% | 96% |
| 2018 | 14% | 86% |
| 2019 | 10% | 90% |
| 2020 | 6% | 94% |
| 2021 | 9% | 91% |
| 2022 | 14% | 86% |
| 2023 | 24% | 76% |
| 2024 | 36% | 64% |
| 2025 | 45% | 55% |
| 2026 (YTD) | 46% | 54% |
AI startups took 45% of pre-seed and seed rounds in 2025.
Stage for stage, AI startups raise more
Take all AI deals together and the typical AI round looks smaller: A$5.05 million against A$7 million for everyone else, from 2024 to 2026. That is only because so many AI deals are seed rounds. Compare rounds at the same stage and AI startups raise more:
- Seed: A$4.75 million for AI, against A$3 million for everyone else.
- Pre-seed: A$1.8 million for AI, against A$1 million for everyone else.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseMedian AI seed round, 2024 to 2026
| Year | Median | Deals with an amount |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | A$1.2M (average of 2) | 2 |
| 2017 | A$0.5M (average of 1) | 1 |
| 2018 | A$2.0M (average of 5) | 5 |
| 2019 | A$2.4M (average of 4) | 4 |
| 2020 | A$1.3M (average of 3) | 3 |
| 2021 | A$4.4M (average of 5) | 5 |
| 2022 | A$6.9M | 13 |
| 2023 | A$4.2M | 12 |
| 2024 | A$5.1M | 19 |
| 2025 | A$2.5M | 19 |
| 2026 (YTD) | A$6.9M | 14 |
The median AI seed round was A$4.75M from 2024 to 2026, against A$3M for other seed rounds.
Investors say the same. One early-stage investor told Forbes Australia that “a lot of companies that would traditionally have raised $1 million or $2 million are now coming to market” asking for $5 million to $10 million on the strength of an AI story. In Cut Through Venture’s Q1 2025 survey, 87% of investors said AI-first startups command higher valuations than their peers.
But investors pay extra only when the AI does real work. In the same LinkedIn post I wrote that “investors are paying a valuation premium specifically where AI materially improves the product, the economics or the customer workflow. Not just where it’s bolted on.”
Who is getting the big AI cheques
Health leads. In 2025, 30% of AI deals in our data were in health. Melbourne’s Heidi Health, which writes clinical notes for doctors, raised a Series B of about A$101 million led by Point72 in October 2025. In February that year, Sydney radiology AI company Harrison.ai raised a Series C of about A$174 million.
Business software is the other big group. Relevance AI, which builds AI agents, raised a Series B of about A$37 million led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Customer support startup Lorikeet raised a Series A of about A$54 million. Two years earlier, Leonardo.Ai’s Series A of about A$47 million, led by Blackbird, was one of the biggest AI rounds of 2023.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseLargest AI Series A and B rounds since 2025
5 of 22 deals, largest first
| Date | Company | Round | Sector | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heidi Health | Series B | Tech | A$101M | techcrunch.com | |
| Heidi | Series B | Tech | A$101M | heidihealth.com | |
| Jun 2025 | Everlab | Series A | Tech | A$65M | innovationbay.com |
| Aug 2025 | Lorikeet | Series A | Tech | A$54M | smartcompany.com.au |
| Relevance AI | Series B | Tech | A$37M | afr.com |
Heidi, Lorikeet and Relevance AI raised some of the biggest AI Series A and B rounds since 2025.
What this means if you are raising
If AI changes your margins or how fast you serve a customer, price that in. The data says investors pay more for it at seed. If AI is a feature you added last quarter, don’t lean on the label.
Either way, a bigger seed round raises the bar for the next one. You will be spending more each month, often on compute and engineers, and your Series A investors will ask what all that money bought. That is usually when founders realise they need someone who owns the numbers. In our study of when Australian startups hire finance, roughly half of funded startups hired finance before their first announced round, and Series A was the most common trigger.
Raising on an AI story? Investors will want someone who can explain your burn. We'll find you the right finance lead.
Tom calls you back, usually within one business day. Or call 02 9099 7619.
Not ready to talk? Explore every AI deal in the database by year, stage and sector.
Seed rounds have grown for everyone. Read why seed is the new Series A in Australia.
Sources and notes
- All database figures come from the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database, 2,548 deals from Jan 2016 to early Oct 2026. 2026 covers January to early October.
- “AI” means a startup whose core product is AI, as tagged in the database. Cut Through Venture also counts AI-enabled startups, which is why its share (over half of deals) is higher than ours (32% in 2025).
- The seed and pre-seed shares and medians are counted from the deal rows, 2024 to 2026. Stage shares use deals with a named stage. Medians use deals with a disclosed amount, converted to Australian dollars: seed 52 AI deals and 93 others, pre-seed 43 AI deals and 40 others. Series A and B have too few AI deals with an amount to compare reliably. The overall medians (A$5.05M, 184 AI deals; A$7M, 437 others) are from the database’s published figures.
- How the counted figures were made: AI is 80 of 247 deals in 2025 (32%), from the database’s published figures. The 2025 early-round share is 42 AI rounds of 93 pre-seed and seed rounds. The health share is 24 of the 80 AI deals in 2025, where health means a deal whose sub-sector mentions health, biotech, medtech, pharma, medical or therapeutics, excluding pet care, agritech, materials and fermentation. The database view linked for health shows all 2025 AI deals, not only health ones.
- Amounts in the examples are the database’s Australian dollar conversions of the reported round, rounded. Relevance AI’s round was reported as US$24 million and Harrison.ai’s as US$112 million. Some large rounds appear twice in the table view where two outlets reported them.
- The database covers about two thirds of the market (247 deals in 2025, against 390 in Cut Through Venture’s count) and is likely weighted to deals that got press coverage. Read any year or group with fewer than 30 deals as a rough guide. Dates come from announcement coverage, and about 1 in 7 spot-checked rows sat in a neighbouring year or month. The full method is in the explainer on how we built the database.
How to cite this: Source: Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database (2016 to 2026), storyrecruitment.com.au/insights/australian-startup-funding, CC BY 4.0.
Common questions
What share of Australian startup funding deals go to AI companies?
About one in three. AI startups took 32% of the deals in the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database in 2025, and 32% so far in 2026. In 2017 it was 4%. Cut Through Venture, which also counts startups that use AI inside another product, puts it above half.
Do AI startups in Australia raise bigger rounds?
Yes, at the same stage. From 2024 to 2026 the typical AI seed round was A$4.75 million, against A$3 million for other seed rounds. At pre-seed it was A$1.8 million against A$1 million. The typical AI round overall looks smaller (A$5.05 million against A$7 million) only because most AI deals are early rounds.
When did AI take off in Australian startup funding?
2023. AI never passed 9% of deals from 2017 to 2022. It reached 16% in 2023, 22% in 2024 and 32% in 2025.
When should an AI startup make its first finance hire?
Earlier than most expect. In Story Recruitment's study of funded Australian startups, roughly half hired finance before their first announced round and half after, and Series A is the most common trigger. A bigger seed round means spending more each month and a higher bar for the next raise, so AI founders often need someone running the numbers well before their Series A.
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.