May and August are the busiest months for Australian startup funding announcements, and Tuesday is the busiest day. Friday gets 11% of announcements, half of Tuesday’s share, and January is the quietest month of the year.
May and August are the busiest months. January is the quietest.
May gets 11% of the year’s funding announcements and August 10%, according to our data. If announcements were spread evenly, each month would get about 8%. January gets 6%.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseAustralian startup funding announcements by month
| Month | Deals | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 157 | 6% |
| Feb | 187 | 7% |
| Mar | 202 | 8% |
| Apr | 191 | 7% |
| May | 285 | 11% |
| Jun | 217 | 9% |
| Jul | 203 | 8% |
| Aug | 259 | 10% |
| Sep | 214 | 8% |
| Oct | 213 | 8% |
| Nov | 216 | 8% |
| Dec | 204 | 8% |
May and August are the peaks. January gets the fewest announcements of any month.
May is when Wollongong green hydrogen company Hysata announced its record Series B. August is when v2food announced its Series B to take its plant-based meat into Europe and Asia.
January is quiet for an obvious reason: it is the Australian summer holiday. SmartCompany’s startup reporters wrote in January 2024 that “January is traditionally a slower month for startup funding announcements”. A few big rounds go out anyway. Dovetail announced its Series A in January 2022, and Gilmour Space announced its Series E in January 2026. You can see every January round in the database.
Why May and August? Our guess is the end of the Australian financial year on 30 June. Rounds that close before it get announced in May. Rounds that close over June and July, while founders, investors and lawyers are busy with year-end, get announced in August.
Tuesday is the busiest day to announce
According to our data, 23% of Australian funding announcements land on a Tuesday and 22% on a Monday. Wednesday gets 20% and Thursday 19%. Then it drops: Friday gets 11%, half of Tuesday, and the weekend gets almost nothing.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseAustralian startup funding announcements by weekday
| Weekday | Deals | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | 363 | 22% |
| Tue | 379 | 23% |
| Wed | 335 | 20% |
| Thu | 315 | 19% |
| Fri | 186 | 11% |
| Sat | 24 | 1% |
| Sun | 41 | 2% |
Monday to Thursday get 85% of announcements. Friday gets 11%.
Why early in the week? Our view: founders and their PR people want a full week of attention. A Monday or Tuesday story can be picked up, shared and followed up before the weekend. Version One, a Canadian venture firm, puts the Friday problem plainly in its funding announcement checklist: “Will you lose mindshare on Friday as everyone heads into the weekend, particularly a long weekend?”
Our advice: go midweek, and avoid Friday
If you want your round to be read, don’t announce it on the day everyone else does. Sifted, the European startup news site, looked at more than 14,000 European funding announcements and concluded that Tuesday is “the hardest day to stand out”, because that is when startups crowd in. In Australia the crowd comes a little earlier: Monday and Tuesday together get 45% of announcements.
It is worse at Series A, which is the round most likely to be your first big announcement. 27% of Series A rounds are announced on a Tuesday, more than any other day. At Series B it is 36%.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseSeries A announcements by weekday
| Weekday | Deals | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | 58 | 23% |
| Tue | 68 | 27% |
| Wed | 54 | 22% |
| Thu | 35 | 14% |
| Fri | 24 | 10% |
| Sat | 2 | 1% |
| Sun | 7 | 3% |
27% of Series A rounds go out on a Tuesday, more than any other day.
The biggest companies don’t follow the crowd. Series C and later rounds are spread almost evenly from Monday to Thursday, each day getting between 20% and 22%. Airwallex announced its Series G on a Monday, Employment Hero on a Wednesday and Harrison.ai on a Tuesday. Our guess: these companies have the name and the PR budget to get covered on any weekday, so they pick the day that suits their story.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseSeries C, D and growth rounds by weekday
| Weekday | Deals | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | 31 | 21% |
| Tue | 32 | 22% |
| Wed | 33 | 22% |
| Thu | 29 | 20% |
| Fri | 18 | 12% |
| Sat | 5 | 3% |
| Sun | 0 | 0% |
5 of 237 deals, largest first
| Date | Company | Round | Sector | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | Firmus | Growth | Tech | A$3100M | blockspace.media |
| Akaysha Energy | Growth | Deep tech | A$1008M | energy-storage.news | |
| Apr 2026 | Firmus | Growth | Tech | A$1000M | overnightsuccess.vc |
| Firmus Technologies | Growth | Tech | A$783M | firmus.co | |
| Dec 2025 | Airwallex | Series D+ | Fintech | A$772M | smartcompany.com.au |
Later-stage rounds are spread evenly from Monday to Thursday.
So here is what we would do:
- Announce on a Wednesday or Thursday. Journalists are at their desks and you are up against fewer rounds than on Tuesday. Monday has its own problem: Version One warns of “a backlog of news that has waited to come out from the weekend”.
- Don’t announce on a Friday unless you want the news to slip by. v2food’s Friday announcement still got covered, but it had an international story to tell. See who else announced on a Friday.
- In May and August, give the story a hook. A big new customer or a senior hire gives a journalist a reason to pick your round over the others that week.
- In January, expect fewer readers. Less competition, but many of the people you want to reach are at the beach.
- Pitch journalists early. Version One suggests “pre-pitching journalists at least 48 hours before your official announcement day”.
For more on how rounds have changed, read fewer deals, bigger cheques and why seed is the new Series A.
The announcement is the starting gun for your finance hire
The press release is the moment everyone celebrates. The months after it are when the work starts: more people to hire, and a board that wants better numbers. 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.”
The hire also takes longer than most founders expect, because the best candidates already have jobs. As I put it in another post: “They’re going to have a four week notice period or more depending on the level. If it’s ultra urgent and you need two weeks, you’re cutting out half the pool.” So start the search while the round is closing, not after the announcement.
A Series A usually brings the first finance hire, and a Series B the first CFO. Our study of when Australian startups hire finance has the evidence.
Raising soon? You’ll need a finance lead to get you through it. We’ll find you the best person.
Tom calls you back, usually within one business day. Or call 02 9099 7619.
Not raising yet? Explore the funding database and filter every announced round by stage, sector, city, weekday and month.
For the signs it is time, and what a first CFO costs, read when to hire a CFO.
Sources and notes
- Data: the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database, 2,548 announced Australian startup rounds from January 2016 to early October 2026.
- Weekday figures use the 1,643 rounds whose announcement we could date to the day (Tuesday 379, Monday 363, Wednesday 335, Thursday 315, Friday 186, Sunday 41, Saturday 24). Percentages are each day’s count divided by 1,643; Monday and Tuesday together are 742 of 1,643 (45%). Saturday is under 30 rounds, so read it as direction only.
- Month figures use all 2,548 rounds (May 285, August 259, January 157). Each calendar month covers about ten years.
- The Series A figure is counted from the deal rows: 68 of the 248 Series A rounds with an exact date were announced on a Tuesday, and 47 of the 129 Series B rounds (36%). The Series C and later figure counts Series C, Series D and later, and growth rounds with an exact date (148 rounds): Monday 21%, Tuesday 22%, Wednesday 22%, Thursday 20%, Friday 12%.
- Dates come from announcement coverage, so a round reported a day after its press release counts on the later day. About 1 in 7 spot-checked rows sat in a neighbouring month or year.
- Coverage is about two thirds of the market: 247 deals in 2025 here against 390 in Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures’ 2025 State of Australian Startup Funding. It is likely weighted to rounds that got press coverage.
- We have no data on how much coverage, traffic or inbound each announcement got. The advice on which day to pick is our view, built on when rounds are announced and on the outside sources linked above. The 30 June explanation is our guess.
- 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 is the best day to announce a startup funding round in Australia?
Wednesday or Thursday, in our view. Monday and Tuesday are the most common days (22% and 23% of announcements in the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database), so your news is up against more rounds than on any other day. Wednesday and Thursday still have full newsrooms and fewer rivals. Friday gets only 11% of announcements, and fewer people are reading at the end of the week.
Which month has the most Australian startup funding announcements?
May, with 11% of all announced rounds, then August with 10%. January is the quietest month, with 6%, because much of Australia is on summer holiday.
Should I announce on a Friday to avoid the competition?
Only for small news you do not need anyone to see. Friday gets 11% of funding announcements, half of Tuesday’s 23%, but it also has fewer readers and fewer journalists at their desks. For a round you want candidates, customers and other investors to notice, pick Wednesday or Thursday instead.
When should a startup start hiring after announcing a raise?
Before the announcement. Senior finance candidates are usually employed and on notice periods of four weeks or more, and the work that needs them starts the month the money lands. A Series A is the usual trigger for a first finance hire and a Series B for a first CFO.
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.