Australian startup deals fell 23%, from 321 in 2022 to 247 in 2025, while rounds of A$100M or more stayed at 18 in both years, according to the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database.
Fewer startups are raising
The number of Australian startup rounds climbed every year to 2022. Then it turned. According to our data, there were 321 announced deals in 2022 and 247 in 2025, a 23% drop in three years.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseAustralian startup deals by year, with rounds of A$100M or more
Deal count peaked at 321 in 2022 and was 247 in 2025.
| 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 |
| Year | Rounds of A$100M+ |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 0 |
| 2017 | 2 |
| 2018 | 6 |
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 11 |
| 2021 | 21 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 13 |
| 2024 | 13 |
| 2025 | 18 |
| 2026 (YTD) | 18 |
Deals fell from 321 in 2022 to 247 in 2025. Rounds of A$100M or more were 18 in both years.
If you raised in 2021 or 2022, the round you are planning now will not feel like the last one. Fewer companies are getting funded, and SmartCompany’s coverage of the 2025 market report noted that lead investors were still scarce and fundraising was taking longer.
The biggest rounds kept coming
While the deal count fell, the very large rounds held up. We recorded 18 rounds of A$100M or more in 2022 and 18 again in 2025. With fewer deals overall, big rounds grew from 6% of rounds to 9%.
You know most of the names. In 2025 Airwallex raised A$466M in May and came back for more in December. Firmus raised US$505M in a round led by Coatue to build AI data centres. Synchron closed a A$305M Series D, and Melbourne’s Heidi raised a US$65M Series B led by Point72.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseThe largest Australian startup rounds of 2025
5 of 247 deals, largest first
| Date | Company | Round | Sector | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | Firmus | Growth | Tech | A$3100M | blockspace.media |
| Firmus Technologies | Growth | Tech | A$783M | firmus.co | |
| Dec 2025 | Airwallex | Series D+ | Fintech | A$772M | smartcompany.com.au |
| Airwallex | Series D+ | Fintech | A$512M | airwallex.com | |
| Firmus | Stage not stated | Tech | A$500M | capitalbrief.com |
Firmus and Airwallex raised the biggest rounds of 2025. Synchron, Protecht, Harrison.ai and Heidi were among the 18 rounds of A$100M or more.
Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures, who track the whole market, found that the 20 largest deals took 58% of all money raised in 2025.
The middle is where it got hard
So who lost out? The rounds in between. In our data, rounds of A$5M to A$20M were 35% of rounds in 2022 and only 23% in 2025. That is where the typical Series A sits: the median Series A since 2021 is A$15.8M. Small rounds under A$5M went the other way, from 32% of rounds to 47%.
You can see it in the typical round too. The median round was A$7.65M in 2022 and A$5.0M in 2025, back where it was in 2018.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseMedian Australian startup round, 2016 to 2026
| Year | Median | Deals with an amount |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | A$2.5M | 140 |
| 2017 | A$4.0M | 147 |
| 2018 | A$5.0M | 157 |
| 2019 | A$4.9M | 172 |
| 2020 | A$7.0M | 182 |
| 2021 | A$11M | 241 |
| 2022 | A$7.7M | 278 |
| 2023 | A$5.5M | 237 |
| 2024 | A$5.2M | 248 |
| 2025 | A$5.0M | 210 |
| 2026 (YTD) | A$11M | 163 |
The median round fell from A$7.65M in 2022 to A$5.0M in 2025. It is A$11.4M in 2026 so far.
It matches what founders tell me. After the same conversation with five climate tech founders in a fortnight, I wrote in September:
“The money is there, but it’s pooling at the two ends.”
This year, the small rounds are drying up
The median round is A$11.4M in 2026 so far. That looks like a recovery until you see what is behind it. According to our data, rounds under A$5M fell from 47% of rounds in 2025 to 29% this year, and rounds of A$100M or more rose to 11%. Firmus, Airwallex and Heidi have all raised again, and Gilmour Space raised A$217M in January.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseThe largest Australian startup rounds of 2026 so far
5 of 188 deals, largest first
| Date | Company | Round | Sector | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2026 | Firmus | Growth | Tech | A$1000M | overnightsuccess.vc |
| Firmus | Growth | Tech | A$725M | instagram.com | |
| Airwallex | Series D+ | Fintech | A$699M | instagram.com | |
| Heidi Health | Series C | Tech | A$517M | overnightsuccess.vc | |
| Heidi | Series C | Tech | A$517M | overnightsuccess.vc |
Firmus, Airwallex and Heidi raised the biggest rounds of 2026 so far. 18 rounds have topped A$100M.
When the first-quarter numbers came out in May, I wrote on LinkedIn:
“If you’re raising a sub-$5M round right now, this market feels very different to what that number suggests.”
Why we think the money is bunching up
Investors are backing the companies they think will win. After the 2022 correction, funds got pickier. Cut Through’s founder Chris Gillings summed up 2025 this way: “investments are happening at a rapid rate, but the bar is staying high”. A fund that can only write a few cheques puts them into the companies already pulling ahead, such as Airwallex.
Many VC funds are short of money themselves. Capital Brief has reported on “zombie VCs”, firms that keep running old funds but struggle to raise new ones. Titanium Ventures, one of the country’s largest, restructured after Telstra pulled out as an investor. A fund that can’t raise again stops leading new rounds and saves its money for its best existing companies.
AI is pushing first rounds up. One early-stage investor, quoted in Cut Through Venture’s report for the second quarter of 2026, said companies that would once have raised $1M or $2M are “now coming to market looking to raise $5 million to $10 million off the back of an AI narrative”. Small funds get priced out, so fewer companies raise and each one asks for more.
What to do if you’re raising in the middle
If your next round sits between A$5M and A$20M, plan for a longer process and a harder look at your numbers. Investors have fewer cheques to write and they will pick the companies that make the decision easy.
That comes down to finance. In July I wrote about the founders who were still getting funded:
“They have the reporting sorted before anyone asks for it.”
Our advice: if a raise is 12 to 18 months away, get a finance lead in now. You want a monthly board pack, a model you can defend and a data room that already exists when the first investor asks. I usually see the first finance hire come in around a big seed or Series A. Here is when Australian startups hire finance, stage by stage. If Series B is your next round, read fewer startups are reaching Series B.
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? Open the database and filter to your stage and sector to see how rounds like yours have moved.
Common questions
Are fewer Australian startups raising money than a few years ago?
Yes. According to the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database, announced deals peaked at 321 in 2022 and fell to 247 in 2025, a drop of 23%.
How many A$100 million rounds did Australian startups raise in 2025?
Our database records 18 rounds of A$100M or more in 2025, the same as in 2022. They went to companies such as Airwallex, Firmus, Synchron, Protecht, Harrison.ai and Heidi. By early October 2026 there were 18 again.
Which startup rounds got harder to raise?
The middle. Rounds of A$5M to A$20M made up 35% of rounds in 2022 and 23% in 2025, according to the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database. Rounds under A$5M grew from 32% to 47% over the same years, then fell to 29% in 2026 so far.
How much did Australian startups raise in 2025?
A$5.1B across 390 deals, according to Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures. The 20 largest deals took 58% of that money.
When should a startup hire a finance lead before a raise?
Early enough that the reporting, model and data room exist before investors ask for them. If a Series B is in your 12 to 18 month plan, that work starts now. The first finance hire usually comes in around a big seed or Series A.
Sources and notes
- All deal counts, medians and size bands come from the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database (2,548 announced rounds, January 2016 to early October 2026). 2026 is January to early October.
- The database covers about two thirds of the market: 247 deals in 2025 against 390 in Cut Through Venture’s count. It is likely weighted to deals that got press coverage.
- Round-size shares (including the A$100M-plus share) are the count in each size band divided by deals with a disclosed amount that year (278 in 2022, 210 in 2025, 163 in 2026 to date). The median is the median disclosed round.
- Rounds of A$100M or more are counted as database rows. Some large rounds were reported more than once (Airwallex and Firmus, for example). Counting each company once a month, and merging name variants such as Heidi and Heidi Health, gives 14 big rounds in 2022 and 13 in 2025, still a far smaller fall than the 23% drop in deals. Counts under 30 show direction only.
- Dates come from announcement coverage. About 1 in 7 spot-checked rows sat in a neighbouring year or month.
- Market dollar totals and the top-20 share are from Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures’ 2025 State of Australian Startup Funding, via SmartCompany and Forbes Australia. We do not publish dollar totals.
- The 2026 shares (rounds under A$5M at 29%, A$100M or more at 11%) use the 163 rounds with a disclosed amount from January to early October 2026. Rounds under A$5M were 90 of 278 in 2022 and 98 of 210 in 2025. The median Series A (A$15.8M) covers 214 Series A rounds with a disclosed amount from 2021 to 2026.
- The early-stage investor quote is from Cut Through Venture’s Q2 2026 report, via Forbes Australia. Titanium Ventures detail from Capital Brief (January 2025).
- The “why” section is our interpretation, not a finding from the data.
- Full method: 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.
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.