This Week in Australian Startups - 22nd February, 2023

This week Meta announced it’s launching a new paid verification service. The official announcement came from Mark Zuckerberg using the new Instagram channel feature :

Meta isn’t the first social media platform to build a subscription product with YouTube Premium, Twitter Blue, Snapchat+, Discord Nitro, Reddit Premium all coming before in an effort to increase their Average Revenue Per User.

For Meta it’s important timing, with Apple’s ATT roll out responsible for a loss of $10 billion per year in ad revenue . Also to note the price for iOS is factoring the 30% cut Apple takes, directly incentivising customers to buy on the web instead.

The Internet, and social media, has always allowed for anonymity - more recently we’ve seen the darker side of this with fake news and trolls dominating headlines. Verification on social media will be a step to mitigate this, and not allow people to hide behind fake identities.

My personal opinion is that this also needs to be looked in the context of the Google vs Gonzalez case and the protections Section 230 provides technology companies. If you’re not familiar with the case, you can go deeper here, and for Section 230, here and here .

The short of it, if Gonzalez wins it would mean platforms like Twitter, Meta and Google would be liable for the content they recommend. This may extend to digital advertising, pretty much all of Meta’s revenue.

It would almost certainly impact how they promote content algorithmically, and the best way to be more accountable for the content promoted - keep your users accountable too. Here’s where verification comes in. Being able to pin point certain content to a specific person (who has verified it’s their account using a government ID) means the table stakes are higher for sharing and posting content on platforms.

This could also extend to content promoted through digital advertising - what if you bought a product based off of an ad you saw on Instagram and it caused damages. Would you be able to get compensation from Instagram?

Aside from being good business by monetising your most engaged users, it also diversifies social media’s reliance on ad revenue.

Top News

TikTok launches a revamped creator fund called the ‘Creativity Program’ in beta, more here

Weel launches new payments tool in response to high rates of employee ‘spending anxiety’, more here

Grocery delivery startup MILKRUN trims staffing by 20%, reduces hubs to hit break even, more here

Former Salesforce Ventures boss Mike Ferrari is now running a new $40 million sovereign capabilities VC fund, more here and here

These are the biggest French startups in 2023 according to the French government, more here

The grad app, Hatch , that’s like Tinder for jobs, more here

Here are the 12 startups from Startmate ’s Summer23 cohort, more here

Antler Australia ups valuations in early-stage startup by 20% also upping its pre-Seed investment to $225,000, more here

Microsoft and Sony square off in EU showdown over Activision and Call of Duty, more here

Female-led startup The OneTwo launches its tech solution for bad bras, more here

Atlassian and Envoy briefly blame each other for data breach, more here

Tech’s next great mafia? Laid-off talent, more here

Disgraced tech startup GetSwift and its founders just copped a whopping $18 million in fines as ‘the unacceptable face of startup capitalism’, more here

Australia’s billion-dollar heartbreak: The startups that got away, more here

Japan’s central bank to pilot digital currency starting in April, more here

WiseTech Global acquires another US logistics company, Blume Global , for $602 million. More here

10 years of Ignition : Transforming how professional services do business with clients, more here

Grocery delivery brand VOLY just reemerged from the ashes of its collapse, more here

Investment platform Superhero rehires an OG marketer, Rachel Hopping , as its head of strategy, more here

Airwallex builds out its leadership team with Stripe and Morgan Stanley execs, more here

Layoffs spell opportunity for some fintech startups, more here

Australian Funding Rounds

Adelaide agtech Optomni raises $200,000 in Seed round to tackle food waste, more here

Quantum Brilliance raises $25.7M for its mini quantum computers that run on synthetic diamonds, more here

SwarmFarm Robotics raises $12M to help bridge the gap between farmers and autonomous technology, more here

Shift Closes $27M Series C Equity Raise Fuelled by Record Growth, more here

Investment insights platform Networks X lands $610,000 Seed round, more here

Brands collaboration marketplace PARTNAR banks $200,000 Seed round from Skalata, more here

International Highlights

Quantum Motion Raises ￡42 Million Investment Round Led By Bosch Ventures, more here

Aspire raises $100m series C, says annual volume has tripled, more here

Autonomous cargo drone airline Dronamics reveals it’s raised $40M, pre-Series A, more here

Gaming fitness startup Quell raises ￡8m for wearable exercise tech, more here

AeroCloud , a cloud-native airport management platform, raises $12.6M, more here