Five startups with roots in Australia and New Zealand raised more than $20 million between them in the week to 14 July 2026, led by a Series A for Australian-founded energy software company Gridcog. Figures are as reported.
The common thread is heavy industry rather than consumers. Food processing, home lending, energy, insurance and mining all carry large data and compliance workloads, and each of these companies is selling software or science that takes cost out of that work. Corporate investors were prominent: a poultry producer, a group of European energy and engineering firms, and a US and Japan venture firm all wrote cheques.
Gridcog (London, founded in Australia)
Gridcog closed an oversubscribed Series A of £7 million, which Startup Daily reported as about $14 million, led by ABB Electrification Ventures. Verbund X Ventures, Axpo Ventures and DNV Ventures joined, alongside existing backers AlbionVC and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Founded by Australians Fabian Le Gay Brereton and Pete Tickler, the company simulates generation, storage, tariffs and grid constraints for hybrid energy projects, replacing spreadsheet models. It is now based in London, with offices in Perth and Melbourne.
LendUs (Sydney)
Sydney fintech LendUs raised a $5 million seed round led by Carthona Capital. Business News Australia reported the round was heavily oversubscribed, with interest reaching close to double the committed capital before it was capped. Founder and chief executive Dean Mendelowitz, 26, is a former data scientist at Zip Co, and Brad Lindenberg, who sold QuadPay to Zip, is among the founding shareholders. LendUs lets brands embed home loan comparison and origination tools inside their own platforms.
Just Meat Protein (Brisbane)
Inghams Group invested $1.05 million for a 10 per cent stake in Brisbane food technology company Just Meat Protein, as part of an oversubscribed $1.8 million seed round. The startup holds an exclusive worldwide licence to CSIRO’s hydrolysed poultry protein technology, which turns low value poultry cuts that would typically go to animal feed into a protein powder for sports nutrition, aged care and other uses. Co-founder Dr Aarti Tobin has described the ingredient as allergen free.
Hyades (Auckland)
Auckland’s Hyades raised a NZ$1.1 million pre-seed round led by Icehouse Ventures, with K1W1 and angel investors Tony Falkenstein and Tim Brown, plus a NZ$400,000 government R&D grant, SmartCompany reported. Founded by Ashin Alex, Sam Kurian and Jimin Seo, it builds AI tools that turn satellite imagery, drone footage and radar into usable insights for insurance, agriculture, mining and climate science. The product was described as being in early alpha.
ESGAgent.ai (Brisbane)
Brisbane’s ESGAgent.ai closed a $725,000 seed round led by DNX Ventures, according to Startup Daily, which corrected an earlier figure of $450,000 that reflected DNX’s investment alone. Former Arcadis executive Greg Steele joined as an investor and director. Founded by Shan Vahora, the platform automates climate disclosure, emissions, workplace safety and modern slavery reporting for heavy industry, with clients reportedly including tier one miners.
Jack’s take
None of these is a consumer app. Each one is selling into an industry with real money and a real data or paperwork problem, which is a sturdier place to start than chasing attention. Gridcog is the one I keep coming back to: four big energy and engineering names now own a piece of a planning tool their competitors also use, and that tells me it is turning into infrastructure.