Seven startups from Australia and New Zealand raised more than $50 million between them in the fortnight to 19 August 2026, led by livestock monitoring company Ranchbot’s Series B. Figures are as reported.
Two deals carried a twist. Ranchbot used its raise to move its parent company to Delaware and its global headquarters to Texas, a structure US investors often prefer. Influencer marketing platform Fabulate raised almost entirely from its existing shareholders. The rest of the list spanned robotics, defence, agriculture, finance and trades software.
Ranchbot (Fort Worth, founded in Sydney)
Ranchbot, formerly Farmbot, raised a $22 million (US$15 million) Series B led by Lewis & Clark Partners, with Fulcrum Global Capital, Builders VC, Level VC, Meat & Livestock Australia’s Cultiv8 fund and long time investor Macdoch Ventures. Its remote water and livestock monitoring has more than 12,000 customers managing about 10 million cattle and 15 million sheep. As part of the deal, Delaware company Ranchbot Technology Holdings becomes the group’s global parent, with headquarters in Fort Worth, Startup Daily reported.
Alloy Robotics (Sydney)
Alloy raised an US$8 million seed round at a US$80 million valuation, led by Square Peg, with Blackbird, Airtree and Skip Capital returning. Founded in Sydney in 2025 by former Eucalyptus executive Joe Harris, it builds AI agents that comb robot fleet logs, telemetry, video and sensor data to find the root cause of failures. Leaders and engineers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Tesla and Waymo also backed the company.
BioScout (Sydney)
University of Sydney spinout BioScout raised A$6.75 million co-led by Demea Sustainable Investment and Astanor, with GrainInnovate, GrainCorp Ventures, Hort Innovation, Artesian and Division Q. Its in-field sensors, built in Marrickville, detect more than 40 airborne crop threats in real time.
Sophiie AI (Gold Coast)
Gold Coast’s Sophiie AI raised a $5 million seed round at a $30 million valuation from investors including Archangel Ventures, Admiralty Capital Group, Antler, Gandel Invest and Aussie Angels, Business News Australia reported. Its software automates quoting, scheduling, invoicing and customer messages for trades and service businesses.
Fabulate
Fabulate raised $4.5 million at an $84.5 million post-money valuation, backed by Centerstone Capital and Nightingale Partners, Mediaweek reported. Around 90% of the money came from existing shareholders, and chief executive Toby Kennett said the influencer marketing platform is profitable.
Seitec (Canberra)
Canberra defence technology company Seitec raised $4 million led by ACTivate Capital, with Beaten Zone Venture Partners and UNSW. Founded by former RAAF member Daniel Stevens, it develops passive sensing that detects and monitors activity without revealing the user’s position.
Sterling (Wellington and Auckland)
Sterling raised NZ$3.8 million led by Blackbird, with Rowan Simpson, Eliot Crowther and other Trade Me, Xero and Vend alumni. Founded by Nik Wakelin and Ludwig Wendzich, its software works inside existing finance systems and inboxes to automate invoice processing, reconciliations and month end tasks.
Jack’s take
Ranchbot is the deal I’d watch. A Delaware flip is often the price of US growth capital, and it moves the parent company, and a share of the upside, offshore. Fabulate is the quieter signal: when existing investors put in 90% of a round for a profitable company, they are backing what they can already see.