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Paul Smith

Technology editor

Paul Smith edits the technology coverage and has been a leading writer on the sector for 20 years. He covers big tech, business use of tech, the fast-growing Australian tech industry and start-ups, telecommunications and national innovation policy. Connect with Paul on Twitter. Email Paul at psmith@afr.com

Paul Smith

Today

Emma Foley is Uber’s new Australian managing director, while Ed Kitchen will run Uber Eats.

New Uber bosses to see through gig economy transition

There will be new heads of both Uber and Uber Eats in Australia, ahead of gig economy rules that threaten to significantly raise its cost of doing business.

This Month

Science and Industry Minister Ed Husic has been frustrated by suggestions the decision-making process behind the big quantum investment was not thorough.

Answers emerge slowly to government’s $1b quantum questions

Questions are mounting over how PsiQuantum was backed when we have been told so often to marvel at local tech stars.

Sydney AI customer bot start-up raises from Peak XV

The Funded blog is the home for news on the tech deals that are done in Australia, as soon as we hear about them.

  • Updated
TToby Norton-Smith says x15’s app will help people guard against the growing risk of identity theft.

CBA beats government to start-up opportunity from data breach scandals

Commonwealth Bank has a new app launching on Tuesday to warn citizens when their identity documents are in the wrong hands.

April

‘Country mile ahead’: How PsiQuantum won a $1b investment

Chief scientist Cathy Foley said US-based PsiQuantum showed it was a “country mile” ahead of other Aussie companies in trying to build a world-first quantum computer.

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Rod Bristow, CEO of VC firm Investible, which is raising capital and expanding across Asia.

Made in Australia ‘over-due’ as Sydney VC forms $US150m fund in Singapore

Sydney-based VC fund Investible has secured Indonesia’s biggest bank as an investor, its CEO says Australia has ground to make up on regional peers.

Daniel Petre

Merger shake-up threatens to ‘kill off the start-up sector’

Tech leaders have warned that proposed merger laws will kill deals before they close, starving the sector of the capital it needs to continue to grow.

The Albanese government wants insurers to slash premiums for households that take steps to reduce their risk.

Insurers told to slash prices for households that reduce risks

Steps could include roof replacement, upgrading garage doors, boosting window protection, tying down sheds, and replacing flimsy hollow doors. 

Honey Insurance chief operating officer Angelo Azar, with CEO and founder Richard Joffe and chairman Peter Tonagh. The company can now plan to spend $108m of funding.

Sydney start-up Honey Insurance lands blockbuster $108m US investment

After 305 meetings Honey has closed a huge series A funding round, but it had to head offshore to find the right investors.

GoCatch co-founder Andrew Campbell arrives at Court on the first day of the trial on Tuesday.

Uber and GoCatch stagger out for round two of court case

Nobody expected a clean fight when GoCatch called out Uber for huge damages, but startling details in the first week of the trial have left both sides wounded.

GoCatch founders Andrew Campbell and Ned Moorfield pictured in 2013, before they allegedly fell out over the company’s direction.

Founder fights and investor fury exposed as Uber makes its case

Investors in fallen transport app GoCatch were alarmed by its lack of progress and wanted to sack its co-founders around the time UberX launched in Australia, private emails show.

Uber’s barrister has begun its defence against accusations it deliberately set out to harm GoCatch.

‘Not honourable, but lawful’: Uber justifies using spyware on rival

Uber’s lawyers said taking private data from its rival GoCatch was not like burglary, and compared its lawbreaking to publishers selling Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Uber admits to illegal activity at launch in Australia

A Melbourne trial to judge if Uber unfairly scuttled a rival’s business has begun with the ridesharing giant admitting it operated illegally in Australia a decade ago.

Plutora co-founder Dalibor Siroky pictured in 2016.

How Macquarie’s $46m investment in an Aussie tech firm turned into $1

Macquarie Capital poured $46m into Plutora, but sold its stake for a dollar, and administrators have met to try to figure out what is left in its operations.

Well before the ridesharing giant dominated, it had a big local rival. This week, Victorian courts will hear explosive claims of how it killed the competition.

Uber’s ‘espionage plot’ to ‘crush’ Packer-backed rival GoCatch

Well before the ride-sharing giant dominated, it had a big local rival. This week, Victorian courts will hear explosive claims of how it killed the competition.

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March

Square Peg’s Paul Bassat and Leila Lee will be testing the market’s appetite for VC investment in the second half of the year.

Square Peg touts billion-dollar returns as it hits up market for $843m

Square Peg, one of Australia’s biggest venture capital firms, has revealed its returns to shareholders have topped $1 billion

Booktopia director and former CEO, Tony Nash.

Booktopia vows to do anything to stay afloat

The boss of the book retailer says all options are on the table in a strategic review hastened by a disastrous share price performance.

Akin founder and CEO Lee Yearsley says the funding market for ambitious AI companies, led by women, is tough to crack.

There’s an AI funding boom – but Australia’s being left out

Venture capitalists are going all-in trying to back big winners, rather than spreading their funds around.

Mustafa Suleyman left DeepMind last year and set up his own chatbot business, Inflection AI.

Shock as AI founders defect to Microsoft after raising $US1.3b

The AI sector has been stunned by the founders of an AI start-up defecting to Microsoft less than a year after raising $US1.3 billion to take on OpenAI.

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  • Analysis
  • AI
Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO displays the new Blackwell GPU chip.

Cheat sheet: what Nvidia has launched, and why so many people care

Everyone knows that Nvidia is the most important company in the AI world right now, but what did it actually release on Tuesday, and what does it do?