The New Kids on the Block – Start-ups in Australia
This year, Allura Partners have seen a significant increase of roles within technology start-ups, spanning across all divisions in the business. Naturally, our technology division has seen the biggest increase but as these tech businesses grow, they’ve also needed strong transformation and finance talent to support this growth.
John O’Donnell, Manager of our Accounting & Finance division shares his thoughts.
In recent years, the emergence of new and diverse technology start-ups across Australia have become the norm. Everything ranging from HR & Payroll software, Neobanks, Edtech & Online Learning apps as well as new technology firms have somewhat “thrived” despite a global pandemic. Although there has been no shortage of challenges, many start-ups demonstrated an innate ability to navigate these challenges and pivot when it mattered most.
Interestingly and almost difficult to fathom, there have been record levels of venture capital investment injected into Australian start-ups with 92 deals recorded in the first half of 2020.
Amanda Price, Head of High Growth Ventures at KPMG recently shared her thoughts:
"Australian start-ups have continued to attract record levels, despite the ongoing impact of the pandemic. This points to how lockdown has rapidly accelerated digital trends and increased the importance of digital business models and solutions, from B2B solutions to Edtech and beyond. For example, globally B2B productivity solutions accounted for US$14.3 billion in VC investment over the past three months.”
“With some countries and territories opening up their economies, there will likely continue to be challenges with international travel and deal-making for some time. This is causing many VC investors to focus more on opportunities in their local markets — which could have a negative impact on some Australian growth stage companies currently looking for overseas funding. Q3’20 will likely show whether VC investment will withstand the full brunt of the pandemic’s impact, and whether Australian start-ups can turn the ongoing disruption and challenge of the pandemic into an opportunity,” she said.
Start-ups are known to disrupt and challenge some of the best business and innovative minds around. Historically, technological development hasn’t resulted in software being accessible via the ubiquity of the web like it does today and with many candidates finding these “disruptors” intriguing, it must come as no surprise that there is an increase in job searching within these types of companies.
LinkedIn recently compiled its third annual “Top Start-ups List” by analysing their members activities and assessing the following key criteria:
- Jobseeker interest
- Employee growth
- Member engagement with the company and its employees
- How well these start-ups pulled talent from their flagship
LinkedIn Top Companies list
1. Judo Bank
2. Volt Bank
3. LAB3
4. Expert360
5. Employment Hero
6. Go1
7. Xinja
8. Shippit
9. WithYouWithMe
10. Willow
We are currently working on various finance opportunities with some of our technology clients across a range of levels. Please reach out to our Accounting & Finance team if you would like to have a confidential chat.