Australian startups Little Birdie and fintech firm mx51 as well as New York and Tel Aviv-based visual technology platform AnyClip have announced raising funds.
Australian e-commerce startup Little Birdie nets $23m from CBA
Australian online shopping startup Little Birdie on Tuesday announced that it has secured a A$30 million ($23 million) pre-launch investment from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
CBA, one of the country’s largest banks, will integrate curated Little Birdie shopping content into its CommBank app and provide the startup with access to the bank’s 11 million retail customers based in Australia, according to a statement.
The investment comes as Little Birdie gears up for its launch in mid-June, making it one of the largest pre-launch funding rounds in Australia. The investment values the company at A$130 million ($100 million).
In a statement, the startup said it will curate more than 70 million products to search, compare and track, allowing customers to discover all the latest price drops, sale events, and exclusive offers across different brands and stores.
Little Birdie said it will use the fresh funds to further enhance its platform as well as fast track its growth and international expansion plans.
Australian fintech startup mx51 lands $19.5 in Series A
Australian fintech startup mx51 on Tuesday announced that it has raised A$25 million ($19.5 million) in a Series A funding round led by Acorn Capital, Commencer Capital, and Mastercard less than a year after it spun out of Assembly Payments.
The startup, founded by former Westpac executive and Assembly Payments co-founder Victor Zheng, operates a fintech platform that enables banks and non-bank acquirers to provide multi-channel payments and value-added solutions to merchants.
mx51 said the round will allow the company to rapidly expand in Australia and build out more features and functionality to compete with other payment platforms. It also aims to grow its headcount by 30% this year, adding to its team of product, engineering, and operations professionals.
Visual intelligence firm AnyClip secures $47m
AnyClip, a visual intelligence technology startup based in the US, Israel, and Europe, has secured $47 million in its latest funding round led by global venture capital firm JVP.
Other investors in the funding round included La Maison, Bank Mizrahi, and internal investors, the startup said.
AnyClip mobilises latent video libraries and immediately converts them into assets that can be searched, measured, and merchandised via a single and centralised global SaaS platform.
Gil Becker, the company’s president and CEO, said that video is now the leading communications medium for businesses around the world. However, he noted that the shift to video has resulted in an infinite amount of new content that he said is nearly impossible to navigate.
“Our visual intelligence platform is helping bring order to this chaos for businesses in all industries, of all sizes, and in any language,” Becker said.