Three Aussie startups that raised $19.5 million this week

It was a little quieter on the funding front this week. But we still had three Australian startups raise over $19 million, led by Gridcog’s $12.5 million Series A round.

Keep reading to learn more about Gridcog, LendUS and Wildfire Energy.

Energy modelling startup Gridcog has raised $12.5 million in an oversubscribed Series A round to expand its platform and international team.

The round was led by ABB Electrification Ventures, with participation from Axpo Ventures, DNV Ventures and Verbund Ventures.

It follows a $6.4 million raise back in 2024.

Founded by Fabian Le Gay Brereton and Pete Tickler, Gridcog helps energy developers and businesses model complex renewable energy projects involving solar, wind, battery storage and flexible electricity demand.

Its platform is designed to replace slow and error-prone spreadsheet modelling with transparent simulations that can assess energy generation, grid constraints, tariffs, market participation and project finances.

Gridcog said customers have modelled tens of thousands of renewable energy projects through the platform. Its users include Shell, AGL, AusNet Services, Perth Airport and Greenvolt.

The startup will use the fresh cash injection to further develop its technology and grow its product, customer and commercial teams across Australia, the UK and Europe.

Same-day mortgage application fintech LendUs has raised $5 million in seed funding.

The round for the embedded finance platform was led by Carthona Capital and attracted nearly double the committed capital before it was capped.

LendUs was founded in 2023 by 26-year-old CEO Dean Mendelowitz, a former data scientist at Zip, supported by Brad Lindenberg and Graham Mendelowitz.

Lindenberg sold US BNPL QuadPay to Zip for $403 million, and Graham Mendelowitz founded specialist mortgage lender MKM Capital, which was acquired by MA Financial Group.

The LendUs plug-and-play model enables brands, member organisations and digital platforms to offer white-labelled home loan broking to customers.

Veteran Queensland startup Wildfire Energy has raised $2 million from Qantas and Airbus to scale its waste-to-energy and fuels technology for the airline industry.

The raise, via the Climate Tech Partners’ aviation sidecar fund, backed by the airline and plane manufacturer, was topped up by $3.15 million in grant funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

The Brisbane startup, founded in 2016 and bootstrapped until 2022, has developed patented modular technology, dubbed Moving Injection Horizontal Gasification (MIHG), which converts unprocessed waste, including household rubbish, into synthesis gas (syngas), used to generate power, heat, and low-carbon fuels, including methanol and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The raise will be used to upgrade an eight-year-old pilot plant near Brisbane to commercial scale.

The $3.15 million from ARENA’s SAF funding initiative is to pilot the integration of Wildfire’s MIHG technology with methanol synthesis to produce methanol and undertake a feasibility study to assess a Queensland facility that would convert waste into SAF.

The company hopes it will result in deployments throughout regional Australia, believing it’s a solution for councils across Australia to avoid landfill space constraints and emissions.

Never miss a story: sign up to SmartCompany’s free daily newsletter and find our best stories on LinkedIn.