Which Australian startups are on LinkedIn’s 2026 watch list?

LinkedIn has released its 2026 Top Startups Australia list, a ranking of 20 young companies that are growing quickly, hiring strong talent and catching the eye of investors and jobseekers. The list draws on LinkedIn platform data.

Fourteen of the 20, or 70%, are on it for the first time. To qualify, a company must be independent, privately held, five years old or younger and have at least 30 full time employees. Rankings weigh employment growth, engagement with the company’s LinkedIn page, interest in its jobs, and how many staff it has recruited from LinkedIn’s global top companies.

Heidi takes the top spot, up from second last year. The Melbourne company makes AI medical scribe software that automates clinical documentation, and it is also developing an AI agent to complete administrative tasks for clinicians. Dr Thomas Kelly, a former vascular surgical resident, is chief executive and cofounded it with Waleed Mussa and Yu Liu.

Second is Everlab, a preventative health company offering personalised health assessments, diagnostics and AI driven care plans through a membership. Chief executive and cofounder Marc Hermann previously cofounded Foodspring, which Mars acquired in 2019. Cricket captain Pat Cummins is among its backers.

Grace Brown founded Andromeda, which sits third, and she runs it as chief executive. She began building an early version of the company’s companion robot, Abi, as a University of Melbourne student, and the company launched in 2022. Abi is a humanoid robot that holds conversations with aged care residents and entertains groups.

Lyrebird Health is fourth, up from seventh. Cofounder and chief executive Kai Van Lieshout started it while still at university. Its AI tools turn patient consultations into structured clinical notes.

Healthtech holds five of the top eight places. LinkedIn says that points to technology being aimed at practical healthcare problems, from clinician paperwork to early disease detection.

Lorikeet builds AI customer support agents that handle queries by voice, chat and email. Its clients include fintechs, healthtechs and crypto marketplaces. Steve Hind, a former Stripe executive, is chief executive, and Jamie Hall, a former Google engineer, is chief technology officer.

CORTO makes software for legal research, drafting and automating legal tasks. It is part of ATI Group, the legal technology company founded by Christian Beck, who also founded LEAP Legal Software in 1992.

Melbourne’s Firmable is a sales intelligence platform that helps teams find and qualify companies and contacts, including list building and lead finding. Its cofounders are Leigh Jasper, Paul Perrett and Karthik Venkatasubramanian. Jasper also cofounded Aconex, which Oracle later acquired, and he and Perrett serve as joint chief executives.

Diraq is developing quantum computing processors based on modified silicon transistors. Professor Andrew Dzurak founded it as a UNSW Sydney spinout in 2022 and remains chief executive.

Syenta works on semiconductor packaging and came out of the Australian National University. Dr Jekaterina Viktorova is its cofounder and chief executive.

In Adelaide, Praetorian Aeronautics designs defence drones and related systems for surveillance and security missions. Brett Hill founded the company and is its chief executive.

LinkedIn released new small business research alongside the list. It found 57% of SMB owners agree that starting and running a business is easier today because of AI, and 79% of Australian small business marketers agree AI helps smaller brands compete with bigger ones. Separately, Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index found 63% of Australian AI users say they are producing work they could not have produced a year ago.

Brendan Wong, LinkedIn Australia Career Expert, told Dynamic Business what the list could mean for small businesses, given that many of these startups are using AI to cut admin for doctors, improve customer support and help sales teams.

“What’s stands out about this year’s list is how Australian startups are using AI to work on very specific problems, whether that’s reducing admin for doctors, improving customer support or helping sales teams work more effectively. For small businesses, that matters because AI can give smaller teams access to capabilities that previously required far more people, time or resources.

“We’re already seeing that shift among Australian small businesses, with 57% of SMB owners saying AI is making it easier to start and run a business. The opportunity for founders is to be clear about the problem they’re solving, then think carefully about where new technology can genuinely help them move faster or compete more effectively.”

Surveys like these capture opinion. Deloitte research, reported by Dynamic Business for World SME Day, found two thirds of Australian small and medium businesses use AI in some form, yet just 5% are fully enabled to realise its potential benefits.