Q-CTRL's $425M round leads $525M week for ANZ startups

Sydney quantum software firm Q-CTRL has raised AU$425 million (US$290 million) in a Series C that values it above AU$1.47 billion (US$1 billion), making it Australia's first quantum unicorn. The round anchors a week in which six ANZ startups pulled in roughly $525 million combined, including fintech Alta, adtech Vudoo, hardware maker Refilled, agtech players Provectus Algae and Aimer Farming.

What does Q-CTRL's record round include?

Salesforce Ventures, an existing backer, led the round. The federal government's National Reconstruction Fund contributed $70 million. AMD's venture arm, Jared Kushner's PE firm Affinity Partners and SPARX Asset Management also joined.

Returning investors include Alpha Edison, Alumni Ventures, Bullhound Capital, DCVC, In-Q-Tel, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Main Sequence, Ridgeline, Salus Ventures and Square Peg.

Q-CTRL says it expanded the round twice to meet investor demand. The company calls the result a record private raise for a quantum software business.

The money will fund sales of its computing software to finance and energy companies, and push its navigation technology into more aircraft and autonomous vehicles.

Michael Biercuk, a University of Sydney quantum physicist, founded Q-CTRL in 2017 to fix a core flaw in quantum computers: they are so sensitive to interference that errors can creep into a calculation before it finishes. Q-CTRL uses AI to suppress those errors.

Salesforce Ventures partner Robert Keith framed the stakes plainly: "That software layer will decide whether quantum shows up in enterprise data centres this decade."

Biercuk was born in New York, moved to Australia in 2010 and remains a US citizen. Q-CTRL is headquartered in Sydney, with offices in several US cities plus Japan, Germany and the UK.

Who is behind Jack Zhang's $67 million fintech?

Airwallex co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang has raised $114 million for his side hustle, blockchain settlement startup Alta, across Seed and Series A rounds in the past two months. The Melbourne and San Francisco company, previously known as Metal, launched in June and helps banks settle payments 24/7 using blockchain.

This week Alta announced a $67 million (US$47.5 million) Series A at an undisclosed valuation. Index Ventures led the round, with support from Google's venture arm GV, Australian VCs Blackbird and Square Peg, and Capital 49, the investment firm set up by Airwallex's founders.

The funding will pay for engineers and compliance specialists, blockchain development, and onboarding banks and payment providers to Alta's network. Zhang cofounded the company with serial entrepreneur Loong Wang and former Meta crypto developer Catherine Porter.

Can interactive video ads sell champagne?

Melbourne adtech Vudoo raised $22 million in a Series B led by US fund Blue Sky Capital, with support from several existing family office investors. The money will expand its overseas sales operations and develop its commerce technology as the company scales in the US.

Vudoo has hired two executives to lead its North American push, aiming to get more retailers selling directly through ads and videos. Nick Morgan and Andrew Spalding founded the company in 2017, after conceiving the interactive video idea in a Singapore bar.

One early checkout ran in a 2022 Vogue Australia campaign with News Corp Australia for Moët & Chandon. Viewers watching model Victoria Lee assemble a birthday celebration could buy a personalised bottle of champagne inside the video, then keep watching.

Why is a hardware startup raising $5.6 million?

Refilled, a Sydney hardware startup building smart drink dispensers to replace single-use bottles and cans, raised a $5.6 million Series A led by OIF Ventures. Melt Ventures, which backed its 2023 seed round, followed on. Veteran investor David Paradice also contributed.

The dispensers serve chilled, still and sparkling water with scores of flavour combinations, plus "boosters" such as caffeine, vitamins and electrolytes. Customers already include Meta, Google, Uber, Atlassian and Marriott Hotels, which have installed units across their properties.

Founder Ryan Nelson said he was proud to lead a hardware-focused Australian business amid a wave of AI investments. "If anything, the SaaSpocalypse is reinforcing what a great time it is to build hardware," Nelson told SmartCompany on Friday.

"You can't vibe code a hardware startup in a matter of days or weeks. It's taken us years and millions of dollars of investment to get to this point, and we're really only just getting started."

"Software tools, widgets and apps may come and go, but people will always need healthy, clean drinking water so I'm not worried. We've combined hardware, software, Australian manufacturing and a recurring beverage model into something that would be very difficult to replicate. I love the fact that during the inflection of AI, we've got more defensibility than ever."

Refilled manufactures in Penrith and is weighing global fabrication options. Nelson said the company will stay headquartered in Australia, with drinks, flavours and intellectual property remaining local.

OIF Ventures investor Oliver Darwin said the support will help Refilled grow internationally as it develops new boosters including protein, probiotics and collagen. "People see one and immediately want one for their office," Darwin said of the machines.

What are governments putting into agtech?

Sunshine Coast startup Provectus Algae secured $2.8 million in equity investment from the Queensland government's Sowing the Seeds of Farming Innovation Fund, a $30 million program backing companies that support the state's primary industries.

Provectus Algae developed a cattle feed additive called Surf'N'Turf, which it claims cut methane emissions by 85% under trial conditions.

"Surf'N'Turf was developed here in Queensland, and it has moved from something we believed could work to a product demonstrating meaningful results in thousands of cattle under commercial conditions," founder and CEO Nusqe Spanton said in a statement.

Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training Ros Bates said Queensland's beef is "the envy of the world" and the fund is backing producers to lead in agricultural technology.

New Zealand agritech Aimer Farming, which helps farmers calculate how much grass they have to feed beef cattle, raised $2.44 million (NZ$3 million). Cultivate Ventures, the Erbacher Food Family, Pacific Channel and Agnition co-led, with backing from Australia's Antipodean Capital and New Zealand investors Flying Kiwi Angels, Enterprise Angels and Angel HQ.

The cash will adapt Aimer's dairy technology for beef farmers ahead of a 2027 launch, expand its satellite pasture measurement service to more farms, develop its dairy product and enter new markets through partnerships. The platform combines smartphone and satellite measurements with pasture growth forecasts, telling farmers where to graze herds next and whether to buy extra feed.

The week's deals span quantum error correction, blockchain settlement and methane-cutting cattle feed — a signal that ANZ investor appetite now stretches well beyond the AI cohort.