Looking back on our coverage of Australian startups this year, one theme cuts through. AI touched everything — but its most immediate effect was a brutal reshuffling of advantage.
Speed was rewarded. Incumbency, in many cases, was not.
Unicorns that spent a decade building market position are now scrambling to adapt. Startups that barely existed 12 months ago are competing globally.
Harrison.ai, Lorikeet, Heidi Health and Relevance AI all gained serious international traction.
Harrison.ai and Leonardo.Ai both built domestically trained foundation models. Australia is one of nine nations to have done so. Several of these companies went from zero to millions in annual recurring revenue within 12 months. That used to take years.
The way companies are built has changed too. In October, 22-year-old Alisa Wu raised $2 million in 36 hours for her startup Lucent — before she had employees or a product. “ChatGPT is like my CTO,” she said.
