The Quick Version Australian startup funding looks healthy from a distance. In 2025, venture capital investment hit $5.4 billion across 390 deals, according to the State of Australian Startup Funding report by Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures. That’s a 31% increase on 2024 and the third-largest funding year on record. But the headline obscures … Read more
The quick version Disclaimer: This content is general in nature and does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Rocking Horse Group is a specialist R&D finance lender, not a tax advisor. The information below reflects publicly available ATO guidance as of May 2026. Always consult your accountant or R&D advisor for guidance specific to … Read more
The quick version Starting an Australian business has never looked more promising on paper. Venture capital is flowing, the government is expanding R&D incentives, and a Dealroom and AWS report found Australia produces billion-dollar companies more efficiently than the US, UK, or China. But if you’re actually in the early stages of building something, the … Read more
The Quick Version Three months ago, you were facing a cash flow gap that risked slowing your product roadmap. Your R&D Tax Incentive refund was still months away, while eligible spend continued to build. So you did the smart thing: you took out an R&D loan against that accrued expenditure and put the capital straight … Read more
Five themes every R&D-active business should be watching When Cooperative Research Australia brings together researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders at The University Club of Western Australia this May for Collaborate & Innovate 2026, the conversation won’t be about whether Australia can innovate. That question was settled years ago. The real conversation is about what happens … Read more
The Quick Version You’ve spent $2 million on R&D this financial year. Your R&D Tax Incentive claim will return $870,000 at the refundable offset (your 25% company tax rate plus the 18.5% R&D premium, totalling 43.5% for most eligible companies under $20M turnover), and that number is probably sitting in your financial model right now, … Read more
You’ve just closed a quarter where your engineering team shipped three major features, refactored your authentication system, and started building a new customer portal. Your finance lead asks: “Which of these costs should we capitalise?” The question sounds simple. However, the answer reshapes your balance sheet, influences investor conversations, and determines how much you’ll claim … Read more
When UK quantum computing firm Quantum Motion decided where to build their next laboratory in 2024, they had the world to choose from. They picked Sydney. When Korean industrial giant POSCO wanted to establish their first Critical Minerals R&D Lab, they chose Perth. What do these global innovators know that you might be missing? Australia … Read more
For much of the last decade, Australian SMEs operated in a unique environment: A zero-interest-rate policy made capital abundant, and R&D budgets were treated as faith-based initiatives, necessary for the innovation narrative, but opaque in their financial attribution. That era has ended. With the Reserve Bank maintaining elevated cash rates and business investment expected to … Read more
Artificial intelligence is revolutionising how we approach clinical research in Australia. Today, AI systems are diagnosing leukaemia, matching lung cancer patients to appropriate clinical trials, and analysing medical imaging with remarkable accuracy. Walk into any major Australian clinical setting, and you’ll find AI tools calculating sepsis risk in emergency departments and predicting cancer outcomes. Here’s … Read more
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