Square Peg

It's a full circle moment for me. Presenting our 💸 monetisation workshop 💸 in partnership with Jethro Cohen and Shannon Scott, I'm sharing the stage with the very person who helped me get my first role in the startup ecosystem. 🎒 Same session, new city. What did we learn from our Melbourne workshop? In July, Square Peg and Airwallex brought together marketplaces in medical, automotive and gig economy verticals, as well as SaaS founders across travel, education and e-commerce. We affirmed our hypothesis that the topic is cross-vertical and front of mind. We realised the workshop is applicable for pre-revenue through Series B+ startups. And finally, by making the expertise of a FinTech pioneer and leading VC accessible to our community, we saw the value of real-time enablement. That's why we've made sure to keep the session brainstorm-friendly with actionable takeaways. 🧢 Why are we focussing on embedded finance? I couldn't have put it better than Lucy Tan who describes embedded finance as a "revenue amplifier." Shopify's payments revenue is 3x their subscription revenue, and research shows that the opportunity can be as large as 6x. So whilst SaaS continues to thrive, transactional revenue offers an uncapped revenue stream that is not proportionate to (or limited by) the customer base. Whether you're a marketplace or vertical SaaS founder, we're going to explore the relevance of embedded finance for you. Join us. Spaces are limited. Register at the link in the comments ⬇

Observability has become a critical tool for managing software infrastructure in the rapidly evolving cloud computing landscape. At the forefront of the observability market stands Datadog, a founder-led company and one of our current investments in the Global Tech Fund (GTF). GTF investor Sam Eden takes a deeper dive into the characteristics that give Datadog its defensible advantage: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gBVrBxDA #datadog #observability #software #founders Ben Hensman David M.

We're looking forward to hosting a special breakfast with Airwallex in Sydney later this month to discuss all things embedded finance for startups. If you're interested in attending, register at the link below, as spaces are limited. 🗓 Wednesday, 28 August 2024 🕐 8 am - 9:30 am 📍 Square Peg Office, Surry Hills NSW 🔗 https://lu.ma/a5wuabu4 Shannon Scott Taylor Fox-Smith Jethro Cohen #startups #fintech #finance

Everyone wake up, Vow is in Issue 12 of Forbes Australia! We're also on their website, but print sounds better. So for an updated deep dive into Vow, take a read. Sorry, no skeletons here — just George Peppou sneaking in another challenge phrase into an interview. Last time, it was ‘stupendous feedback’… this time? You tell us. Thanks to Anastasia Santoreneos you can read about Vow in Forbes here: https://lnkd.in/gC7VrmdJ

We're #hiring and looking for a new investor to join our team in Tel Aviv, Israel 🇮🇱. If you are curious and passionate about working with incredible Israeli tech founders, this could be the role for you! More details on how to apply are below. Yonatan Sela Roy Kimchi Philippe Schwartz Hagar Perez #jobalert #openroles #israel

From Fortune #BrainstormAI Singapore: Mindverse AI founder Kisson Lin on Singapore’s value as a tech hub: “Singapore has the best mix of China and U.S. culture…It has a lot of talent from the U.S. and China, and from everywhere in the world, and so it makes it easier to collaborate with people from different regions.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/g8tRjPNi

Founder Sam Kroonenburg sold education startup A Cloud Guru three years ago for $2 billion — one of the largest deals ever for an Australian tech company. Now, he's bringing the lessons he learned to Cuttable, an automated ad agency. This week, Cuttable announced it had closed a $5.5 million seed funding round led by Square Peg with participation from Rampersand and strategic angel investors. Meanwhile, Kroonenburg is stepping into the role of co-CEO alongside his co-founder Jack White. And he's bringing hard — but well-earned — lessons with him. That includes realising he needed to be less “nice” and more willing to move on quickly from people who weren’t working out. He also emphasised the power of established networks and experience in accelerating the early stages of his new company. Read the full story by Bronwen Clune👇

We're excited to join the Cuttable team on their journey to transform how brands tell their stories, and recently led their Seed round, with participation from Rampersand and strategic angel investors. Cuttable is Australia’s first automated digital advertising agency, creating high-quality content quickly at scale while enhancing the creative experience for agencies.  Cuttable was co-founded by Sam Kroonenburg, one of Australia’s most esteemed tech entrepreneurs and co-founder of A Cloud Guru; Jack White, co-founder of Sunday Gravy; and Edward R., ex-Swisse marketer and start-up founder. Cuttable combines the deep creative artistry and craft of advertising with the precision and speed of AI technology to empower brands and marketers to develop their own high-quality advertising campaigns in just a few clicks. Read more about the Cuttable in Paul Smith's story in today's The Australian Financial Review or in Square Peg's investment notes linked in the comments. 🔗: https://lnkd.in/gaNypMva #AI #advertising #marketing #venturecapital Paul Bassat Jethro Cohen

I’m pumped to announce that I’m getting back on the horse, as Co-CEO/Founder at Cuttable, the world’s first automated advertising agency. In addition, today we’re announcing that Cuttable has secured $5.5M in seed funding, led by Square Peg and supported by Rampersand. It has been a fascinating journey to reach this milestone with my co-founders Jack White and Edward R., and today is our new day one. The ride starts here! 🎢 Over the past 15 years, advertising has shifted dramatically to digital, creating a need for large volumes of ads across multiple media platforms and formats. This has often led to declining ad quality as manual resources and marketing budgets only stretch so far. Imagine a world where people love ads? At Cuttable, we’re making that happen. Cuttable, is a first-of-its-kind automated content agency that combines the science of marketing and the craft of advertising with precision technology and AI. We're reshaping the future of advertising by freeing up creative energies, letting brands and agencies focus on what truly matters - their brand. I met my co-CEO, Jack, through one of our other founders, Ed, and was captivated by the problem he was trying to solve. Having spent the last few years deeply immersed in AI post-A Cloud Guru, I saw immense potential for automation and AI to transform the advertising and marketing industry. After A Cloud Guru, I spent some fantastic time with my family and supported many founders, which I’ll continue doing and am passionate about. However, the opportunity at Cuttable was too compelling to pass up. To our clients who have already joined us on this journey, I’d like to say a big thanks. Some of Australia’s most innovative marketers and brands like Catch, Wesfarmers OneDigital, Medibank, Penfolds, Powershop Australia and DiDi have bought Cuttable on board, and I can’t wait to continue to help take their advertising performance to the next level. Lastly, I’d like to thank our investors, Paul Bassat and Jethro Cohen, at Square Peg. Partnering with Square Peg has already proven fruitful, with their strategic support and network invaluable as we continue to grow. I’d also like to thank Paul Naphtali and Taryn Pieterse from Rampersand for backing us. Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far. The journey is just beginning, and I am incredibly excited about what the future holds for Cuttable. Today is day one for us. Let's build. 🛠 If you'd like to know more about Cuttable, get in touch with Ciarán to book in a demo. #AI #DigitalAdvertising #TechStartups #Cuttable Leigh Jasper Jack Zhang Rob Phillpot

We recently shared our half-year letter with our investors. The letter covers our reflections on the first six months of 2024, our views on what is happening in markets and our insights on artificial intelligence. Read more 🔗 : https://lnkd.in/dgdHpv-J #venturecapital #AI #investors