Top AI Startups in Australia

Australia’s AI startup scene is growing fast. New companies are building tools that change how teams work, design, hire, and deliver care. Some focus on everyday productivity, while others tackle complex industry problems at scale.

This list highlights the most relevant AI startups founded in Australia today and shows how local innovation continues to compete globally.

In this article, you’ll see:

• Top Australian AI startups to watch
• What each startup does and why it matters
• When and where they were founded
• Why they stand out today

1. Tactiq

Founded: 2020

Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales

What they do:

Tactiq is an AI note-taker that captures live transcripts from popular video conferencing platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. It helps teams turn conversations into clear summaries, highlights, and action items without manual note-taking.

Why they stand out:

Tactiq generates real-time in-meeting transcripts and AI workflows that turn meeting discussions into follow-ups, documentation, and shared knowledge. Unlike many meeting tools, Tactiq works directly in your browser with no bots joining calls. Setup takes under 30 seconds, and your transcripts stay private.

💡 Pro Tip: If you're tracking AI startups for partnerships, investment research, or competitive analysis, meetings about these companies can get detailed fast. Tactiq captures and summarizes those conversations in real time so you can focus on the discussion instead of taking notes.

Install the free Tactiq Chrome Extension to automatically turn your startup research calls into searchable, shareable summaries.

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2. Canva

Founded: 2013

Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales

What they do:

Canva is a global design platform founded in Australia that helps people create visual content without design experience. Its AI features support image generation, text writing, presentation creation, and layout suggestions across many formats.

Why they stand out:

Canva combines powerful AI tools with an easy-to-use interface, making advanced design accessible at scale. Its continued investment in generative AI keeps the platform relevant for individuals, teams, and large organizations alike.

3. Leonardo AI

Founded: 2022

Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales

What they do:

Leonardo AI is a generative AI platform that helps creators produce high-quality images and visual assets. It offers fine-tuned models, style controls, and tools designed for game developers, designers, and marketers.

Why they stand out:

Leonardo AI gained rapid traction for giving users more creative control than many image generators. Its focus on professional-grade outputs and model customization helped it grow quickly within creative and commercial teams.

4. Relevance AI

Founded: 2020

Headquarters: Surry Hills, New South Wales

What they do:

Relevance AI is a platform that lets teams build and manage custom AI agents without heavy engineering work. It supports automation across research, analysis, operations, and internal workflows using no-code and low-code tools.

Why they stand out:

Relevance AI focuses on practical business use cases rather than generic AI demos. Its AI agents automate complex tasks while keeping humans in control.

5. eesel

Founded: 2020

Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales

What they do:

eesel helps teams create an AI assistant that answers questions using their company knowledge. You connect your docs and help desk content, then deploy the AI in places like your website chat, Slack, or support tools to handle repetitive questions and reduce ticket volume.

Why they stand out:

eesel’s pitch is simple: “ChatGPT, but trained on your company’s knowledge.” That makes it practical for teams that need consistent answers for customers and internal requests, without the need to rewrite everything into a new system.

6. Lumachain

Founded: 2018

Headquarters: Haymarket, New South Wales

What they do:

Lumachain is an AI and computer vision platform built to improve food production inside primary and secondary processing plants. Its technology monitors safety, animal welfare, yield, quality, efficiency, and traceability across beef, chicken, lamb, and pork production.

Why they stand out:

Lumachain applies AI-based visual monitoring to high-risk environments where accuracy matters most. Its platform supports real-time safety insights, animal welfare coverage, and multilingual training, helping producers improve outcomes while promoting ethical and sustainable food production.

7. Vervoe

Founded: 2016

Headquarters: Melbourne, Victoria

What they do:

Vervoe is an AI-powered skills assessment platform designed to test how candidates perform real job tasks. Companies use role-specific assessments, simulations, and interactive questions to evaluate technical and soft skills within the context of the actual work.

Why they stand out:

Vervoe focuses on skills validation over resumes, using AI grading and performance data to rank candidates based on how well they carry out the job. Its approach helps teams reduce mis-hires, speed up the shortlisting process, and make fairer, data-backed hiring decisions at scale.

8. NexLaw AI

Founded: 2024

Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales

What they do:

NexLaw AI is an AI-powered legal assistant built for lawyers and law firms. It helps legal professionals research case law, review documents, and prepare litigation materials using citation-verified insights drawn from authoritative legal databases.

Why they stand out:

NexLaw is designed for accuracy in high-stakes legal work. Its AI delivers court-ready research, drafted legal documents, and case timelines with verified citations, helping attorneys reduce research time while maintaining trust, security, and confidentiality.

9. Lorikeet

Founded: 2023

Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales

What they do:

Lorikeet is an AI-powered customer support concierge that resolves complex issues across chat, email, voice, and SMS. It works inside a company’s existing systems and follows internal workflows to complete real tasks, such as rescheduling bookings, processing payments, or updating accounts.

Why they stand out:

Lorikeet is built for high-stakes support, not simple FAQ responses. It executes multi-step workflows with high accuracy, knows when to escalate to a human, and hands over full context so teams can step in fast. This helps companies scale support without increasing headcount.

10. Eucalyptus

Founded: 2019

Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales

What they do:

Eucalyptus is a global digital healthcare company that runs a group of telehealth clinics focused on long-term patient outcomes. Its platforms connect patients with certified practitioners, deliver treatments, and provide ongoing care across areas like reproductive health, men’s health, weight management, preventative care, and dermatology.

Why they stand out:

Eucalyptus takes a prevention-first approach to healthcare, using digital care models to treat chronic conditions early and improve health outcomes over time. Through clinics like Kin, Pilot, Juniper, Compound, and Software, the company delivers accessible care at scale while expanding globally across Australia, the UK, Germany, and Japan.

11. Affinda

Founded: 2012

Headquarters: Sydney, New South Wales

What they do:

Affinda builds AI software that extracts, classifies, and analyzes data from complex documents. Its technology is used to parse resumes, contracts, invoices, and other unstructured files, turning them into clean, structured data that systems can use.

Why they stand out:

Affinda specializes in high-accuracy document intelligence, even with messy or inconsistent formats. Its APIs are widely used in hiring, finance, and enterprise workflows where speed and precision matter, helping teams automate document-heavy processes without manual review.

Wrapping Up

Australia’s AI startup ecosystem continues to mature, with companies building practical tools that solve real problems across work, healthcare, design, hiring, legal services, and customer support.

From productivity-focused platforms like Tactiq to healthcare innovators like Heidi Health and Eucalyptus, these startups show how AI can be applied thoughtfully and at scale.

What stands out most is the focus on outcomes. These companies are not chasing hype. They are improving accuracy, saving time, and supporting better decisions in complex environments. As AI adoption grows globally, Australian startups are well-positioned to shape how this technology is used in everyday business and care delivery.

FAQs About Top AI Startups in Australia

What are the top startups in Australia?

Some of the top startups in Australia today include Tactiq, Canva, Leonardo AI, Relevance AI, Heidi Health, and Eucalyptus. These companies stand out for applying AI to real problems across work, healthcare, design, and operations, with many scaling beyond Australia.

What is the most profitable business to start in Australia?

Software-based businesses tend to be the most profitable to start in Australia, especially SaaS and AI-driven products. They often have lower overheads, global reach, and recurring revenue models compared to physical or location-based businesses.

Which sector is booming in Australia?

AI, health tech, and enterprise software are booming sectors in Australia. Growth is driven by demand for automation, digital healthcare access, and tools that improve productivity across distributed teams and regulated industries.

Which is the most profitable startup?

Profitability varies by stage, but companies like Canva are among the most financially successful Australian startups due to their global user base and subscription revenue. Early-stage startups often prioritize growth and adoption before long-term profitability.

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