SafetyCulture has acquired Sydney-based AI startup Twine, marking the first in a planned series of acquisitions under recently returned CEO Luke Anear. Twine, which raised $2.3 million last year, specialises in AI-powered analytics for sales and customer service communications. The acquisition brings back former SafetyCulture employee Brian Swift, who co-founded Twine, as Vice President of AI. His co-founders Bec Lourey and Chris Manouvrier will join as Senior Product Designer and Principal Software Engineer, respectively. SafetyCulture, last valued at $2.5 billion, aims to shift towards an "agentic-first" model, developing AI agents for proactive user assistance and automated decision-making. The company serves over 85,000 organisations globally and plans to leverage its proprietary quality and safety data repository to build next-generation AI tools.

The article highlights key funding activities in the Australian VC community. SafetyCulture raised A$60.5 million in Series C1, A$99 million in Series C2, and A$165 million in Series C3. Deputy Group secured A$111 million in Series B and strategic investments from Xero and Express Employment Professionals. Other notable deals include Linktree's $110 million raise at a $1.3 billion valuation, Culture Amp's A$120 million Series E and A$135 million Series F, and Updoc's A$20 million investment from Bailador.