A critical zero-day attack is actively targeting WatchGuard Firebox firewalls, exposing thousands of organisations worldwide. Australian cyber authorities have issued an urgent alert, warning the flaw enables remote takeover of network devices, with more than 115,000 systems still exposed online.
AI image models are no longer competing on visual flair alone. As OpenAI’s GPT Image 1.5 responds to Google’s Nano Banana Pro, the contest shifts to control, safety and who shapes the visual record online, raising new stakes for creators, platforms and public trust.
Melbourne-based fleet management firm Netstar Australia has been hit by the Blackshrantac ransomware group in a data extortion attack, underscoring rising cyber risks in the telematics sector that handles sensitive GPS data for government and critical infrastructure operators.
Parallel Web Systems, the AI startup from former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, has secured $100 million in a Series A round co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Index Ventures. The company is building a new layer of web infrastructure designed for AI agents to search and interact with live, accurate data.
Parallel Web Systems, has secured $100 million in a Series A funding round to build web infrastructure designed for artificial intelligence agents.
Founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, the two-year-old startup is developing application programming interfaces (APIs) and a purpose-built index to provide AI systems with real-time access to reliable online information. The funding round was co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Index Ventures, with participation from Spark Capital and existing investors including Khosla Ventures, valuing the company at $740 million.
The Update: Parallel has raised $100 million in a Series A round to accelerate the development of its web infrastructure for AI agents. The platform addresses the limitation of large language models that rely on static, outdated datasets, which can lead to inaccurate or "hallucinated" outputs. By creating a new layer of web plumbing, Parallel enables AI agents to access and process fresh, reliable online information for tasks such as software development, sales data analysis, and insurance risk assessment.
The funding will be used to expand agent capabilities, develop faster web primitives, and scale its web index. Kleiner Perkins partner Mamoon Hamid will join the company's board. In a statement, Hamid compared the investment to his firm's early backing of Google, noting, "26 years later, Parallel is indexing the web for its 'next' user: AI agents." The company's first products, including a web search API for agents, were launched in August 2025.
Why it Matters: Parallel is tackling a fundamental challenge in the operationalisation of AI: the need for continuous access to high-quality, live data. As enterprises deploy AI agents for increasingly complex and mission-critical workflows, their effectiveness is constrained by the quality of the data they can access. Parallel's approach of building a purpose-built infrastructure for AI agents, rather than adapting human-centric search, could provide a significant competitive advantage to businesses that rely on it. The startup also aims to create an economic model that incentivises content owners to keep their data accessible to AIs, addressing the growing tension between AI developers and publishers.
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Abu Dhabi-based Kingpin has secured US$3.5 million in seed funding to scale its AI-native SaaS platform for global B2B retail distribution. The investment will fuel expansion into Europe and North America, targeting entrenched inefficiencies in wholesale trade with intelligent automation.
New York-based AI One has raised $11M to scale its Enterprise Context Management platform, helping AI agents understand complex business environments without costly data migrations. The funding will fuel Fortune 500 expansion across finance, healthcare, and energy.
Berlin-based Peec AI has raised a $21M Series A to scale its marketing platform for the AI search era. As consumers shift from Google to ChatGPT, Peec helps brands analyse and improve their visibility in AI-generated answers, pioneering the new field of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
Australia is entering the age of agentic intelligence as startups like Firmus Technologies and Sharon AI build sovereign compute, renewable powered data infrastructure and AI platforms. Infrastructure is accelerating while enterprise adoption remains slow, creating a widening national gap.
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