Liquid Instruments attracts $15 million investment, will hire “dozens” at upcoming Melbourne site 

Breakthrough Victoria, which manages a $2 billion investment fund on behalf of the state government, has announced that it is investing $15 million in software-defined test instrumentation company Liquid Instruments.

The company’s devices are described as using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and software to create more adaptable instrumentation, “providing up to fourteen different instruments accessible through a single device, ranging from standard tools like oscilloscopes to advanced offerings like lock-in amplifiers”.

Breakthrough Victoria said the new funding would help Liquid Instruments continue to expand and innovate, as well as establish a new office in Melbourne “and hire dozens of new employees in high-tech roles”.

“This investment will allow us to strengthen and grow our manufacturing partnerships in Australia and forge new collaborations with researchers from world-class institutions at the forefront of technology development, including the University of Melbourne, RMIT University, Swinburne University of Technology and Monash University,” said co-founder and CEO Daniel Shaddock.

Liquid Instruments will also expand its internship program, according to the release, “targeting students from Victorian universities”.

It was founded by a team of physicists and engineers at The Australian National University (ANU.) The company makes “all-in-one devices for test and measurement”, has offices in Canberra and San Diego, and according to a statement in September 2022 had raised over $50 million at that time.

BV CEO Grant Dooley predicted that, “The impact of Breakthrough Victoria’s investment in Liquid Instruments will be felt across various levels of the state’s innovation sector.”

Picture: credit Liquid Instruments