![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HR_260812_DanielShaddock_PewPew_241030.jpg\")
CEO and co-founder of Liquid Instruments Professor Daniel Shaddock. (Photo by Rohan Thomson\/Pew Pew Studio)<\/p>\nAfter a career at the forefront of physics, Daniel Shaddock turned years of research into Liquid Instruments. More than a decade on, the company has just secured $70 million to accelerate its next phase.<\/p>\n
CEO and co-founder of Liquid Instruments Professor Daniel Shaddock. (Photo by Rohan Thomson\/Pew Pew Studio)<\/p>\n
Few\u00a0would have expected Daniel Shaddock to pursue a career in physics.\u00a0As a child, the Canberra-based CEO was,\u00a0by his own admission, \u201cprobably more into football than science.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What he did have, however, was a competitive streak and an appetite for solving difficult problems. Physics, he says,\u00a0became less about a fascination with science than a way to challenge himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI like solving hard problems \u2013 and there are a lot of hard problems out there. The trick is to choose the hard problems that are interesting to work on and are also meaningful to you,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To Shaddock, few problems were more meaningful than gravitational wave detection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything we know about the universe\u00a0basically comes from the equivalent of looking at it,\u201d he says. \u201cGravitational waves opened an entirely new way of experiencing it. In some ways, it gave humanity a new sense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His work later took him to NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he helped adapt the technology for use in space.\u00a0In an effort to\u00a0simplify one of the world\u2019s most complex measurement systems, Shaddock began working with reconfigurable hardware that could perform multiple functions via software.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After returning to Australia as a professor at the Australian National University, Shaddock and several colleagues began to realise the\u00a0technology had applications far beyond\u00a0research laboratories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became clear to us that this technology was actually super useful and that we could do something a little bit closer to Earth that would benefit a lot of people,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s when we decided to start Liquid Instruments.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Founded in 2014, the company develops software-defined test equipment that replaces multiple laboratory instruments with a single reconfigurable platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Moku-Family-Shot.jpg\")
Liquid Instruments\u2019 Moku platform integrates multiple test and measurement instruments into a single software-defined system. (Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it\u2019s software-defined, it can be very flexible,\u201d Shaddock says. \u201cWhen we started the company, our first device replaced three different instruments. Today, the same hardware can replace 17 because\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0continued to release\u00a0new designs\u00a0through software updates.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The versatility of the platform has seen its adoption across industries ranging from semiconductors and quantum computing to aerospace,\u00a0defence\u00a0and electric vehicles, with customers including NVIDIA, Apple, Blue Origin, Lockheed\u00a0Martin\u00a0and BYD.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re now a team of around 100 people,\u00a0generating tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue and selling to many of the world\u2019s\u00a0leading technology companies,\u201d Shaddock says. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty gratifying to see how far we\u2019ve come.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Go Big or Go Home<\/p>\n
Developing the technology was one thing, but building the company around it proved to be another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the idea for Liquid Instruments\u00a0emerged, Shaddock was a full professor at ANU with a secure academic career ahead of him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a cushy job for the rest of my life if I wanted just to run down the clock,\u201d he says. \u201cBut that didn\u2019t particularly appeal to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the technology\u2019s potential, Shaddock was hesitant to leap into business. Throughout his academic career, he had\u00a0largely dismissed\u00a0the idea of commercialising research, viewing most opportunities as too niche to make a meaningful impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking the jump definitely wasn\u2019t natural,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was actually something I was really scared of.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This opportunity, however, felt different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really felt like it could help hundreds of thousands of scientists and engineers,\u201d he says. \u201cThe world needs scientists and engineers, and if we\u2019re going to solve the world\u2019s biggest problems, technology has a really big part to play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so scared that I thought, \u2018Maybe this is actually important.\u2019 The trick was convincing myself that the fear was excitement, and that\u00a0it was worth taking a chance on something I\u00a0believed was important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once he had made that decision, there was no intention of thinking small.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0want to run this as a small business. It was a \u2018go big or go home\u2019 attitude,\u201d he adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From the outset, that meant looking internationally. Rather than focusing on Australia first, Liquid Instruments\u00a0established\u00a0an early presence in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were part of an international community, and we definitely brought that mindset to everything we did in the company,\u201d he says. \u201cTechnology is a very globally competitive landscape. People want the best technology, no matter where it comes from.\u00a0You\u2019re\u00a0not just trying to be the best in Australia; you need to be the best, period.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
More than a decade on, that global-first approach has helped turn Liquid Instruments into one of Australia\u2019s more prominent deep-tech companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/DanielShaddock_PewPew_241058_Web_3bb7da.jpg\")
CEO and co-founder of Liquid Instruments Professor Daniel Shaddock.
\nPhoto by Rohan Thomson\/Pew Pew Studio<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Liquid Instruments raised a $70 million Series C round, valuing the company at more than $400\u00a0million. For Shaddock, however, the milestone is less about the valuation than what it enables.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always had more ideas than we\u2019ve had resources to execute on,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company is now investing heavily in artificial intelligence, aiming to enable\u00a0engineers to create entirely new test instruments simply by describing what they want to measure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause our instruments are software-defined, they have all the hooks\u00a0needed for AI to really take control and transform them at a very fundamental level,\u201d Shaddock says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can improve the efficiency of that engineer by allowing them to create instruments on demand, it\u2019s going to be a real game changer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Shaddock, the latest advances in AI are simply the next chapter in a career built around solving hard problems \u2013 this time by giving others the tools to solve their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really do like building instruments,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0not just useful for my own project \u2013 I can share it with a lot of other people and help them do their work better as well. I find that quite satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed?\u202fTap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world.\u202fSign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here<\/a>\u202for\u202fbecome a member here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a career at the forefront of physics, Daniel Shaddock turned years of research into Liquid Instruments. More…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[256,64,63,99,1874,201,105],"class_list":["post-927341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ai","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-startup","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}