Queensland’s startup scene has bounced hard off the post-2022 lull, with fresh data from Cut Through Venture showing $417 million poured into local startups in FY 2025, a 37% jump on the previous year and the best result since the 2021 market correction.
The Queensland Venture Capital Report tallied 109 publicly disclosed transactions – 76 venture deals plus 33 accelerator or angel rounds – setting a new high-water mark for deal volume in the Sunshine State.
“A thriving venture capital ecosystem is now a strategic tool for Queensland’s economic and social progress,” said Crystal Russell, head of Asia-Pacific for government-owned investor QIC Ventures which co-funded the report.
The sector split broadly mirrored national taste with enterprise software, climate tech, health- and med-tech again commanding the biggest cheques. AI deals multiplied at pre-seed and seed levels but stayed modest in size. Fintech and transport/logistics lagged national deployment levels, underscoring investors’ current bias toward clear revenue and regulatory pathways.
Rounds under $5 million accounted for the sharpest rise as a wave of new early-stage investors backed first-time raises, yet Queensland’s median seed ($3.3 m) and Series A ($7.2 m) tickets both out-gunned the national norm.
Queensland again led the east-coast pack for capital flowing to teams with at least one female founder, and women-led companies captured a bigger slice of Series A and later-stage money than the national average – momentum the report warns must be sustained with follow-on capital.
Founders say the state’s maturing capital market means they no longer need to head south to scale.
“There is unprecedented energy in the local ecosystem,” said Ed Bigazzi, Managing Director, Five V Capital. “We’ve completed three Queensland-based investments out of our current fund and see a deep bench of capital-efficient, globally minded founders coming through.”
Fee Barry, principal at Tidal Ventures, described Queensland as “the best place in Australia to build a tech company today”.
Thomas Muller, co-founder and CTO of Attekus said the choice to build in Queensland was made easy by “the talent pool and the supportive investor network”.
“The State is backing bold ideas that create real impact,” he said.
Earlier this year, the state government opened up new grants of up to $200,000 for SMEs with high-growth potential.
With Brisbane again named a top-40 emerging global ecosystem by Startup Genome, heavyweight projects such as PsiQuantum’s quantum-computing hub on the way, and the likes of Gilmour Space doing literal rocket science it’s clear Queensland’s rebound is more than a blip.
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