Software-focused venture capital firm EVP has closed its fourth fund after hitting its $100 million final target. The business-to-business (B2B)-focused VC now has more than $270 million in funds under management amid more than 40 early-stage startup investments in software companies in Australia and New Zealand, including Ignition, Deputy, Shippit and Hnry. The sole trader… Read more »
The second annual edition of The State Of Australian Startup Funding report was released this week, revealing that overall investment by around 30% to $7.4 billion last year. The analysis, prepared by Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures, contained plenty of good news for founders with pre-Seed and Seed investments at record levels in 2022. Fintech continues to… Read more »
Startup funding in 2022 hit $7.4 billion It’s a 30% fall on 2021, but less than a global drop of 35% Investors made 712 deals Female founders receive more deals, but less funds Investment has grown 5x in 5 years It’s a great time to be an early-stage founder, a new analysis of Australian startup… Read more »
US investor and Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham is one of the many fans of OpenAI’s new chatbot, ChatGPT. The striking thing about the reaction to ChatGPT is not just the number of people who are blown away by it, but who they are. These are not people who get excited by every shiny new… Read more »
University of Melbourne’s new startup venture capital fund Tin Alley Venture has raised $100 million from a who’s who of the Victorian business establishment to back alumni founders. The uni chipped in $25 million to kick off the fund, a joint venture with John Wiley’s Tanarra Capital, in June last year. Seven months later, the… Read more »
The Australian venture capital arm of Salesforce is one of the victims of the tech giant’s massive job cuts, with Salesforce Ventures head of Australia Mike Ferrari among those shown the door. The VC’s local portfolio of companies will now be managed from the US. Earlier this month, the 23-year-old California-based software company announced a… Read more »
‘Stupid money’ is out and smart investors are looking for opportunities in the Australian startup scene, say leading venture capital partners. Speaking at the Melbourne Startup Bootcamp at Bay City Labs yesterday, Skalata Ventures cofounder and CEO Rohan Workman called out the ridiculous funding rounds that had given startup founders unrealistic expectations. “It’s a great time… Read more »
2022 was a tough year for many, but in tough times our true characters are revealed. I was inspired by Ben Armstrong’s post to reflect on and celebrate the growth and collaborative nature of startup Aus/NZ, especially what I’ve seen last year. Australia is the lucky country, and our luck hasn’t run out. For the… Read more »
Leading law firm Herbert Smith Freehills advises some of Australia’s most successful tech companies on investment deals, including Atlassian, Mr Yum, Carma, Sonder, Culture Amp, Linktree, Who Gives A Crap, :Different, Pearler and Instant Checkout. After the dramatic shift in venture capital in 2022 following an exuberant two years during the pandemic, HSF venture capital… Read more »
In this essay, we are imagining a pitch from an early stage deep tech company, probably still working inside a university. An investor red flag might not be obvious to a founder. Why would it? They build up over years as signals of weakness and they are best avoided. Knowing what they are makes it possible to… Read more »
Angel investor community Innovation Bay is opening a Brisbane chapter Horizon is moving to agnostic deal flow Queensland founders can apply to pitch via Dealum Innovation Bay, the longest-running community for technology startups, scale-ups and investors in Australia and New Zealand, is launching in Queensland in 2023. Horizon, the 20-year-old organisation’s angel investor community, has… Read more »
Melt Ventures has launched Australia’s first dedicated Advanced Manufacturing Venture Fund and is already near to first close. The Fund is investing in high-growth companies in the Advanced Manufacturing sector including clean technologies such as renewable energy and storage, automation and robotics, agriculture and transport, as well as advanced materials and space. The VC fund… Read more »
Southeast Asian climate tech venture firm Wavemaker Impact has named Monique Conheady as its new Venture Partner for Australia and New Zealand ahead of rolling out locally in 2023. The VC’s mission is to back build and back climate tech startups with the combined potential to reduce global carbon by 10% by 2035. Wavemaker Impact dubs them ‘100×100’… Read more »
Three weeks ago, we received an influx of incredibly helpful feedback from founders after Paul Bassat reached out to the community via this LinkedIn post. One recurring theme in the feedback that resonated with me was: telling founders you invest early is actually not that helpful. Founders asked: what does ‘early’ mean? What does ‘seed… Read more »
This is gold, I would read this blog post pic.twitter.com/vdPbq7n6YW — Jarrad (Moose) Lawrence (@JarradLawrence) November 3, 2022 I was playing around with a new AI that attempts to tweet like the author (you can try it out here) and Moose Lawrence posted this example, meant to be something that I’d be likely to tweet.… Read more »
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