LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund is now a quarter of the way through its ambitious plan to back 60 female-led startups by 2024, just one year after it launched. Since launching in July 2021, the sidecar fund’s co-investments of between $50,000 and $300,000, for a combined $2.5 million, have gone to 11 early-stage startups, leveraging a… Read more »
Every week on the Startup Daily TV show, we talk to more than two dozen founders, CEOs, investors and experts about what’s happening in tech. Now you can catch the best of the show with the weekly podcast, SUDS. Each week on SUDS host Simon Thomsen has a special guest join him to discuss the… Read more »
The process of raising startup funding is notoriously difficult for early-stage founders and even more so when you don’t have strong connections to the investment community. Simply knowing where to start and how to break in can be the biggest challenge. Networks have historically been the key to opening the door to funding for early-stage… Read more »
In a year marked by rising inflation, economic chaos, imploding financial markets, a tighter VC market and retreating institutional investors, many entrepreneurs are likely wondering how they can possibly convince investors to buy into their big ideas. It’s a conundrum faced by even successful executives like Bob Iger, a 15-year CEO of entertainment giant Disney… Read more »
Motoring association the NRMA is a cornerstone investor in a new agrifood tech fund backing startups focused feeding the world. The sustainability-focused agriculture and food technology venture fund Mandalay Fund I by Mandalay Venture Partners now has more than $21 million in commitments towards its first close, with an ultimate target of $50 million. NOVONIX co-founder… Read more »
The University of Melbourne is launching two new major investment funds, worth a combined $115 million, to help researchers commercialise their work in new startups. The $15 million University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund, established in conjunction with Breakthrough Victoria, will provide funding for early-stage research, ideas and new technologies and will facilitate access to… Read more »
Last month, I mentioned a recent trip to North America where after meeting with many investors and founders across different stages and sectors, I counselled startup founders to brace for turbulence. Since the beginning of the year, major share market indices are down, with some tech company indices down even more. Inflation across developed countries… Read more »
Welcome to Giant Leap’s Small Steps, a newsletter offering global insights and news on the impact startups landscape. We’ll be sharing an edited version with Startup Daily readers every fortnight. Giant Leap is Australia’s first impact venture fund, and they use this newsletter to surface the ideas and businesses that intrigue and inspire them and… Read more »
Three female-founded venture capital firms have teamed up to form WinVC, an initiative focused on fostering the success of women in the VC industry. The triad involves the founders of Woolworths’ venture capital fund W23, OneVentures and Jelix Ventures. Amid an ongoing debate around female participation in the investment community, women-led VC firms now make… Read more »
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has confirmed he’ll allocate $10 million towards a venture capital fund to support female founders as part of the 2022-23 state budget later this month. The fund will be named in honour of pioneering Sydney fashion designer, businesswoman and philanthropist Carla Zampatti, a founding member of Chief Executive Women. Kean said… Read more »
The co-founders of Sydney early-stage venture capital fund AfterWork Ventures have made the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 as first-time fund managers. Alexander Khor, 27, and Adrian Petersen, 28, were named in the Forbes 30 under 30 for Asia in the Finance and Venture Capital category. Previous honourees include Canva founder Mel Perkins and Bumble… Read more »
A Cloud Guru co-founder and CEO Sam Kroonenburg is pouring some of the proceeds from his London-based startup’s $2 billion exit last year into local tech companies after signing on as venture partner with SecondQuarter Ventures. Kroonenburg, who founded his online learning business with his brother Ryan in 2015, landed one of 2021’s biggest M&A… Read more »
I was in North America last month where I met with lots of investors and founders, across different stages and sectors, from around the region. Some focused on early-stage consumer-oriented startups where they observed a pickup in the velocity of founder pitches for both novel and copycat businesses. Others were later-stage investors who observed that… Read more »
The hardest conversation for an early stage investor happens when you choose not to follow on in a company you have invested in. This great tension is rarely discussed but lies at the core of the founder/investor relationship. We both know that these moments of decision will come and it matters how we handle it.… Read more »
A new venture capital fund, XT Ventures, led by Craig Lambert, founder of corporate innovation firm Slingshot, is on the hunt for startups in the sport, fitness, wellness and health sectors, with backing from health fund HCF. HCF’s tipped in a $5 million cornerstone investment in the XT Ventures High Performance Fund I, LP, through… Read more »
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