The Queensland government’s new venture capital development fund has backed five VCs: Antler, Five V Capital, Main Sequence, Mandalay Venture Partners and Salus Ventures, with a combined $130 million investment. Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment Cameron Dick said the deals will give Queensland startups access to up to $200 million in new matched… Read more »
Health insurance company Bupa has launched a $20 million VC fund, Bupa Ventures, to back Australian healthcare startups. Bupa Ventures will support early-stage investment from Seed to Series A and will look to support startups across a broad spectrum of health sectors. Its early focus includes predictive and preventative healthcare, genomics, home care and remote monitoring,… Read more »
I see hundreds of founders pitch each year across industries and idea spaces – Antler invests in around 25 businesses each year in Australia alone. These pitches include a lot of generative AI, SaaS and HR Tech innovations, but flipping it around – here are 10 opportunities I reckon are worth exploring in 2024. 1.… Read more »
Jessy Wu helps lead Afterwork Ventures, a community-powered VC deploying $20 million across Australia and New Zealand. Previously, Wu was a Senior Investment Analyst at NAB Ventures. Outside of work, Wu volunteers as a Telephone Crisis Supporter for Lifeline and as an ethics teacher for Primary Ethics. A person dedicated to giving back, Wu has… Read more »
Venture fund Blackbird has surveyed its investment efforts in 2024, and deployed almost the same amount last year as it has annually, on average, since 2020. Blackbird’s annual year in review reveals they deployed $229 million across 20 new and 30 follow-on rounds in 41 companies. That’s an increase on the 38 cheques in 2023,… Read more »
2023 was a tumultuous yet transformative year in the venture capital and startup landscapes. As day zero investors, Antler has seen the effects of this year from a VC standpoint and through the lens of our portfolio companies. The following reflections offer a retrospective analysis of the past 12 months, imparting our view on the… Read more »
Pioneering Sydney VC investor has banked more than $100 million from sales of its early stage investment in human resources technology startup Employment Hero. The latest deal has produced what the sector calls a “dragon” – the return from a single investment matches the value of the entire fund. In this instance it’s a 1.5x… Read more »
It seems all is not rainbows and unicorns in Australian venture capital. A bit of the green-eyed monster is emerging against market leader Blackbird Ventures, according to today’s AFR. The business paper has been talking to “industry sources”, anonymous founders and VC figures who won’t go on the record because they “need to eat”, painting… Read more »
Australia’s oldest venture fund, university-backed Uniseed, has doubled its research partners from five to 10 as it looks to back more startups focused on research commercialisation. Joining its founding ‘sandstone’ uni group – Queensland, NSW, Melbourne, and Sydney, plus science agency CSIRO, are Monash as a full partner, alongside a collaboration partnership of four NSW universities… Read more »
Victoria’s startup agency, LaunchVic, is hoping to lure more venture capital to south, offering VC funds up to $300,000 in backing if they put up their shingle in the state. Eligible funds can either new or “new to Victoria,” under the incentive program, providing existing fund managers with operations elsewhere to set up local offices… Read more »
Sydney VC fund Investible is gearing up to launch a new global climate tech fund in a partnership with Mandiri Capital Indonesia (MCI). MCI is the VC subsidiary of Indonesia’s largest financial institution, Bank Mandiri. The joint venture Mandiri-Investible Global Climate Tech Fund will support and back climate tech startups in the Southeast Asia and… Read more »
Queensland software-as-a-service (SaaS) investor VentureOn Partners has acquired fellow Brisbane VC Story Bridge Ventures as it looks to move into the proptech (property technology) and contech (construction technology) spaces. VentureOn, cofounded in 2023 by four SaaS founders and operators, specialises in software companies, offering working capital and operational experience from a team of software tech… Read more »
AI-based workforce automation startup Relevance AI, and employee engagement platform Mercu are the Australian companies selected for Surge, the accelerator program run by the now rebranded Sequoia India. The Surge cohort of 13 includes seven startups from India, four from Southeast Asia, and the two Australians, chosen from around 4,800 applications for the 16-week program,… Read more »
Six months after launching Purpose Ventures with a $37 million war chest to back Western Australian startups, strong support from local investors has seen the VC top up its first fund with another $8 million as it backs its third company. The Purpose Ventures Fund is committed to investing at least 70% of its capital… Read more »
Early-stage venture capital firm Antler says it has commitments approaching A$60 million at the final close of its second Australian fund Investors in Australian Fund II include Canberra Airport billionaire Terry Snow’s Snow Foundation, Flight Centre co-founder Geoff Harris through his family office and pioneering Melbourne early-stage investor Roger Allen. Antler launched in Australia in… Read more »
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