Should you, or should you not take investor money? There are two schools of thought, and both have merit; it just depends on what you want and how quickly you want to achieve it. For example, if you are a 21-year-old tech grad building a software company out of your garage, and you want to… Read more »
While the failure of online retailer Brosa was a $4.5 million hit to the bottom line of ASX-listed venture capital firm Bailador Technologies Investments (ASX: BTI), the sale of healthtech startup InstantScripts was a massive win for investors in a difficult 12 months revealed in the company’s annual results today. Ironically, it was another ASX-listed… Read more »
As a woman founder and investor, I’ve thought a lot about how best to increase the number of women founders who raise capital and scale businesses. Antler is uniquely positioned to impact the gender mix of founders by virtue of our investment volume and stage at the very top of the funnel as a day… Read more »
VC firm Blackbird Ventures has cracked open some of its golden eggs, offloading a small slice of its stake in design platform Canva at a US$25.5 billion (A$38.8bn) valuation in a secondary market sale to US investors. The deal with New York’s Coatue Management and San Francisco’s ICONIQ Capital is another step down the path… Read more »
Early stage investment syndicate Side Stage Ventures, which is backed by multiple founders, including Linktree cofounders Anthony and Alex Zaccaria, has moved into mainstream VC 15 months on, raising $15 million for its first fund. The Zaccaria siblings, along with What the Health founder Emily Casey, UNIFIED Music Group’s Jaddan Comerford, and others, originally launched… Read more »
CSIRO’s VC arm, Main Sequence Ventures, has rounded up several high profile institutional investors for a $450 million first close of its third fund, as the six-year-old deep tech investment fund notches up $1 billion in funds under management. Founded in 2017, Main Sequence has now backed 53 companies including carbon capture agtech Regrow AG,… Read more »
Transitioning from a tech giant like Microsoft to an early-stage startup can be a daunting but exciting experience. Before joining Tidal, I made this leap to become the fourth employee and founding marketer at hyper-growth startup Dovetail. In this article, I’ll share the valuable insights I learnt along the way, I’ll share my critical realisations during… Read more »
Industry superannuation fund Hostplus has poured another $100 million, on top of its existing $210 million investment, into listed early-stage science investor IP Group Australia. The $310 million IP Group Hostplus Innovation Fund has invested in several university spin-outs, including electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft startup AMSL Aero, UNSW telecommunications traffic analysis venture Canopus… Read more »
The team at Sydney VC firm Folklore are sharing some of their insights on the investment process to give founders, particularly early founders, an insight into how to approach VC engagement from your first conversation through to what to expect from your VC after receiving your first cheque, or even rejection. In part one of… Read more »
The US venture capital market has always been important for Australian founders who have had global aspirations from day one or are currently contemplating expansion into the technology-rich, densely populated, and innovative market. As experienced Australian seed-stage investors, we keep a close eye on the market and make sure to cultivate relationships in the region… Read more »
I recently returned from Silicon Valley where I had insightful conversations with a diverse range of founders and investors. These discussions shed light on the challenges faced by technology startups in the current funding landscape. With venture capitalists (VCs) taking longer to respond and valuations subdued, it is crucial for founders to approach these obstacles… Read more »
SBE Australia has launched a new advisory model to connect high potential female-founded businesses with the services they need for high growth in a partnership with professional services firm BDO. SBE CEO Nicole Cook said the SBE Advisory Collective was developed in response to reports the organisation commissioned last year, which found that between 2017… Read more »
There’s been a changing of the guard at Australia’s first angel investor network for women-led startups, Scale Investors, with the founding team selling the business to the current management team Scale was created a decade ago by Susan Oliver, Carol Schwartz, Annette Kimmitt and Laura McKenzie. Over that period the angel investors backed 47 women-led… Read more »
It took 10 years from the time I hoped to become a venture capital investor until the time I actually became one. Ten long years of hanging by the hoops, trying to crack in, a VC desperado. It’s a fairly typical story: I studied books and articles, listened to podcasts about the greats, built spreadsheets… Read more »
That there is a huge gender gap in venture capital (VC) funding is hardly news; even ChatGPT knows it. This is despite the progress that women have made in business generally. According to a 2021 report by PitchBook, companies founded solely by women in the US and Europe received just 2.4% of total venture capital funding.… Read more »
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