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 »
Venture capital funding at the start of 2023 may not have been as bad as many thought according to new analysis from Perth-based investment data company Techboard. Releasing its March quarter Funded report this week, Techboard identified $1.01 billion in capital deployed across 111 deals. That figure is 50% higher than the $661 million across… Read more »
Jessy Wu, investment principal at AfterWork Ventures, is an unlikely venture capitalist. She happily admits it was “the furtherest thing from my mind” when she emerged with a ANU with a philosophy degree, also majoring in English literature. Next thing she knew, she was working at NAB Ventures. Within 18 months, Wu became part of… Read more »
Sydney-based startup MilkRun made a big splash with its promise to deliver groceries within ten minutes, raising more than A$85 million from some of the biggest names in Australian venture capital, including Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes. MilkRun’s co-founder and chief executive Dany Milham had already found success with fast-delivering mattress company Koala. Less than a… Read more »
Former Startmate boss James Tynan has been named a partner at Square Peg, three years after signing on at the VC. Tynan joined Square Peg in 2020 from the Startmate accelerator program, which also makes pre-seed investments in the startups involved. Since then he’s led investments for Square Peg in companies including culture meat venture… Read more »
Jamie Dimon, chair and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, has been dubbed the king of Wall Street, while also being seen as America’s “least-hated banker”. He’s seen as a level head in banking circles, so his views on the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last month, which sent shockwaves through the global tech… Read more »
Aside from questions on funding, there’s one other query that VCs seem to consistently field: How did you get into the venture capital industry? Layoffs from the major technology companies has triggered renewed interest in VC as a career path. With the sector’s strong push towards impact companies, there’s now a very real opportunity to… Read more »
In today’s business landscape, where the rate of disruption is accelerating and the fickle nature of consumer preferences leaves little room for error, the success of a startup hinges on the founders’ ability to weather the storm. Resilience, the capacity to absorb unexpected setbacks and adapt to new challenges, is a crucial quality for entrepreneurs… Read more »
Women-led startups and others tackling climate and sustainability-related issues are emerging trends Australia’s impact startup ecosystem, a new report from VC Giant Leap reveals. A snippet above a quarter (26%) of the impact opportunities reviewed by Giant Leap come from women-led ventures, a touch above the 23% average in the broader ecosystem. Meanwhile, a majority… Read more »
A healthcare startup that simulates real life patient conversations to help doctors and nurses communicate better has raised $1.5 million in Seed funding. The round in SimConverse was led by Folklore Ventures, with support from Artesian. SimConverse was founded by Aiden Roberts and Will Pamment after they met at uni, studying medicine. They has set out… Read more »
Every chance it gets, OneVentures touts its credentials as “Australia’s first female-founded VC firm” with cofounder Dr Michelle Deaker as its public face. She’s one of two female founders, alongside Anne-Marie Birkill and Paul Kelly. Last year the business added Sarah Meibusch to the leadership team as Partner. But the faces the Sydney VC chose… Read more »
The natural flow of time in venture is towards the ‘transactional’. Without a deliberate other process, days become 30-minute zoom window slices. These become a terrible blow to big thinking because they gobble up the available time but also because: The default is ‘out’ rather than ‘in’. ‘No’ is easier than ‘yes’. Assessing/judging someone else… Read more »
Early-stage venture capital firm Investible has named Asia-Pacific investment expert Charlie Ill as the group’s first Chief Investment Officer as the fund ramps up its global presence. The Sydney-headquartered VC, which also has an office in Singapore, has also promoted Jayden Basha to principal and Ben Lindsay to investment manager. Ill has been charged with… Read more »
When we tell the community our mandate is to support B2B tech companies scaling up into the UK and US, we know this is a mouthful and sounds like an oddly specific mandate. The comment we hear most from founders is, “we reached out to you because you help founders expand into the UK and… Read more »
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