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 »
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 »
Local VC Square Peg Capital has grabbed an additional slice of US-based Rokt in a secondary market transaction that sees employees and current investors once again sell down their stake in the ecommerce marketing platform. It’s the sixth time Square Peg has invested in Rokt over its 10 year history, with the VC holding around… 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 »
Venture capital firm Blackbird has raised Australia’s first $1 billion VC fund, with superannuation funds once again cornerstone investors. The announcement comes just a week after Square Peg announced it had raised $860 million for its fifth generation of funds. Combined with another $700 million raised earlier this year by Airtree. that means the country’s… Read more »
Early stage VC firm Sprint Ventures has raised $8 million in the first close of its $50 million second fund. Managing Partner and entrepreneur Llew Jury said the second fund, called the Expansion Capital Fund, follows the success of their first $5 million Vintage Sovereign Seed fund in 2020, which has delivered a return on… Read more »
Australian VC Square Peg Capital has raised US$550 million (A$860m) for its fifth fund, which it plans to use to continue backing its existing portfolio companies in later stage raises. The new fund takes total capital Square Peg has raised in a decade to more than US$1.6 billion (A$2.5bn) using the funds to back companies… Read more »
Secondaries investment fund SecondQuarter Ventures has raised $83 million as a first close for its second fund, just 18 months after launching with its first $51m fund. With that initial capital already deployed, existing backers have doubled down chipping in more than $50 million towards fund two. Another $30 million has come from new investors,… Read more »
WinVC, the female investor-led initiative aiming to attract more women into VC investment roles is launching this Tuesday 18 October, with a discussion on the state of capital for women in Australia. Founders Andrea Gardiner, CEO & founder of Jelix Ventures; Ingrid Maes, founder & MD of W23; and Michelle Deaker, founding partner & MD… Read more »
Telstra Ventures has closed its third fund having raised $500 million to invest in what it calls “all the Cs”: cloud, cyber, crypto (including blockchain), carbon and climate, coders, creators and consumers. The corporate VC arm of Australia’s largest telco is based in San Francisco and primarily invests in tech firms, having made 88 investments in… Read more »
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