Linktree cofounders back new $15 million VC fund

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 Side Stage in April last year with a posse of musicians, entertainers, and founders as investors. The syndicate of more than 100 people poured funds into the likes of alcohol-free beer startup Heaps Normal, hospitality ordering platform Mr Yum, along with Delegate Connect, which rebranded as Joyn and last month acquired veteran event management business Arinex to become The Arinex Group.

The new iteration of Side Stage has seen Go1 cofounder Andrew Barnes, Airtasker CEO Tim Fung and UK-based VC and fund-of-funds, LocalGlobe, sign on as limited partners.

Side Stage Ventures will make $500,000 investments at the Seed level in Australian startups and the fund has already backed three companies in health, generative AI and HR, including online pain management platform, More Good Days. They’re describing it as “the seed fund that we wish we had when we were starting out”.

Anthony Zaccaria said Side Stage “is founded by founders for founders”.

“Most of us are still running our own companies right now and so understand what it takes to build and scale global companies. This gives us a unique ability to understand and support founders along the journey,” he said.

“That is really what Side Stage Ventures is about — a special community of founders backing other founders with the same passion and enthusiasm and belief that we have in our own companies.”