What you need to know about the top VCs in Australia
Pros of a VC investing in your company:
- A large sum of money injected into your startup, which means you'll grow quickly. Startups are a race.
- You'll be surrounded by an experienced team who will show you the landmines and help you avoid the mistakes they've made.
- Most imporantly, a VC will open the right doors for you. You might need one very specific connection to a person or business to make your startup skyrocket. You want to partner with people who can make that happen.
Cons of a VC investing in your company:
- VCs often have a preferred minimum percentage of ownership in your company (usually a minimum of 20%). They will ask you to raise your valuation to give you more money and own a larger percentage of the company.
We've organised this list into three categories: pre-product, pre-revenue, and post-product.
Most VCs don't want to miss out on an awesome opporunity and will invest at stages other than where they're categorised on this list. We've organised it based on where a majority of their investments have been made.
Pre-product
You've got an idea, and you have done a bit of work on it. You're in the process of validating people actually want the idea by running it manually and testing your hypotheses with experiments.
H2 Ventures
Location
Sydney
Fund Size
Balance sheet
What they DON'T invest in
H2 Ventures invests exclusively through their 20-Week Startup Accelerator.
Favoured themes, business models, or industries
Fintech, Data, AI
Portfolio
Spriggy, Birch, Equitise, Goodments, Inspitrip, Hashching, Stockspot, InsideSherpa, Simply Wall St, Nod, Edstart, LoanDolphin, Macrovue, DiviPay, Alfie, Timeweave, PayNinja, Valiant, Retro Analytics, MyClaimMate, Reji, mPhyt, Whaley, Aloki, Dotd, Cody, Triggr,DishMe, SquadFinder, Sempo, Seneca, Depostits, Bsociable, TapView, DueToday, SuperAlbert, CurrencySpot, PayHero
What you need to know about them
Videos
Podcasts
- Morgans Startup Series with Ben Heap, Co-founder of H2 Ventures
- Crazy Ambitious by Toby Heap with Melissa Hurwitz
Best way to contact
Apply for the accelerator on their website and for any questions you can email contact@h2.vc.
Square Peg Capital
Location
Sydney, Melbourne
Fund Size
$235M
What they DON'T invest in
Drugs, alcohol, or pharma.
Favoured themes, business models, or industries
SaaS, AI, Health
Portfolio
Canva, Stripe, Fivrr, Uber, School Places, Jethro, Airwallex, Agridigital, Bugcrowd, Cais, Chope, Climacell, Excelero, Feedvisor, Glide, Kaodim, Lifebeam, Propertyguru.com, Prospa, Ready4, Rokt, Shipping Easy, Standard Media Index, Talon.One, UHG, UpGuard, Vend, Vero, Wego
What you need to know about them
Videos
- Startup Grind Melbourne Hosts Paul Bassat (SEEK + Square Peg Capital)
- Square Peg Capital: National Innovation and Science Agenda
Podcasts
- Morgans Startup Series: Tony Holt, Co-founder of Square Peg
- Startup Playbook - Paul Bassat (Co-founder – Square Peg Capital) on solving important problems
- Getting Funded in the VC World with Dan Krasnostein
Best way to contact
Square Peg Capital prefers a warm introduction through their team or portfolio.
You can contact their Head of Community, Imogen on imogen@squarepegcap.com or submit your details on their website.
Pre-revenue
You've built a product and have 2-3 people on your team. You haven't made any money yet, but you're close.
AirTree Ventures
Location
Sydney
Fund Size
$250M
What they DON'T invest in
Biotech (e.g. drug trials), pure-play services or consultancies with no path to productising, pure-hardware
Favoured themes, business models, or industries
SaaS, AI, fintech, deep tech, companies disrupting unsexy industries (e.g. mining, agriculture)
Portfolio
Prospa, 90seconds, Paxata, Brosa, Expert360, Hyper Anna, Xplor, Pet Circle, Dgraph, Spaceship, Canva, Employment Hero, Edrolo, Process.st, DesignCrowd, Elevio, TheRight.Fit, Earth AI, FluroSat, Jobbatical, Ento, Pawshake, GlamCorner, Happy or Not, TidyMe, HotDoc, Snappr, Thematic, :Different
What you need to know about them
Videos
- Beer with an Entrepreneur: Daniel Petre, founder of AirTree Ventures
- How to Raise Venture Capital – Elicia McDonald from AirTree Ventures
- What it means to be an Entrepreneur - Craig Blair
- Role VCs play in a startup's journey from pitching to signing that term sheet - Craig Blair
- Startup Grind - John Henderson
- Talking machine learning - Craig Blair
Podcasts
- Morgans Startup Series with Craig Blair, Co-founder of AirTree Ventures
- Startup Playbook - Craig Blair (Managing Partner – AirTree Ventures) on the need for ambition
- Open the Pod Bay Doors - Daniel Petre (AirTree Ventures)
- Future of work - Daniel Petre
- This week in startups - Craig Blair
Best way to contact
AirTree prefers a warm introduction through their team or portfolio. For any questions, you can email info@airtree.vc.
Blackbird Ventures
Location
Sydney, Melbourne
Fund Size
$250M
What they DON'T invest in
No US copycats. No university spinouts. No Perth stockbrokers. No ‘Exit Strategy’ slides in your deck. No A-Holes. No gambling, no guns, no alcohol, no tobacco.
Favoured themes, business models, or industries
SaaS, Marketplaces, Hardware, B2B, B2E, B2C
Portfolio
Canva, Edrolo, Culture Amp, Elevio, Redbubble, Shoes of Prey, Propeller, Autopilot, Coinjar, Skedulo, Safety Culture, BugCrowd, LifX, Chuffed, Baraja, Accelo, Dgraph, Elto, Karbon, Myagi, Pageload, Process.st, Proxy, Sessions, Wow Such Business, Zova, Zoox, Movus, Mentorloop, Morse Micro, black.ai, Earth AI, Ask Nicely, Fleet, Gilmour Space Technologies, Nuraphone, Shape Analytics, Workyard
What you need to know about them
- Our process for making investments
- What we are looking for in teams
- What products and markets are we looking for
- At what stage will Blackbird invest?
- The worst slide in your pitchdeck
Videos
- Beer with an Entrepreneur: Niki Scevak, co-founder of Blackbird Ventures
- How to value tech companies with no revenues - Rick Baker from Blackbird Ventures
Podcasts
- Morgans Startup Series- Podcast with Niki Scevak from Blackbird Ventures
- Startup Playbook - Nick Crocker (Venture Partner – Blackbird Ventures) on people, culture and products
Best way to contact
Blackbird prefers a warm introduction through their team or portfolio.
If you absolutely can not find a warm intro and you want to tell Blackbird about
your startup, fill in this form, and they'll get back to you.
Favoured themes, business models, or industries
SaaS, PaaS, Marketplaces and On-demand
Portfolio
Airtasker, Go1, Sendle, Practice Ignition, Gigged In, MoneyBall, Shop Wings, Zapala Go, GetSwift, LBC, TokenOne, Topme, WithWine, Safety Compass, Rocketed, SpaceConnect, Unscrabble, Responsight, Tappr, Practice Ignition
Videos
Podcasts
Best way to contact
If you're pitching, apply on their website and for any questions you can email admin@blacksheepcapital.com.au.
Favoured themes, business models, or industries
Health, Fintech, VR/AR, Cybersecurity, Autonomous Vehicles
Portfolio
Abra, Airdog, Airtasker, Credible, Daedalean, Hint Health, Honeybook, Ingogo, Iotera, Life360, MediusHealth, Neoclinical, OneAffiniti, Ouster, Ovrclk, Paratus Clincial, PARts, Peerspace, Ramp, ResponSight, Rubicor, Savara Pharmaceuticals, Siftery, Sparesbox, Synata, The Search Party, Trustify, Vendri, Wildcard, Zero Latency
What you need to know about them
Videos
None.
Podcasts
None.
Best way to contact
For any questions, you can email info@carthonacapital.com.
Reinventure
Location
Sydney
Fund Size
$100M
What they DON'T invest in
-
Favoured themes, business models, or industries
Fintech, AI, B2B
Portfolio
Doshii, Zetaris, Society One, Brick X, Nabo, Valiant, Basiq, Openagent.com.au, Hyper Anna, Assembly, Flare, DataRepeublic, Indebted, HeyYou, Coinbase, Auror, Fillr, Everproof, Kasada, Akin, Codelingo
What you need to know about them
Videos
Podcasts
- Startup Playbook - Simon Cant (Co-founder & MD – Reinventure) on the relationship between startups and corporates
- Startup Playbook - Lauren Capelin (Head of Venture Community - Reinventure) on using community for growth
- Rebank: Building the Rails to Support the Data Industry
Best way to contact
Reinventure prefers a warm introduction through their team or portfolio. For any questions, you can email the team at info@reinventure.com.au.
Post-revenue
You've made some money, YAY! Now you're ready to hire and scale up.
Dominet
Location
Melbourne
Fund Size
Balance sheet
What they DON'T invest in
Industries they don't have experience in – health, capital intensive industries like mining & resources.
Favoured themes, business models, or industries
Consumer, Fintech, Marketplaces
Portfolio
Hummingbird Superfoods, Bitcoin.com.au, BlueChilli, Fuzo, WithWine, Kindynow, Collaborate, iBackpacker, Pin Payments, Wholesale Investor, SwapForex, TokenOne, Harris Technology, SMS Central, Future Capital, My Guest List, Bullpen Capital, TymLez, CrowdMobile, Glamazon, The Social Club, Plus+, MishGuru, Fairplay Toys
What you need to know about them
Need to search.
Videos
None.
Podcasts
None.
Best way to contact
For any questions, you can enquire on their website.
OneVentures
Location
Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne
Fund Size
$170M
What they DON'T invest in
Gambling, drugs, or alcohol
Favoured themes, business models, or industries
SaaS, Marketplaces, Life Sciences
Portfolio
HatchTech, Vaxxus, Smart Sparrow, Charm Health, Building IQ, Incoming Media, Ovo, FindMe, Employment Hero, Clinical Genomics, Prota, 8i, Paloma
What you need to know about them
None.
Videos
Podcasts
None.
Best way to contact
For any questions, you can enquire on their website.
Favoured themes, business models, or industries
Fintech, Mobile, Robotics, SaaS, AI
Portfolio
Assembly, Expert360, Skedulo, MentorLoop, PredictHQ, Spaceship, , School Places, Sendle, Stackla, Tiger Pistol, Surefire, Predictive Hire, Cog
What you need to know about them
Videos
Podcasts
Best way to contact
Rose Powell - Head of Growth
(+61) 403 806 647
rose@rampersand.com
If you're a VC and you'd like to be on this list, submit your details here.