VC Investment is becoming a serious Asset Class
Although Australia is in its first recession in 29 years, the startup investment scene remains active – with 3 new funds coming to the market focussed on Australia and New Zealand-founded startups .
The Australian Venture Capital Industry is coming into its own as an asset class – says Tony Surtees (Co-founder of Zeetings which was recently sold to Canva) at our BBG Innovation Forum.
Amanda Price KPMG – head of High Growth Ventures – points out that Startup investment in Australia hit new highs over the first six months of 2020, with 92 deals reaching US$944.7 million, up from US$627.3 compared to first six months of 2019 according to KPMG’s Venture Pulse report (circa 1% of global activity) See full Article https://home.kpmg/au/en/home/media/press-releases/2020/07/australian-startup-investment-continues-rise-2020-despite-covid19-28-july.html – the article goes on to give details of Global VC Investment .
The standout Aussie Startup has been Atlassian Inc., which was founded in Australia about 19 years ago with less than $50k is now a $43 billion public company.
Aussie Funds loading up – getting ready to invest
Square Peg cofounded by Justin Liberman and Andrew Bassat raised a A$350 million round in June (topping $1b with pension backing)
Blackbird – cofounded by Niki Scevak, and Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes has just raised $500m which now has A$1.3 billion in total committed capital
and
Our Investment fund is just finalising the raise of its 2nd fund of 75m (see ) for details of what this amazing group of humans are doing ( Lawrence, Bella, Jeff,Dave and Jeremy )
Blackbird and Square Peg’s home run is its investment in Canva of about $110 million part of capital rounds together with with existing backers including Sequoia China , General Catalyst Partners, Square Peg , Felicis Ventures and Bond.
Canva now Has a $6 billion valuation in a funding round in June.
Blackbird also invested in autonomous vehicle startup Zoox Inc., which sold in June to Amazon.com Inc. for more than $1 billion.
All 3 like the edtech space – and together with Microsoft, Seek, Amazon and others have just backed GO1 in a $62m series C investment.
Posted on August 6, 2020Edtech seems a hot space!!!! – it’s the #nexttechrevolution