Australian supermarket giant Woolworths has teamed up with four international retailers to create a global venture capital looking to back startups in the shopping space. Joining Woolies in W23 Global are Dutch-Belgian multinational Ahold Delhaize, which runs 16 brands in nine countries, the UK’s Tesco, Canada’s Empire  Co. (best known for Sobeys, Foodland & Safeway) and and Africa’s Shoprite Group. Each retailer is contributing US$25 million to W23 Global, and their CEOs will be on the investment committee. The fund plans to invest US$125 million (A$190m) over the next five years. In ..read more

Australian universities are creating extraordinary startups founded by students that are changing the world. Think tech giant Atlassian – cofounders Mike and Scott met at UNSW – to more recent successes such as gaming platform Immutable, diagnosis medtech Harrison.ai, and drone deep tech venture Propeller Aero. Now students are taking charge of the investment side of startup growth with Australia’s first student-run VC fund NextGen Ventures. The fund is the brainchild of Mitchell Hughes, a Monash University student who become enmeshed in the uni startup ecosystem two years ago, surrounded by f ..read more

Rayn Ong is the Taylor Swift of Australian venture capital. The Archangel Ventures partner has made more than 100 investments. A Startmate mentor, Blackbird limited partner and poker shark, Ong works with angel investors and venture fund mangers to co-invest in 1st and 2nd rounds for early stage tech startups. His fans, known as Ongies, send him startup swag, hoping he’ll like it enough to invest (he’s a size M).  Their LinkedIn accounts are filled with photos with Ong, his presence a talisman for future success. With so much experience, and inspired by the Wall Street Journal bestseller ..read more

Investor Rayn Ong pointed out recently that “VCs (and angels) say no to 95% of the founders they meet with”. That’s ignoring the many more no responses over emails and even DMs (from some brave founders). As anyone in startup land will attest, the no comes in many forms. There is of course the quick, near-instant no which is the most common no. There is the not now – which for some optimistic founders can be interpreted as a ‘maybe’ or even ‘we’re on for next time if we hit our targets.’ There is also the full consideration process no which is often the hardest for founders to swallow – this n ..read more

Investments in tech companies such as Fiverr, Vend, Property Guru and Canva have already returned $1.12 billion to Square Peg’s early backers, the VC has revealed as it gears  to raise a sixth fund worth US$500m (A$840m). The exits across 14 portfolio companies have spanned mergers and acquisitions, secondary market share sales and public floats and also include CalReply, UHG, Puresec and SMI. Canva remains the jewel in the crown for Australian venture capital, with VCs, including Blackbird selling down portions of their holdings in the privately-owned design platform recently as the ..read more

Government-backed investment fund Breakthrough Victoria has defended itself against critics wanting it abolished saying it wants to “fundamentally reshape the innovation landscape”. The $2 billion VC fund, launched in 2021, and chaired by former Labor premier John Brumby, has been subject to a sustained media campaign for it to be dismantled, led by Adir Shiffman, chair of ASX-listed Catapult Group, and Seek cofounder Matt Rockman. The Labor government conceived Breakthrough Victoria three years ago in the midst of the Covid pandemic and ongoing lockdowns that crippled the state’s economic act ..read more

Touch Ventures, the ASX-listed VC fund initially backed by BNPL fintech Afterpay, lost $15.4 million in 2023, writing off more than $27 million worth of investments in PlanPay and Till Payments. The upside for the VC (ASX:TVL) is that last year’s red ink is a quarter of 2022’s net loss of $65.2m. But as one of only two publicly listed VC funds, the results offer some insight into the struggles of a VC fund that doesn’t have a large slice of Canva to prop up its balance sheet. Shares in Touch have bounced around the 0.075 cents mark for the past week since the results were released – a far cry ..read more

The Queensland government’s new venture capital development fund has backed five VCs: Antler, Five V Capital, Main Sequence, Mandalay Venture Partners and Salus Ventures, with a combined $130 million investment. Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment Cameron Dick said the deals will give Queensland startups access to up to $200 million in new matched funding as the VCs expand their presence in the state. The Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) is making the investments via the Queensland Venture Capital Development Fund (QVCDF). For Antler, which launched in Sydney in 2019 before ..read more

Health insurance company Bupa has launched a $20 million VC fund, Bupa Ventures, to back Australian healthcare startups. Bupa Ventures will support early-stage investment from  Seed to Series A and will look to support startups across a broad spectrum of health sectors. Its early focus includes predictive and preventative healthcare, genomics, home care and remote monitoring, with an objective to make the sector more personal and less fragmented.   Bupa APAC CEO Nick Stone said the startups the fund backs will play a critical role in the future of healthcare, accelerating innova ..read more

I see hundreds of founders pitch each year across industries and idea spaces – Antler invests in around 25 businesses each year in Australia alone. These pitches include a lot of generative AI, SaaS and HR Tech innovations, but flipping it around – here are 10 opportunities I reckon are worth exploring in 2024. 1. How to monetise/ distribute content for Large Language Models (LLMs) There’s amazing proprietary content in media companies, libraries, universities, and the like. How can they license and monetise this content to those building LLMs? There could be a great middleware opportunity to ..read more