blog A who’s who of the Australian technology startup founder scene (you know these guys, it’s much of the same crew behind initiatives such as Startmate — the Atlassian founders, Niki Scevak and so on) has reportedly banded together to kickstart a new Australian venture capital fund dubbed ‘Blackbird Ventures’. Business Review Weekly reports (and there’s also further information at StartupSmart):
“Blackbird Ventures will “fill a gap” for start-ups … Although the activity of angel investors has ramped up and it has become easier for companies to raise an initial round of about $500,000, it is still very difficult for companies to raise venture rounds of up to $5 million”
As we’ve chronicled exhaustively on Delimiter recently, Australia’s streets really are paved with gold at the moment for innovative IT startups looking for seed or angel investment rounds, with dozens upon dozens of new startups now getting funded on the back of local incubators and angel investors. But the Blackbird crew is correct in that there’s much less funding around for companies which want to take the next step up and are looking for investment in the millions rather than in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
When Australian technology companies get to this size, they tend to get acquired or invested in by international firms due to a lack of local options — neither of which seems to result helping build a long-term, sustainable Australian home-grown technology sector. Blackbird should be a good way to help boost this area of the market, and we look forward to seeing what companies they invest in first.
Image credit: Chris Gordon, royalty free