Australia’s Top 14 Venture Capital Firms [2023]

A few years back, Australia’s venture capital firms were still in their infancy. Today, Australia has become one of the world’s top destinations for tech startups. Indeed, in 2021 alone Australia’s venture capital firms have invested in total over whopping $8.2 billion, more than 10 times what it was 5 years ago..!

In this article we have listed our top picks for the best venture capital firms (VCs) in Australia. So, if you haven’t yet started to reach out, here is a good place to start learning about them.

Note: this article is part of a series where we present you the top Venture Capital firms across the world. Have a look at the complete list here.

Looking for Australia’s top startup incubators and accelerators instead? Check out our ranking here.

Australia’s Top 14 Venture Capital Firms

Here’s a summary of our top 14 picks for Australia’s best venture capital firms for tech startups (in alphabetical order):

Name	Sector focus	Round	Investment size	Investments
AirTree Ventures	Technology	Seed to Series A+	$200K-$20M	104
Blackbird Ventures	Technology	Seed to Series A	$30K-$5M	187
Brandon Capital	Life Sciences	Seed to Series A+	Undisclosed	33
Carthona Capital	Technology	Seed to Series A	Undisclosed	75
Ellerston Ventures	Technology	Series A, A+	Undisclosed	27
GBS Venture Partners	Life Sciences	Seed to Series A+	$10M – $12M	60
H2 Ventures	Fintech, Data, A.I.	Seed to Series A	$50K-$100K	55
Morpheus Ventures	Technology	Seed to Series A	Undisclosed	30
One Ventures	Technology, Healthcare	Seed to Series A+	$500K to $20M	52
Reinventure Group Venture Capital Firm	Fintech	Seed to Series A	Undisclosed	57
Southern Cross Venture Partners	Technology	Seed to Series A	Undisclosed	47
Square Peg Capital	Sector Agnostic	Series A, A+	Undisclosed	104
Telstra Ventures	Technology	Seed to Series A+	Undisclosed	107
Tidal Ventures	Technology	Seed to Series A	$250K-$2.5M	29

1. AirTree 

AirTree Ventures is undeniably one of Australia’s top venture capital firms. It invests in the most ambitious startup founders within the technology sector. 

The VC firm helps portfolio companies recruit key roles and hire talented candidates. Portfolio companies receive advice on organization design, employee experience, and employee compensation strategies.

Founders have access to a network of people who understand the process of building startups to scale and growth stages. AirTree Ventures executive forums allow founders to connect with experts and technology leaders to help them through challenges.  

The VC firm invests in seed-stage and growth stages, and their initial investment is in the range of $200K to $20M. 

2. Blackbird

Blackbird is a VC firm that backs technology-focused startups. The VC firm invests in the early stages with initial investments of $30,000 in the seed stage and up to $5M for Series A. 

Ideally, they aim to invest right at the beginning of a company’s life before producing a product or revenue.  Blackbird supports deep-tech areas such as healthcare technology, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and alternative protein. 

The VC firm invests in founders that have a solid connection either to Australia or New Zealand.  

3. Brandon Capital

Brandon Capital is a stage agnostic VC firm that invests in life-science companies. Since its founding, the VC firm has focused on developing the next generation of medical innovations. They work with founders from the proof-of-concept stage through to commercialization.

Brandon Capital staff comprises professionals with technical, business, and operational experience. They collaborate with startup founders and establish successful long-term relationships with their management teams.

The VC firm has a robust global presence, and they remain at the forefront of contributing to the growth of a high-value and sustainable biotechnology industry.

4. Carthona Capital

Carthona Capital is an early-stage VC firm investing at the pre-seed, seed, or Series A. Founded in 2014, the VC firm invests in technology companies and has maintained a highly thematic approach in looking for companies to support.

While Carthona Capital prefers investing early, they also make follow-on investments and support the portfolio companies by deploying larger financial support as the company matures. 

They maintain an extremely hands-on approach with their portfolio companies, and they are active in helping startup founders reach managerial decisions.

5. Ellerston Ventures

Ellerston Capital is an asset management firm with multiple investment strategies. Its VC arm, Ellerston Ventures, has invested in 27 companies to date, including the likes of ebay and Monster. They invest anywhere from Series A to later stage deals.

Each month, the VC firm investigates 30 companies and focuses on leads with strong management teams.

Ellerton Ventures have offices in Melbourne and Sydney.  

6. GBS Venture Partners

GBS Venture Partners aims at helping talented entrepreneurs build excellent life science technology companies. They seek to lead investments in companies with leading technology that has comprehensive patent protection and amazing science. Their specific areas of interest include therapeutic or device opportunities from product-focused companies.

Making early-stage investments, the VC firm actively engages with entrepreneurs and management teams and works with them through the technical details, development plans, IP, and regulatory strategies.

Their initial investments fall in the range of $10M to $12M. They have offices in Melbourne and Victoria.  

7. H2 Ventures

H2 Ventures is another of Australia’s best VCs. It is an early-stage VC firm targeting companies that focus on Fintech, Data, and Artificial Intelligence. 

The investment company invests from the seed stage to Series A and seeks to create invaluable networking opportunities while mentoring management on operations. The VC firm backs founders who have shown purpose, ingenuity, and instinct. They look for companies whose management teams have energy and unique industry insight.

H2 Ventures invests on a cohort basis & looks for 8-16 startups at a time. They make initial investments ranging between $50K & $100K per company.  

8. Morpheus Ventures

Morpheus Ventures is an early-stage VC firm investing in Technology-focused companies and helping them avoid traditional roadblocks on their path to hyper-growth. 

Their team comprises specialists across various disciplines who assist the founders and management of portfolio companies in solving complex problems from the early stage and through all growth phases.

In addition, Morpheus Ventures have experts in developing and implementing IP strategy and protection. The VC firm is actively investing, and they have offices in Sydney and Los Angeles.   

9. One Ventures

One Ventures is a leading VC firm that works with company founders through different stages of business growth. The VC firm has over $500M in funds management and commits its expertise to actively shaping portfolio companies’ future. 

The VC firm invests in healthcare and technology sectors and looks for innovative founders who tackle products that will solve world problems. 

Before investing in healthcare companies, they look for all companies at or near the clinical stage. For technology, they consider the current and projected revenue and review the use of funds to drive sales and marketing. 

Their initial investments fall in the range of $500K to $20M. 

10. Reinventure

Reinventure invests in technology companies that develop solutions for the financial services industry and adjacent industries with embedded financial services. Reinventure typically looks for opportunities where a relationship with Westpac Banking Corporation can significantly benefit the venture. 

They believe Fintech is an inherently regional opportunity, and so they focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

Reinventure considers founders with proven entrepreneurial skills and proven traction. They look for companies with a strong network effect and disruptive business models.   

11. Southern Cross

Southern Cross Venture Partners is an early-stage VC firm that targets technology-focused startups. The VC firm looks for promising entrepreneurs and backs them in building successful companies with global potential. Their investment funds target technology, energy, and resources to help the portfolio companies through their early and growth stages.    

The VC firm targets entrepreneurs who succinctly express the purpose and vision of their startups. These entrepreneurs aim at targeting the large and growing markets where technology has the potential to disrupt.

Southern Cross Venture Partners supports the early-stage growth companies through equity investments and then catalyzing the right connections. 

12. Square Peg

Square Peg is a venture capital firm that invests in emerging technology companies across the internet economy in Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and Israel.

13. Telstra Ventures

Telstra Ventures invests in technology-focused companies at the early and growth stages. The VC firm seeks partnerships with extraordinary founders and combines their knowledge with data to create futuristic solutions. 

Telstra ventures serve on the boards of some of their most innovative technology companies across the globe. However, they do not meddle in their business. Instead, they deliver critical thinking, leading to scale and hypergrowth.

The VC firm helps portfolio companies raise capital and scale for success to overcome challenges. They share their learnings and insights from portfolio companies and investment partners throughout the stages of business growth. 

14. Tidal

Tidal Ventures invests in technology companies from the early to the growth stages. The VC firm targets technology companies that seed to redefine the market. They invest in innovators ready to scale to global levels and work towards scaling their business growth.

With investments in Sydney and New York, Tidal Ventures believes in being generous with their knowledge. They fill the knowledge gaps for their founders and loan them the expertise to scale up big and reach global levels.

They make early investments and help the companies prepare for Series A.