Does WA need a $100m VC Fund: Techboard Roundtable WA2

Peter van Bruchem

[EDITED] VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE

Techboard's second Roundtable event is taking place on 3 July 2019 at Spacecubed's Riff. At this Roundtable the panelists will be addressing the question of "Does WA need a $100m VC Fund". We have also set a date for our first Roundtable in Sydney on 6 August 2019. Registrations for the Sydney event are now LIVE

For those who missed out on Techboard's first Roundtable event in December 2018, our Roundtables are twist on a panel session where we have panelists around a table having a facilitated conversation on a topic related to startup and tech funding, informed by Techboard’s data all in front of a live audience. Don't worry the audience gets to ask questions.

At the first roundtable several of the panelists expressed the view that good companies can get investment in Perth, although that view was not universally held around the table at that session, notably with one panelist Charlie Gunningham to call for WA to have a $100m fund as he saw plenty of great companies not get funded.

Perth currently has two operational VC funds, 808 Ventures which operates an evergreen fund and BetterLabs Venutres a corporate fund established by RAC which operates a $3m seed fund. Perth has other investors of various sizes  including other corporates (such as Seven West Media) and family offices that have backed many startup and tech ventures. Many startup entrepreneurs have also been successful raising money privately via capital advisers and their networks.  There are also a number of firms and individuals in Perth that claim to be Venture Capitalists, however to our knowledge, these individuals do not operate funds as such with a clear mandate to invest a pre-committed amount of money, as is the case with traditional VC funds.

In the past Western Australia has had larger Venture Capital funds with multiple tens of millions under management, with the last operational fund being Yuuwa Capital, which had a $40m ten year fund launched in 2009, yes 10 years ago. Prior to that, Stoneridge Ventures operated a number of funds, with its first, also a 10 yr fund opening in 2001 but history of Venture Capital in WA goes back further than that.

The Team at Techboard believes that there are many benefits that come with the visibility that formal venture capital funds bring but we won't go into these now, if you want to know more you should come along to the Techboard Roundtable event on 3 July 2019.

We have assembled an esteemed group of panelists to discuss the question of "Does WA need a $100m VC Fund" as well as exploring barriers and challenges that may be faced by anyone looking at getting such a fund together and how they can be overcome. We will also explore how such a fund might be structured and operate to meet the needs of the startup and tech ecosystem in Western Australia. As with our first Roundtable, the discussion will be facilitated by Stephen Carroll from RSM and Peter van Bruchem from Techboard.

The Panel comprises:

  • Charlie Gunningham - Accelerating Commercialisation
  • Tracie Clark - Perth Angels and Scale Investors
  • Derek Gerrard - BetterLabs Ventures
  • David Weir - Radium Capital
  • Gary Macbeth - 808 Ventures
  • Jasmin Ward - Bloom, Cribber, Ex-Navitas Ventures
  • Bonnie Lin - B2 Rainmakers
  • Robert Nathan - Upstart Ventures

We are hoping to announce some additional panelists in the coming week.

 

When: 5pm to 8pm Wednesday 3 July 2019
Where: Riff@Spacecubed, 45 St George's Terrace Perth
Tickets$25
NEW Free to Founders