New VC funds win state support

Some of Perth’s most experienced venture capitalists have received state government support for new funds that are seeking to raise more than $100 million for startup investment.

Three new funds being established by Derek Gerrard’s Purpose Ventures, Charlie Caruso’s Quokka Capital and Glenn Butcher’s Fund WA will each receive $100,000 in matched annual funding from the WA Government for three years, to assist with operational expenditure.

The funding is a from a new program called WA Venture Support, or Waves, which is itself funded through the state government's $16.7 million New Industries Fund.

Waves was announced in October last year with $900,000 allocated to its program.

Funding for early stage startups has been seen as lacking in WA, largely limited to high net worth individuals and family offices, often through the Perth Angel Network.

Fund WA is understood to have a three-year fund raising target of $50 million, while Purpose Ventures has a minimum goal of $30 million and Quokka Capital isunderstood to be seeking $25 million.

Led by Mr Butcher, who has returned to Perth after a long career in some major global businesses such as Atlassian and Amazon, as well being a partner in venture capital firm CP Ventures, FundWA is a venture capital fund that intends to invests in technology-enabled innovative businesses in Western Australia.

Other FundWA players are startup founder and adviser Asheesh Malaney, intellectual property lawyer Pia Turcinov and cardiologist Michael Nguyen as directors, and former Sapien Cyber chief executive Glenn Murray as a venture partner.

Purpose Ventures, which said it helps organisations find and achieve their greater societal purpose has been established by Derek and Kylie Gerrard, as general partners, with its venture partners being HealthEngine founder Marcus Tan, infrastructure adviser Nicole Lockwood and Spacecubed founder Brodie McCulloch.

Mr Gerrard co-founded a software business Greensense and a consultancy Go Capital Australia. He is currently chair of charitable investment and giving circle Meridian Global Foundation, and has been venture fund manager at RAC-backed investment vehicle BetterLabs for several years. Ms Gerrard has most recently been involved as a key executive in startup organisations such as Spacecubed and Innovation Bay.

Quokka Capital was established 18 months ago by Ms Caruso, an angel investor and former startup founder, with Nigell Lee, who has been involved in numerous startups at executive level.

"The Waves program is designed to attract the funds that will support the commercialisation of promising ideas generated by WA's growing early-stage innovation ecosystem,” said Digital Economy Minister Stephen Dawson.

In addition to Waves, the state government said it had initiated a market sounding process last month to identify venture capital interest in WA and how to further encourage greater investment into the state.

The state government also funded eight agribusiness startup founders to travel to Adelaide to attend the evokeAG agrifood technology conference.

One of these attendees, Xsights, has subsequently been selected in the first cohort of SVG Ventures|THRIVE's Melbourne-based APAC Accelerator program to support growth stage agrifood tech companies from across Asia Pacific.

Fremantle-based Xsights, which collected the Business News ‘Great for the State’ Award last year for its XioT Health Tag, has shifted from its audience measurement base to develop technology used for livestock health and welfare monitoring.