Co Ventures

We’re making Australia and New Zealand the best place in the world to build a startup. We’re achieving that through building a platform that unleashes startup ambition and accelerates exceptional companies. At our core, we’re a community of the most ambitious founders, operators and investors propelled by a highly-trusted mentor-driven community, and backed by the best angels, venture funds and tech startups in the region. Over the past decade we have invested in 200+ startups, with a combined value of $2 billion. We’ve written a lot about what we love at Startmate, so check out our blog if you want some more information about us, and check out our mission, values, and team, and one of our most ambitious goals...

We've been founders, operators, and investors. We’ve experienced success and we’ve experienced failure but most importantly… we deeply understand the struggle of building a business from the ground up. We write the first cheque into the best early stage companies. Then we lean in to help the founders build & scale. We back people. We’re comfortable investing across all sectors and business models. And our goal is simple: To be the most valued early-stage partner for the top 1% of founders in Australia. How we invest We typically invest up to $500k in pre-seed or seed rounds. We are super collaborative and enjoy investing alongside other great investors both in Australia and around the world. We are sector agnostic but looking for the best surfers riding the biggest waves - outlier founders, building in big markets. We are early stage specialists - we focus on solving the challenges of 0–1. It’s never too early. We’re comfortable backing companies very early, often pre-revenue. Why founders work with us We are founders and we behave like founders - with passion, enthusiasm and belief. We are flexible on valuation and ownership. We think what’s best for the founder is best for us. We offer active and collaborative support focussed on the earliest stages of building a business - such as hiring, fundraising and getting to product market fit. We have a high Helpfulness to Cheque Size ratio (H:CS) We’re building a unique community of founders who want to contribute. We are an global team with a global network. We feel fortunate to be here and absolutely LOVE what we do. What we look for Outlier Founders: First and foremost, we back people. We look for outlier founders who have proven hustle, a compelling, global vision, the hunger and drive to build a billion dollar business and the capability to sell their vision to employees, partners and future investors. Differentiated Product: We look for products that are solving real and meaningful problems, with passionate first customers and that have the potential to be orders of magnitude better than their nearest competitor. This could be demonstrated through sticky initial customers, accessing an underserved market or through a compelling and non-consensus product insight. Big Markets: Our focus is sector agnostic but with a bias towards big markets that have either billions of potential customers or billions of dollars in accessible revenue capacity.

We want to invest in solutions to problems which impact a lot of people. If you are simply iterating a market, 7percent is not for you. We seek the 200x winners and pass on the less risky, less ambitious opportunities. We are looking for moonshots. We back the technologies and products that in ten years people will wonder how the world ever lived without - the breakthrough companies and technologies. What's in a name? “A good early stage growth rate is 5-7% a week. If you can hit 10% a week you’re doing exceptionally well, but if you can only manage 1%, it’s a sign you haven’t yet figured out what you’re doing“ Paul Graham - Y Combinator Why take our moneyMaybe don't. Not every entrepreneurial business should take venture funding. The venture capital journey is best for big risk, big outcome businesses. A startup is a company which is different because it is able to g Ex-founder led with Silicon Valley ambition. For >10 years we have been investing at pre-seed and seed as angel investors then VC’s. With experience operating as founders in both the U.K. and U.S. we have the confidence to back you to reach for the stars, with access to the expertise and capital via the three networks we co-founded. Read more here. Our Mantra: to help not hinder your startup. This is a guiding principle in everything we do. Because our Partners are ex-Founders themselves, this helps us empathise. We have a better understanding than many other investors, of the challenges you will experience when building a company from scratch, because we’ve done it ourselves. We have: Founded, grown and sold successful tech startups Founded tech startups and failed Taken angel or VC investment for our own startups and raised it for others Built transatlantic reach across startup ecosystems, from West and Eastern European to North America Backed >150 companies over the past 10 years, as a firm or as angels.

We are a community-powered, industry agnostic VC fund investing in Australian and New Zealand based startups that have $100m+ revenue ambition. We invest at the earliest stages, once you’re ready to turn “after work” into “work”. Our investment process is imbued with a deep respect for founders’ time, intel, and courage. Founders are frequently subject to hellish, drawn-out due diligence processes, only to be unceremoniously knocked back despite their best efforts. We made a commitment to turn up for founders, and have designed a highly transparent process which adds value at every step. Our community is rallied around a shared goal: to invest in the next generation of Australia and New Zealand startups at the very earliest stage, and then support them on their long and arduous journey from improbability to outlier success. Our hivemind is our bedrock and our edge.

Empowering visionary entrepreneurs with global ambition and local expertise. At NZVC, we invest in the future by supporting the most ambitious entrepreneurs across ANZ. With deep connections to Silicon Valley and beyond, we offer more than capital - we deliver mentorship, global reach, and long-term partnership. ANZ offers world-class talent, a collaborative startup culture, and a track record of global success stories. It’s where agility meets ambition - and where we see the next generation of global tech leadersWhy ANZ

We lead pre-seed and seed rounds. We commit meaningful amounts of capital to empower founders to build the future before it becomes obvious. Deep Partnership We are company builders. We have built products, teams and companies in Southeast Asia. We care about your vision and product in a deep way. We believe that hands-on support makes a difference. Unparalleled Network We provide access. We have spent our entire careers at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship and venture. Our network is comprised of world class founders, investors and technologists.