Launching Australia’s premier startup investment network

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Australia’s venture capital landscape is as competitive and sophisticated as ever – and for startups raising capital, it can be a challenge to access.

Spark Festival is giving Australian startups an opportunity to meet leading investors from the country’s most prominent local funds – giving you the inside track on capital market trends, insights into what VCs are looking for in prospective investments, and where to start when planning your next (or first!) raise.

The inaugural panel features: one of Australia’s largest VC funds, AirTree; Australia’s only government-backed VC fund, Main Sequence Ventures; and the leading corporate VC Reinventure. With around $2.5 billion collectively under management, these three funds have backed a large proportion of this country’s startup success stories.

And you’ll also hear from an expert in the mechanics of conducting a capital raise, corporate advisory firm William Buck, to help demystify the process.

Join our speakers for networking drinks after the panel, together with like-minded entrepreneurs and ecosystem leaders.

THE PANEL:

AirTree – Ada Yin

Ada Yin is an investor at AirTree – one of Australia's largest and most active funds, investing primarily in early-stage Aussie and Kiwi founders. AirTree manages $1.3 billion in investments which it has deployed across dozens of technology startups, including Canva, Linktree, Mr Yum and Eucalyptus. Before joining AirTree, Ada worked in Data & AI at Microsoft and in management consulting. Having lived on a mine site and worked on global decarbonisation projects, Ada is particularly interested in fast-scaling financial and technology solutions to problems in the climate tech and heavy industries space.

Main Sequence Ventures – Danielle Haj-Moussa

Danielle Haj-Moussa is an investor at Main Sequence, a fund with over $1 billion under management and backed by the Australian Government’s science agency CSIRO. Its investments include carbon capture agtech Regrow AG, AI-based inertial navigation scaleup Advanced Navigation, and quantum computing pioneer Q-CTRL. Main Sequence is a deep-tech fund commercialising Australian research and solving some of the world’s biggest challenges including decarbonising the planet, enabling the next intelligence leap and feeding 10 billion people. Danielle primarily focuses on finding the next generation of AI and robotics companies as well as supporting existing deep tech companies in the Main Sequence portfolio.

Reinventure – Simon Cant

Simon Cant is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Reinventure. Founded in 2013, Reinventure is a founder-first corporate venture fund with $150m under management, with Westpac as the primary investor. The portfolio is focused on fintech and adjacent areas, with investments including Coinbase, Flare, FrankieOne and Immutable. Simon has spent his career working in venture and corporate innovation; he sits on the Treasurer's Fintech Advisory Group, Austrac's Fintel Alliance Advisory Board and was Founding President of Fintech Australia.

William Buck – Mark Calvetti

Mark Calvetti is the Director of Corporate Finance at William Buck, a full-service accounting and corporate advisory firm operating in Australia and New Zealand that has deep expertise in facilitating capital raises for startups and scaleups. Specialising in providing high-quality strategic and commercial advice to business owners and boards, Mark works predominantly with entrepreneurial mid-market companies that are looking to grow. Working with both private and public companies, Mark assists with acquisitions and disposals, capital restructuring advice (debt and equity), mergers and takeovers, IPOs, valuation and due diligence.

Moderator: Harry Godber – Spark Festival

Harry is Co-CEO of the Spark Festival, having spent a decade advising governments, boards and founders on shaping the Australian innovation ecosystem. Harry served in the Turnbull and Morrison Governments as an adviser on technology policy and financial regulation, where he oversaw the launch of the Australian Space Agency and the completion of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, as well as critical reforms to financial systems, IP, data portability and space law. He exited government to help scale workplace benefits startup Flare, which was acquired by KKR’s MYOB in one of Australia’s most significant fintech transactions.

*This event is ideal for startup founders seeking investment.

Hosted by Spark Festival

Spark Festival has a mandate to coordinate and promote startup-focused events that spark engagement into and across the startup ecosystem.

This event is open to all Spark Festival attendees.

Spark Festival 2023 has been made possible by support from the Australian Computer Society, Department of Industry, Science and Resources, William Buck and Atlassian, and continues its mission to drive engagement into and across the NSW startup ecosystem.