Sydney Angels launches $15 million VC fund

It will build on the group's A$10 million sidecar fund from 2012, which matches the commitments made by Sydney Angel members in early-stage companies. The new vehicle will continue this approach with additional potential for making later-stage investments.

"In hindsight, Fund I would have benefited from a few more millions. There have been investments flowing through that we haven't been able to co-invest in," Sydney Angels committee member Richard Dale said, according to The Australian Financial Review. "That's going to be one of the key benefits of Fund II - not only does it get to invest in all the new deals the Sydney Angel members are doing, it has the opportunity to do follow-on rounds in companies that are proving themselves."

Fund II is expected to target pre-revenue start-ups with an average valuation of A$2 million. Investments by the group typically range from A$20,000-50,000 over a horizon of 5-7 years and aim to achieve 10x returns upon exit.

Since 2009, Sydney Angels has backed at least 35 companies, including IT services provider Instaclustr, which attracted A$7 million in expansion funding from a group of domestic VCs last month. Last year, the group introduced a new source of funding to its portfolio companies by partnering with Australian equity crowdfunding platform VentureCrowd.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Fundraising
• GPs
• Venture
• Australia
• seed