Telstra Ventures, HarbourVest partner for tech fund

Andrew Penn, CEO of Telstra, has confirmed that Telstra Venture will receive a A$75 million ($55.5 million) commitment from HarbourVest. According to The Australian Financial Review, the partnership will target a A$675 million fund, with HarbourVest and Telstra contributing an additional $187.5 million and $125 million, respectively. This is expected to result in HarbourVest taking a 32.5% stake in Telstra Ventures.

“The Telstra Ventures team has built an attractive portfolio over the past six years and we are pleased to be supporting them alongside Telstra through their next phase of growth,” Tim Flower, managing director at HarbourVest, said in a statement.

Telstra Ventures was founded in 2011 with a view to making investments of up to $50 million in established technology and innovation businesses with existing revenue. Focus areas include mobile, cloud, machine learning, security, and media. Recent activity includes participation in early-stage rounds for communications platform operator Whispir and internet-of-things company Movus.

The partnership with Harbourvest, a GP that claims more than $49 billion in assets under management globally, coincides with the launch of the Telstra2022 strategy by the VC’s parent company, which saw profits decline 33% during 2017 to A$3.9 billion. Telstra2022 aims to improve customer experience, simplify structure, and cut costs through technology and labor reduction.

HarbourVest is said to have committed some $32 billion to newly formed funds, completed more than $18 million in secondary purchases, and invested more than $7 billion directly into operating companies since 1982. Earlier this year, the firm closed its latest fund-of-funds targeting European and Asian markets with $1.7 billion in commitments.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Technology
• Fundraising
• GPs
• Australia
• HarbourVest Partners
• Telstra Ventures
• Venture