Australia's AirTree closes third fund at $188m

LPs include AustralianSuper, Statewide Superannuation Trust, and SunSuper. It confirms industry observations that growing appetite for venture capital among local pension funds is supporting a more robust fundraising environment. It comes four months after Square Peg Capital closed its second fund at A$340 million with contributions from two super funds, including Hostplus.

"We have long argued that the best way for super funds to support the local start-up sector is to back multiple VC managers across vintages," Craig Blair, a co-founder of AirTree, said in a statement. "We can't, and don't want to be, the only ones. It takes multiple successful funds for an innovation ecosystem to thrive. The increased interest from super funds in Australian venture capital augurs well for start-ups."

The new fund will closely follow the strategy of its predecessors, writing seed-stage checks as low as A$200,000 for Australasian start-ups and continuing to back them at later stages, including Series C rounds. Earlier this week, AirTree participated in a A$70 million Series C for Athena Home Loans alongside Square Peg, Hostplus, and AustralianSuper. It was the latter's first direct start-up investment.

AirTree closed its second fund at A$250 million in 2016 with support from two super funds. Its debut raised A$60 million in 2014. All of AirTree's funds are divided into two vehicles, including a core fund and an opportunity fund, with the former targeting earlier stages and the latter making deployments as large as A$25 million. Focus sectors include health, education, energy, robotics, finance, and agriculture.

The fundraise coincides with a number of staff changes. Elicia McDonald has been promoted to principal, while Melissa Ran has joined as head of venture community, which entails a range of networking and advocacy work. The firm includes 16 professionals in total.

AirTree claims to have more than A$500 million in assets under management and over 50 investee companies. The portfolio standout to date is Canva, a Sydney-based graphic design start-up valued at around $3.2 billion that raised a $85 million round earlier this month and a separate $70 million round in May. According to AVCJ Research, AirTree first backed the company in 2015.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Technology
• Australia
• AirTree Ventures
• AustralianSuper
• Sunsuper
• Technology
• seed
• Growth capital
• TMT