Australia's Side Stage hits first close on VC fund

LPs include founders of prominent local start-ups Go1, Linktree, and Airtasker. They are part of a syndicate of more than 100 founders and operators that are developing their organisation into a GP structure.

Side Stage is a team of nine – including five venture partners – that positions itself as a unique founder support community with a global network of collaborators. It is led by serial founders and angel investors Markus Kahlbetzer and Ben Grabiner

Kahlbetzer is the founder of early-stage investors Bridgelane Capital and Tank Stream Ventures, as well as founder of financial technology start-up BrickX and an investor in Go1 and Airtasker. Grabiner is best known as the founder of London-based talent platform Platoon, which was acquired by Apple in 2018.

“In the time I’ve been in Australia, it has become abundantly clear that it is home to some of the very best entrepreneurs in the world,” Grabiner said in a social media post.

“These founders have the same grit, determination, hustle, vision, and ability as any in the world and undoubtedly will, over the coming decades, build some of the biggest and most impactful technology companies in the world.”

Side Stage will write cheques of around AUD 500,000 across sectors, targeting companies as early as the pre-revenue stage. Investees will address markets with either billions of potential customers or billions of dollars in accessible revenue capacity. The idea is to back founders with global vision; Side Stage calls this the “top 1% of founders in Australia.”

The fund has made three investments to date, including More Good Days, a psychology-based back pain management start-up also backed by Blackbird Ventures. Prior investments as a syndicate include hybrid and virtual events platform Delegate Connect, which has raised AUD 10m from the likes of Airtree Ventures and Skip Capital.

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