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Australia's tech founder launches $37m VC fund

  • Andrew Woodman
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Victor Jiang, the founder of Australian professional services platform Skillsapien, is seeking to raise A$50 million ($37 million) for his new Sapien Ventures fund.

According to the Australian Financial Review (AFR), Jiang is looking to raise a significant chunk of this capital from Chinese investors. Jiang plans to leverage his network in the Silicon Valley and use Sapien to build a similar ecosystem in Australia. Around half of the fund's investment advisory team will be based in the Valley.

"In our little way we hope to bottle a little bit of that, take a capsule and bring it back to Australia, and catalyse the Australian ecosystem to be more like Silicon Valley," Jiang told AFR.

News of the fund coincides with the Australian government's recently announced changes to the significant investor visa (SIV) program which are expected to kick-start the Australian VC activity by attracting foreign money.

The changes, which came into effect on July 1, will require A$500,000 per A$5 million of investment to be allocated to finance start-ups. Research firm Basis Point estimates that with 400 to 800 visas being granted per year, around $200 million to $400 million will be injected into Australian venture capital, more than the A$266 million invested in 2014.

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