Founder of Australia’s Seek plans PE platform

They will look for opportunities in the technology, internet and media spaces, Bassat told The Australian. There are no plans to raise a fund, but rather syndicate deals to people in their networks, which should afford the flexibility to do larger deals.

"The businesses will be generating a profit, so we want to put our own capital in, work with the teams and help them grow their businesses," Bassat said.

Since leaving his full-time role at Seek last year, Bassat has also established Square Peg Ventures, an early-stage investment fund. The vehicle brings together Bassat's Avalon Place, already an active growth investor, and Jagen, the family business of Bori and Justin Liberman. Jagen was early investor in Seek.

Square Peg has already made seven investments, several of them alongside leading global VC players and entrepreneurs. Portfolio companies include Binu, an internet platform for relatively low-end and older mobile phones that has also received capital from TomorrowVentures, a vehicle set up by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt; and ScriptRock, which is also backed by Peter Thie, an early investor in PayPal and Facebook.

Square Peg typically invests less than A$250,000 ($255,000) per transaction.

 

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