David Swan - tech editor of the Age and SMH talks about Scott Farquhar
Venture Capital in Australia
BSI Innovation blogs about Innovation, Money, Venture Capital, Grants, Exports and Research and Development (R&D)
Alliance Partners
Saturday, May 04, 2024
Scott Farquhar - the Ozzie tech Godfather - creating a new chapter!
David Swan - tech editor of the Age and SMH talks about Scott Farquhar
Monday, April 29, 2024
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Guzman y Gomez has raised $134.5 million in at a valuation of $1.73 billion.
Mexican food chain Guzman y Gomez has raised $134.5 million in at a valuation of $1.73 billion.
Founded by by Steven Marks and Robert Hazan in 2006 - from a single store in Newtown , the chain now has more than 200 stores in Australia, Singapore, Japan and the US.
With Global Sales of $758.8M (including franchisees) – it has grown by over 29% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) since 2014.
Existing investors, Aware Super and TDM Growth Partners, have been supported by
Cooper Investors,
Hyperion Asset Management,
Firetrail Investments and
QVG Capital,
Guzman y Gomez had as of the end of 2023.
You can read more about the chain’s business model in this SmartCompany article by Jason Andrew, published in January.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Betting before anyone else is ready to gives exponential returns in Ozzie Tech!
Blackbird has netted $800m payday from its Canva share sale.
The transaction, which valued Canva at $US26 billion, allowed staff and early investors to sell their shares, turning some employees into millionaires and generating big returns for superannuation funds that tipped money into the local tech company!
For Blackbird’s 2012 fund, which participated in Canva’s earliest funding round, the sale represented a return of just more than 2600 times the cost base of its original investment.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Deputy raises $37m and becomes a Unicorn!
After nearly going bust during Covid, Deputy has joined Canva, Go1, Pet Circle , Linktree and SafetyCulture - achieving unicorn with an investment of $37m at a $1.1b valuation from Express Employment Professionals, a global staffing and labour hire company who was a customer of Deputy.
This has made founder Ashik Ahmed a happy man together with investors Square Peg, EVP, and US investors IVP and OpenView.
In 2018, Deputy raised $111 million led by US investor IVP, which valued the company at $423 million.
What Deputy does
Deputy have built a truly extraordinary platform that automates a broken and manual workflow for more than millions workers in over 100 countries helping them communicate, engage , onboard and organise their rosters.
Businesses onboard hourly workers via a mobile app and conduct employee engagement surveys after their shift ends.
The company also created a communication tool, similar to Slack, that allows shift workers and managers to share information easily.
Ashik was first exposed to the need for better organisation of shift workers as a 16-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh, when he was flipping burgers at Hungry Jack’s.
He founded Deputy in 2008, alongside entrepreneur Steve Shelley. Ashik stepped aside as CEO a year ago to bring in San Francisco-based Silvija Martincevic and Joins Steve Shelley on the board.
Silvia told the AFR that Deputy are focused on the impact that they can achieve in the shiftwork community, which remains an underserved community despite being the most substantial.
She said that there’s no better validation of a company’s mission and what we’re doing than having a customer who decides to invest in you.
So who is Express Employment Professionals?
EEP have more than 860 franchised locations across Australia, America, South Africa and New Zealand, and will add more than 500,000 new users to Deputy - a 36 per cent increase to its current 1.4 million global user base.
Deputy investors love them!
Paul Bassat of Square Peg told AFR that this investment would provide Deputy with the firepower to continue to invest in the growth of the business.
Howard Leibman of EVO says “I've had the privilege of working with Deputy since we were a team of 20, and of serving on the Deputy Board since 2016. Whilst it’s taken some time to exceed the $1 billion valuation, the fact that Deputy would one day be a unicorn was for me never in doubt.
The business serves one of the world's largest markets - the many hundreds of millions of hourly paid workers - who have long been under-served by software and for whom technologies such as Deputy have life-changing impact.
Through the Express Pros partnership alone, a further 500,000 hourly workers will have access to Deputy over time. Express Pro's material investment into the business speaks to Deputy's extraordinary long term prospects as we take on the US market.
A huge congrats to Silvija Martincevic and the entire Deputy team on this milestone achievement. But in so many respects we're only just getting started!!”
Who to look out for!!!
Watch Anwar Kahlil and Martian Logic !!
https://www.startupdaily.net/topic/sydney-staff-management-deputy-boston-openview/
https://anthillonline.com/deputy-raises-us25-million-series-openview-redefine-workforce-management/
https://www.afr.com/technology/australia-has-its-first-tech-unicorn-in-two-years-20240314-p5fcbg
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Biocatch founders have pay day at unicorn valuation
Founders of Israeli cybersecurity business, BioCatch, Avi Turgeman and the late Benny Rosenbaum get paid out as Macquarie buys $32 million, Sapphire Ventures $70m and Permira Growth Opportunities $40 million at a valuation of slightly more than $1 billion.
What biocatch does
BioCatch founded in 2011, specializes in software development for identifying and preventing bank fraud and money laundering.
BioCatch numbers
BioCatch is currently led by CEO Gadi Mazor, employs 280 people, half of whom are based in Israel.
The recent surge in the company's value follows accelerated growth, propelling it to a yearly revenue pace of $100 million, leading to a positive cash flow.
BioCatch clients
This growth is fueled by a 51% revenue increase from its 152 clients, consisting of banks and financial institutions.
Notably, 28 of the world's top 100 banks are on BioCatch's client list.
The early investors
The primary shareholder in BioCatch , Bain Capital, led the last $145 million fundraising round in 2020 with the major global banks such as HSBC, Citi, Barclays, and the investment arm of American Express.
To date, BioCatch has raised $253 million, with the proceeds from the last three rounds benefiting early investors seeking an exit.
Related articles:
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Oneventures closes first fund with 4X investment
Australian venture capital firm OneVentures has hit a landmark moment, with the official closure of its first fund, providing strong returns to its backers, including the federal government, which provided half the money for the fund back in 2010.
This is a significant moment for the local technology industry as it marks the first major fund of the post dotcom era to officially wrap up and return good money to investors.
The return currently stands at four times the money invested, and could rise higher!!
Source AFR https://www.afr.com/technology/this-vc-firm-has-hit-a-landmark-and-it-s-payout-time-20240211-p5f427