Marley spoon acquires Chefgood for $21m

“There’s money in  food” 💰 

Rolf Weber’s ready-to-heat meal company,  Chefgood has been sold to a Marley Spoon for $21 million. 

Chefgood turnover was  $26 million of revenue this financial year which should generate positive earnings and cashflow of $2m plus per annum.

The acquisition has been  funded by an $8m investment into Markey Spoon at $1 per share an $11m  debt facility with Runway Growth Capital, with the final $2m payment to be made in May 2023.

Thanks Lucas Baird and The Australian Financial Review for the heads up 

Venture Capital in Australia - coming into its own

2021 has been a record year for Australian Venture Capital Company,  as Square Peg close the year with its investee, ROKT planning a 2023 IPO on the back of an Australian fundraise USD$325m, valuing the company at USD$1.9B.

Close to  US$5bn has already been invested into Australian and Kiwi startups, including rounds in the likes of Canvavalued at $40B and  Airwallex US$5.5bn.

Emerging success stories like Immutable, Mr Yum, Linktree and Octopus Deploy raised Series A and B rounds all north of US$45m. 

With  Seed stage companies such as  Carted, Delegate Connect, and others  raising early rounds larger than US$5m. 

Exits, Mergers and Acquisitions 

Australian tech businesses have become attractive acquisitions for established overseas players, with A Cloud Guru’s US$2bn sale to Pluralsight  and  Square’s US$29B acquisition of Afterpay 

Square Peg is building a community of its investees that include  Canva, Airwallex and Rokt, Zeller, Athena, Aidoc, Deputy, Fiverr, Tomorrow, FinAccel and PropertyGuru.

The likes of  Atlassian (market cap ~US$90bn), Canva (recent round at US$40bn valuation), SEEK (market cap ~US$10bn), and WiseTech (market cap ~US$12bn) - have been at the forefront of a strong Aussie Innovative Ecosystem , attracting more capital and more importantly top talent 

Capital and Venture Capital  Available 

Offshore capital is flooding into the market with new funds popping up weekly - investing in more and more companies with significant valuations ($50-100m valuations are not uncommon)

Over US$3bn has flowed into Australian startups in the third quarter of 2021, from less than $300m in 2013 (when Square Peg was founded) - and a lot less prior.

Today, Australia has  emerged as an important ecosystem on the world stage with an active angel community, early-stage investors, growth investors, secondary funds, venture debt providers and offshore investors - providing an environment for founders to access money, resources and markets.

An  ecosystem has been created with a number of support networks that bring the industry together. 

The brief history - We have come a long way 

When BSI was hosting its investor forums between 2003 and 2008 - we would showcase 8 emerging companies every 4 months to 35 potential investors in Sydney , Melbourne and Brisbane (Google bsivc ) 

Capital raising for startups was hard - startups, and there were limited resources or mentors for founders and operators to help them scale their businesses. Very few people understood the terms of Seed, Series A and Series B.

Jerry Engel - Professor of HAAS Business School - has played a significant influence on me and 100’s of Australian entrepreneurs and business leaders - he has upskilled them in how to play in the VC world and access the USA market .

Between 2002 and 2008 - the BSI investor forum was one of the only game in town - supported buy innovative government programmes .

There was over a trillion dollars invested in the Superannuation Industry - with nothing being invested in a Aussie Innovation ! 

In 2002 this was a the state of affairs in Venture Capital . An opportunity waiting to happen ….

It’s taken 20 years to become an overnight success 

https://www.slideshare.net/ikayebsi/our-call-for-investment-in-startups-in-2002-13-years-on-the-time-has-come

Things started to take off in 2012 - with the emergence of this loose alliance that was Square Peg supported by the likes of  Hostplus  and  AustralianSuper , and successful individual investors and family offices , many of whom had been entrepreneurs themselves. 

An innovation Ecosystem flywheel has been created 

A “flywheel” of Aussie Innovation seems to have been created with 

More founders 

More funding

More Tech service providers 

More talent 

More exits 

The Flywheel isn’t just spinning, it is constantly reinforcing itself (more like spokes than a centreless wheel)

The flywheel doesn’t spin so neatly in one direction. Each element reinforces the others, where each component support one another, contributing to breakout businesses, with each win creating further wins.

It’s all about relationships 

Ecosystems rely on talent and capital - which move in dense, experienced circles - and is greased by relationships. 

To many it’s seems like a closed shop ….. Why Silicon Valley succeeded was the ability to connect, and openly collaborate with a view to contribute . People shared ideas and built on precious successors - not only of their own technology - but often of their competitors .

The power of connection, collaboration and contribution have been powering the wheels of success of The Australian Tech Ecosystem - Being  held together by the glue of University programs, Government support, incubators, accelerators, co-working spaces, informal and formal networking groups, meetups and conferences such as the #bbgforum’s 

This infrastructure helps “grease the flywheel” , and “accelerate  the hockey stick curve”  enabling founders to  start businesses, find resources, learn from each other, hire talent, and share war stories. 

The flywheel effect of the combined elements supporting each other  is contributing to breakout Australian businesses. These massive wins  are creating more wins.

Taking a leaf out of Silicon Valley 

It seems like a repetition of the Silicon Valley flywheel in the 20th Century and early 21 Century - with investments into Microsoft, Apple, Intel , Oracle, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo that have spurred countless others. 

The People and Players in the Ecosystem - relationships are key 

Silicon Valley had a number of “hubs and networks - one of the most famous being the PayPal Mafia  of Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk , Peter Thiel and Steve Chen went on to build OpenDoor, Linkedin, Tesla  and You Tube . They played a massive part in collaborating, supporting and being supported by each other .

In Australia - you have the early players whose names are weaved through this exciting  brief history Niki Skevak of Blackbird , Paul Bassat, Justin Liberman, Mike Cannon Brookes, Scott Farquhar James Packer , BSI and Ausindustry, Michelle Deaker , CSIRO’s Larry Marshall , Bob Beaumont ,(https://www.afr.com/companies/angels-with-empty-pockets-19990423-kb53e) , The 10 government funded BIts Incubators  - including BSIs Australian Distributed Incubator  and Ron Fink’s Momentum .

Then there is 

Leigh Jasper of Aconnex

Martin Hosking  of Redbubble 

Andrew Spykes of Second Quarter Ventures

Then there are the likes of  Ben Pfisterer, APAC lead at Square founded   Zeller, Benjamin  and  Bradley  left senior roles at Atlassian to build Dovetail. Jon from Culture Amp founded Pyn, and his Co-Founder, Joris, was an executive at Atlassian.

Today, many  of Australia's most senior executives are leaving traditional industries in droves, abandoning the law, consulting, medicine and banking, to start or join startups. 

Senior NAB executives, Nathan Walsh and Mike Starkey, founded Athena Home Loans; 

Surgeon Manuri. Gunawardena   founded  HealthMatch,  

Former CEO at AMP, Sally Bruce, joined as COO/CFO of Culture Amp. 

It all starts with the Founders 

Dan Krasnostein, VC at Square Peg says that it all starts with the  founders , “the crazy ones” - that are committed  to solving massive problems they just can’t bear to see exist in the world.

Failure is not seen as the “end of a career”

In Australia, founders that didn’t ‘make it’ on their first attempt were often blacklisted. Australians seem to  now reward founders who can take the experience and lessons from one company into another.

An exciting future for Venture Capital in Australia

Venture Capital in Australia seems to be coming out of its infancy, and I for one am looking forward to the next decade of Australian Innovation - with tools such as BBG and Referron to support the Industry 

Wishing you happy holidays and an amazing decade of Connection , Collaboration and Contribution - to continue to make this Community great! 

Inspired by the Australian Tech:

The Dawn Of A Golden Age By Dan Krasnostein, VC at Square Peg

22 December 2021

Great message from Square Peg

We are in awe at the growth, success and vibrancy of the Australian ecosystem and are extremely grateful to play a role in it. When we founded Square Peg in 2012, the Aussie tech ecosystem and local founders were starved of funding options. 

We believed that there would be far more great founders emerging over the next decade than over the previous decade—and we founded Square Peg on this belief. 

Our hope was to find, invest in, and support the most exceptional of the next generation of these founders right at the beginning.

We have been fortunate to have been chosen as investors in Australia’s three most valuable private tech companies, Canva, Airwallex and Rokt, and to be building a community of category-defining companies.

As we look the future, this moment will be seen as the dawn of a golden age. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gfq96jXv

Should VCs be focussed on getting their money back quickly

The most successful VCs focus od investing more for growth vs wanting a quick exit 

What do to think? 

Return on Outcomes - ROO

When the Beatles or Carole King or the BeeGees were signed up by a record company - their kpi was not a 10% ROI - 

It was the number of songs published 

Who knew what song would be a hit? 

The term that managers and leaders should focus on is 

A Return on Outcome 

A term that my friend Iggy Pintado is suggesting one focuses on 

How can you clearly articulate an outcome that would be beneficial to staff development and subsequently, morale - and culture? 

Simply put, a return on outcome (ROO) is a qualifiable, subjective measure of an investment based on the outcome realised.   

There is no quantifiable return to the donor for a charitable donation. Instinctively, the outcome achieved is in feeling good about making a contribution to a worthy cause and making the world a better place. 

The return is in the outcome realised, not in an objective return on funds invested.   

How can you quantify  the return on investment of hosting a BBG forum for your key prospects and A Grade Clients on a regular basis?

You can see qualifiable returns in an improved relationship between a converted prospect and a satisfied client - and the sales teams that could lead to them purchasing the company’s products, services and experiences. 

How can you  quantify sending a staff member to a Nexttech Training Course Or funding prospective leaders into doing a BSI Diploma of Leadership and Development Course, or finding a BbG Membership - enabling him her too ok collaborate , learn and grow together ? 

How do you value the shared learnings with colleagues, resulting in improved productivity and morale boost benefiting the development of staff members?

How do you want value the retention of your most important asset - your right people feeling cared and appreciated ?

 How do you value the  staff member being cared for and appreciated?

If you define specific  ROOs 

The ROI will probably be exponential ! 

When you do your planning and working our your kpi’s - focus on outcomes the ROO - and the ROI will follow

Inspired by article by Iggy Pintado and Dr Chris Baumann 

https://www.cmo.com.au/blog/brand-science/2021/12/15/introducing-return-on-outcome-roo/#returnonoutcome

Tags: marketing metrics, marketing leadership, marketing measurement

Fable - fake Food - is the real deal

Niki Skevak - of Blackbird -“We love being part of the Fable Food Co journey to create more sustainable ways of producing food. 🍄””

👏  Congratulations to our favourite mushroom heads Michael Fox and team on the latest raise, and the international expansion ahead.”

What it Does 

Fable, produces a meat alternative made from shiitake mushrooms, coconut oil and sugar, 

The Money Raised 

Fable raised  $6.5 million in fresh funding led by existing investor Blackbird Ventures. money to be used for r and d and international expansion .

Investors include investors include Silicon Valley-based agrifood tech venture firm AgFunder, sustainability and plant-based focused funds Aera VC and Better Bite Ventures, Singapore-based Ban Choon Marketing and ex-Sequoia Capital Partner Warren Hogarth.

Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes invested in Fable’s initial seed round through his investment vehicle Grok Ventures.

The capital raising follows competitor V2Food raising $72 million on the back of booming sales in Australia along with a study by independent think tank Food Frontier and Deloitte Access Economics this year calculating consumer sales of meat alternatives for 2020 topped $185 million.

The Model and Marketplace 

It’s model was to  supply restaurants (400 of them)  - but when Covid hit - they pivoted to supplying retail.

Its products are stocked in Coles, Woolworths and Harris Farm. It is also used by meal kit company Marley Spoon.

Why is this a hot space 🔥 

Nick Crocker, partner at Blackbird Ventures, said Fable was trying to create a brand with global recognition. “We have done six investments now into this alternative protein future which is all based on this idea that the way we currently feed ourselves is unsustainable, and we will need alternative ways of producing food,” 

“There is a slow but inevitable momentum here as people realise for moral, ethical, health or sustainability reasons that eating like that is a good thing.”

Rent to Own Model comes to Australia

It’s the Australian dream to own your own home - but Property prices are making it unaffordable to enable  - young homebuyers to enter the market.

Enter James Bowe and Tim Harley, co - founders of OwnHome  - backed with seed funds of 3.6m from Entree Capital,  Global Founders Capital, AfterWork and InVentures. 

They are keen to invest more to scale the Fintech  

Ownhome have a goal - to have every single customer to be happy, excited to have the chance to be a homeowner before they thought possible.”

The Model - what OwnHome Does 

Under its rent to buy model, OwnHome purchases homes for clients, who then move in, pay rent, build up equity in the dwelling with the opportunity to buy at a pre-agreed rate within three to seven years.

OwnHome makes its money from the rent charged. In an example used by the company, if a person buys a home for $1 million they will pay $5900 in rent a month.

They will accrue equity of 2.5 per cent in their dwelling each year, in this example $25,000 for an annual outlay of $70,800.

Over five year clients will have built up 12.5 per cent ownership - enough OwnHome says to switch to a bank mortgage and convert the title to their name.

Property price appreciation is pegged at 3.8 per cent and Mr Bowe said the certainty of the end price is a major incentive for consumers scared of getting left behind due to rapid increases.

“It takes 10 years longer to save a deposit than it did 50 years ago. Millions of Australians, mostly our generation, are stuck in the rent cycle. We just want to level the playing field,” Bowe said.

The Marketplace 

Mr Harley said OwnHome has a waitlist of 100 potential clients and is working through the mechanics of purchasing properties for several qualified applicants.

“We are really excited about the size of the opportunity,” Mr Harley said.

Copying a successful model 

Australian rent to buy startup OwnHome has secured $3.6 million in seed capital from investors including Entree Capital - keen to back their growth and replicate the success of Home Partners of America, bought last month by Blackstone Group for more than $8 billion.

https://www.ownhome.com

Great stories 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/timharley_sydney-startup-offers-deposit-free-home-ownership-activity-6858538626016534528-wRvv

Blackbird Celebrates 8 years of magic

From the founders who have built world-changing companies to the 861,000 people working in the Australian tech industry, there is magic happening everywhere. 

Congrats Blackbird - for being a key cog in this ecosystem 

Onward 🚀🚀🚀

As of 30 September 2021,  Blackbird has invested in close to 90 companies, 25% of which are worth over $100M and 6 worth over $1B. 

They have turned the fund’s  investors’ first $29M into over $1.3B billion, a net return of 47x. 

And there’s still lots of growth to come says Niki Skevak 

“We first invested $250k in Canva when it was an idea in the heads of Mel, Cliff and Cam. We have invested $270M since, and hope to invest even more than that in the future.”

In 2012 Blackbird’s first  fund went on to invest in the first and follow-on rounds of companies like Canva, Culture Amp, Zoox, SafetyCulture, Propeller and Skedulo. 

The amazing founders and teams have been backed preseed - It’s about building  a relationship of trust and belief from preseed! 

In 2021 Blackbird has had over 500 founders participate in the  Giants program, many leading to investments by Blackbird and Startmate. 

What Happens When Your Passion Meets Reality?

Dec 2021 Musings 

When Passion meets Reality

• Things start to flow 
• Your work becomes your leisure
• You become an expert in your field 
• Trust is built 
• You are able to teach your skillset to others 

There will be challenges along the road - face them head on - overcome them - that is where the magic happens!

How do you overcome these  criticisms and obstacles?

“Know that when you have focus , clarity of purpose,  burning desire to achieve your vision - and pursue knowledge with action - that is where the magic happens!” - Ivan Kaye 

When someone takes massive action  with no knowledge he/she is gambling

When someone takes no action  with no knowledge he/she is cynic . 

When you are pursuing your passion - and it’s not in the “norm”   People will tell you you’re crazy. You are doing something that is not only outside your comfort zone - but theirs ….. and  cynics  don’t like change .

Your critics might be in your closest circles including your colleagues, family, and friends - and that is often so hurtful .

If you are really innovating and creating something completely new, most people simply won’t believe it until they can hold it in their hands. 

Be sure to ignore the many “experts” who say  it can’t  be done. They will be skeptical of its potential in the market. 

But remember: “The day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.” 

When someone takes no action  with massive  knowledge he/she is a dreamer

When someone takes massive action  with massive knowledge he/she is following their dream and is a ⭐️ star!

What is  your passion and purpose?

What is your vision?

What is your mission? 

If you know what that is - and have clarity of purpose - and you take massive action - you will be in flow! 

We spent 4 months determining our “pulse” at BSI - and came up with this 

“We help you create your generational legacy by connecting entrepreneurs, business owners and leaders to people and money ! “

Treat your “pulse” as your north star, and your ongoing energy source.

And we live by our “treat” values .

• Team First
• Respect
• Energy - you gotta have Passion
• Adventure - it’s ok you take risks and fail - your team has your back 
• Trust - without trust - you have nothing 

You need to have “zietsvleis” - persistence - don’t give  up,- breakthrough -  even when everyone is telling me that it isn’t going to work.

Referron has taken 8 years to develop  - and it feels like we have only just begun! I must have pitched over 200 CEOs, philanthropists, and sponsors and knocked back —over and over and over again - but I know it is needed in the marketplace - and will be a game changer !

Be inspired by Stories of true grit 

• Macdonalds - Ray Kroc
• KFC - Colonel Sanders
• Bill Gates  - microsoft
• Elon musk - Space X and Tesla 

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO FIGHT FOR?

What do you believe in so strongly that you’ll continue to get back up after being repeatedly knocked down? Could you do this 500  times… hearing one “No” after another?

A chap I play golf with -  Les Winderbaum shared with me how he became a successful salesman - he had an amazing mindset!!!

He knew his numbers 

Every 40 calls would result in a sale …… when someone said no - he was so happy - as it was a call closer to his 40th! 

 “Every call is just a step closer to someone saying yes.”

When  pursuing your BHAG and  crazy ideas - overcome obstacles, practice, pivot and persist and prove your cynics  wrong.

There is very seldom an “overnight success” 

Most journeys take a lifetime and involve a long, winding road.

Maybe the secret is to become a lifelong learner ? Don’t be scared to invest in education - that is taking action!!!!

What is your pulse ?

What is your vision? 

Are you willing to pursue it relentlessly and take action? 

When this happens - flow will happen 

Inspired by Peter Diamandis - executive chairman and founder of singularity university and XPRIZE 

So - how do you access that elusive Cash from Angel Investors and VCs?

When it comes to raising money, startups and small innovative businesses have never had it so good in Australia - and indeed globally!

The banks may not be lending -  but cash is abundant if you know where to look , and how to present your opportunity - private equity firms VCs and Angel Investors are flush - with major successes - I can think of 20 Unicorns in Oz - Afterpay, Zip, Redbubble, Canva, Aconnex, MYOB, Xero , GO1 , Appen , Atlassian and so many others that come to mind! 

Notoriously secret in their dealings, angel investors and VCs are wealthy individuals who invest in start-ups with big potential.

Right now - they are flush and bullish  says Angel Investor and Tech Entrepreneur - Douglas Chrystal - - banks are not giving great returns and they are ready to invest. 

Like venture capitalists, angel investors are after the 10X home run.  They know they need to invest in 10 to get the 1! 

I will never forget Tim  Draper (arguably the worlds most successful VC) saying that hos biggest mistake - was not investing when the entrepreneur pitched him (Mark Zuckerberg) 

So what does an Angel Investor / VC want ?

They want to know how they will get there money back and then some - and the time frame 

They want to know how they can add value 

So - how do you find these investors?

How do you present to them?

What are they looking for? 

Speaking to Mick  Lynch of BSI Innovation  - who specialise in accessing Government Grants and money for immovative companies and has been in this game forever - says - 

It’s about the IP and most importantly the people - people back people .

How does your startup be investor ready- what do they need? 

Do you have an advisory board that is connected and can bring you deal flow?

Is your valuation realistic ? 

According  to Angel investor Dominic Carosa, who has invested in or acquired countless  tech based and is now running Banxa - in the crypto exchange space says that it’s important to find the right investors who will continue to back you as you grow- valuations are not so important for the right partners!

What are the terms and language that a startup needs to know ?

Terms that startups need to be familiar with are FFF (fools family abd friends)   convertible notes , ratchet clauses , pressed , seed, series A, B,C

Here’s a great article of 20 terms tou need to know 

So where to from here?

The key is to have as many coffee meetings and zoom meetings  as it takes to raise the money - and once you are oysgezoomt  (sick of Zoom)  - swallow hard and continue - and when you are sick of coffee, drink sparkling water!! 

Don’t stop until you raise that money!!!!

Smartling Raises $160m from Battery Ventures - translation internet services

Smartling, the creator of a cloud translation management and automation platform, has raised a $160 million growth investment from Battery Ventures. The startup's tech is used by B2B and B2C brands like Shopify and Lyft to localize multilingual content across various devices and platforms

What is this Translation thing

Localize, found businesses that invested in translation were 1.5 times more likely to observe an increase in revenue.

Underlining the opportunity, over 361 million people around the world participate in cross-border ecommerce. A study by Standard Chartered found that nearly half of U.S. businesses today say that their best growth opportunity is outside the U.S. And according to Common Sense Advisory, 76% of buyers say that they prefer to purchase a product with information in their own language when faced with the choice of two similar products.

What Smartling Does

Smartling, which was founded in 2009 by Welde and Andrey Akselrod, is a language translation company that enables customers to localize content across devices and platforms. Smartling leverages a combination of AI-powered translation tools and human translators, localizing content for particular markets to ensure its intended meaning and connotation remains the same — and isn’t misunderstood.

Competition 

Memsource

Localise

Phrase

Transifex 

Crowdin

POEditor 

Globalsight

Smartcar

MemoQserver 

Lilt

Unbabel 

Languagei/o

Appen 

Appen

Appen Limited is a publicly traded data company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the code APX. Appen provides or improves data used for the development of machine learning and artificial intelligence products.Wikipedia

CEO: Mark Brayan (13 July 2015–)

Founder: Julie Vonwiller

Founded: 1996, Sydney

Headquarters: Chatswood

Number of employees: 1,102 (2020)

Revenue: 599.9 million AUD (2020)

Subsidiaries: Figure Eight Inc., Leapforce, Inc., Mendip Media Group Limited, Quadrant Global Pte Ltd, more