AJE another Aussie fashion Success story

Edwina Forest and Adrian Norris, the co-founders of AJE have  developed one of Australia’s fastest-growing fashion brands - 15 years in the making of an overnight success - A brand that is often compared to Zimmermann, 

AjE (an acronym for “Adrian joins Edwina”, ) is for women in touch with their inner girl and  now employs about 500 people and turnover  over $100m with healthy margins  (By comparison, Cue has 1200 employees, Zimmermann has 900.) 

Beth Glancey is the new chief executive of AjE. (Whose sister is chief of staff at Atlassian), 

Forest and Norris have assembled an amazing board , which includes former Bank of Queensland CEO Stuart Grimshaw and they have a small group of committed Investors ,  Shareholders and advisers

 Investors 

• Norris and Forest retain the majority share 
• Norris’ father 
• James Roche (an executive director at Roche Holdings, a mining group) and 
• Thomas Mort, whose family owns the Bodalla dairy business (Mort also runs TSM Investments)

The journey 

Adrian Norris and Edwina Forest met while 

Edwina had  a fashion shop in Noosa called Strada - stocking brands such as Kit Willow, Josh Goot and Sass and Bide while  Adrian was a fashion editor. 

They decided to take the plunge and together developed the aje brand . Adrian moved to Bali in 2007 where he set up production .

Their business model was a mix of wholesaling and direct-to-consumer, opening their first store under Hugo’s in Sydney’s Potts Point.

 Their physical stores were pumping while  their wholesale business was chewing cash !!

“We were working our arses off and had nothing to show for it,” says Norris “Retail was the way to make money,” 

“People would pay us straight away, instead of this big long production cycle where you might never see the money, or you might see $1000 nine months later instead of the $30,000 the customers  owed you.”

Between 2011 and 2015, AJE  closed its wholesale business  and opened  two new stores in Chapel Street, Melbourne, and James Street, Brisbane. 

With the money that began flowing in, they hired their first staff members and the flywheel was created !!!

Ending AJE’s wholesale business was a game changer and the retail business became a cash cow .

AJE dipped its toes back into wholesale in 2015 with larger accounts - and can be found in David Jones, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue in the US, La Samaritaine in France, Selfridge’s in the UK and Etoile in the Middle East, as well as online at Net-a-Porter and Matches Fashion. 

 They launched AJE Athletica in 2021 –  as the athleisure wear became popular - and there are now 15 standalone Athletica stores and in August, the brand hosted its first-ever runway show.

A Secret Sauce of Success 

Glancey describes Adrian Norris  as a “force of nature with a financial nous. 

- Having coaches and mentors have been a game changer - says Adrian . he employs three different personal trainers, a mental health coach, a life coach and an energy healer named Tiki. 

- Remaining humble 

Despite the company’s success, edwina says she still feels humble -“I look back and think, ‘how did we survive?’” 

The people who love the Brand 

Tanya (my daughter) wearing AJE for her wedding :) 

Where to from here 

This year, AJE showed at Australian Fashion Week for the ninth time 

Next year it plans to open in New York. 

With  25pc of sales being  overseas, Norris wants NYC to be the first of many international stores and a stepping stone to ultimately showing at New York Fashion Week. 

In 2022, retail sales grew by 279 per cent and revenue was up 217 per cent, and there is a rumour  that Country Road Group wants to buy the Brand!

Norris is looking at AJE being a unicorn in the not too distant future !

I for one think that he will achieve his goal sooner than later!

Inspired by The Fashion issue of AFR Magazine is out on Friday,  August 25 inside The Australian Financial Review.

Life as an entrepreneur

Who can relate ?

Being an entrepreneur you go through more emotions than the weather during a day in Melbourne! 

• I’m excited
• Ugh this is hard - I shouldn’t have 
• It’s working
• Shit - I messed up
• This is awesome 
• I think I’m going bankrupt - how to pay the wages
• I’m good - why do I doubt myself
• I shouldn’t have - I sick 
• I’m an overnight success - life is great! 

Help us keep Australia Awesome

Australia is leading the way with a global collaboration between  institutional investors and the Australian governments on global climate change 

 25 organisations with approximately US$8 trillion (AU$12.2 trillion) in assets under management are identifying ways on how we can create a net zero global economy .

So who are some of the Investors ? 

 Aviva Investors, BNP Paribas Asset Management, Brandywine Global, HESTA, Nordea, Robeco and Schroders are facilitating the collaboration - supported by 

Achmea, Ardea Investment Management, Brown Advisory, Candriam, Colchester Global Investors, Fidelity International, First Sentier Investors, IFM Investors, Insight Investment, Jupiter Asset Management, LGPS Central, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Munich Re, Neuberger Berman, Pendal Group, QIC, Rest and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management.

Some of the goals include 

• Closing the gap between current action and a Paris-aligned emissions reduction trajectory;
• Establishing  detailed, credible, and economy-wide net zero transition plans with supporting policy mechanisms, budget expenditure and investment structures;
• Building greater climate adaptation and resilience across the economy and community to avoid worsening disruption and damage from physical risks;
• Improving disclosure of sovereign exposure to climate risks and opportunities consistent with international standards.

PRI Chief Executive Officer, David Atkin, said institutional investors understand that sovereign responses to climate change will be critical drivers of global action and capital allocators could be strong allies in helping accelerate the necessary economic transition.

“Collaboration  between sovereigns and investors can help make this happen says David Atkin - head of pRI https://www.unpri.org/climate-change

Robeco’s chief engagement officer, said he was heartened by the level of engagement to date 

Duncan Smith 

Head of APAC Communications, PRI  
duncan.smith@unpri.org 

https://www.csiro.au/en/research/environmental-impacts/climate-change/climate-change-information

https://www.climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/australian-climate-change-observations#:~:text=Australia's%20climate%20has%20warmed%20since,night%2Dtime%20temperatures%20have%20increased.

Key points

• Australia is experiencing the effects of global climate change.
• Our average land and sea temperatures have increased.
• Despite large natural variation we are also seeing changes to rainfall patterns, increased fire danger, and rising sea levels. 
• Most of the changes observed over recent decades will continue and worsen in the future. 

Current outlook for Australia

Most of the changes observed over recent decades will continue into the future. Projections suggestthat for Australia:

• hot days will become hotter and more frequent 
• the time in drought will increase across southern Australia
• snow depths will decline 
• extreme rainfall events will become more intense 
• sea levels will rise 
• oceans will become more acidic.

The NSW and Australian Regional Climate Modelling (NARCliM) project.

A startup Investment of Note!

Apple’s first investor mike markkula - who invested $250k for  1/3 of Apple - the investment would Morle be worth $930billion 

He invested in Steve Jobs - he believed in Steve and invested in him and his idea…. had trust courage and faith that Steve would succeed and boy - did he ever!! 

Do you have someone that you believe in - and have invested in? 

Innovafeed -a bug company raises close to $500m

Innovafeed (founded in 2016 ) is a bug business cofounded by  Bastien Oggeri, Aude Guo & Clément Ray.  that has raised a fresh  $260m in a raise led by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fundmaking total raise $460m 

Source: Innovafeed

Other investors include 

• Paris-based Creadev 
• Singapore state-owned fund, Temasek, 
• global agricultural commodity traders ADM and Cargill, 
• Future French Champions (a joint venture between Qatar Investment Authority and Bpifrance), 
• ABC Impact, IDIA Capital Investissement and Grow Forward
• La Caisse d'Epargne Hauts de France, Groupe Crédit Agricole, 

BNP Paribas, Arkéa and Société Générale contributed €38m in debt financing.

What it does 

Innovafeed operates two plants in northern France that convert the larvae of the black soldier fly into thousands of tonnes of insect oil and meal for pets, fish, chickens and pigs. 

The black fly has the ability to eat any kind of waste food. 

Bugs are high in nutrients and is a climate-friendly way of feeding fish and animals because the process uses maggots fed with agricultural byproducts, like rotting vegetables, on a fraction of the land needed for livestock. Soy and fishmeal, the traditional bedrock of animal feed in Europe, require a lot more space and can be harmful to the environment. 

“Every factory we build, it’s around 50k tonnes of CO2 avoided,” Oggeri estimates. 

“We won’t replace your burger at the moment — but we can start with snacks and sport nutrition [food],” he says. 

Buggy Growth 

Innovafeed are looking to build insect farms in the US and Asia, with the company targeting up to 20 sites, cofounder Bastien Oggeri tells Sifted. 

The company says it has signed contracts worth more than €1bn over the next 10 years.

Dutch insect farmer Protix has raised over $100m to date. Global competitors include Canada’s Enterra Feed and US company EnviroFlight. 

Rabobank, a Dutch lender, predicts that global insect production could reach 500k tonnes a year by 2030, up from just 10k tonnes in 2020.

https://sifted.eu/articles/innovafeed-animal-feed-insects

The World’s Biggest Bug Farm Wants to Decarbonize Fishmeal

With five floors of insect incubators, Innovafeed’s newly expanded plant in France can produce 15,000 tons of insect protein per year. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-28/the-world-s-biggest-bug-farm-wants-to-decarbonize-fishmeal?in_source=embedded-checkout-banner

Research says that people want sustainable food

 More than half of U.S. consumers say they want sustainable food, according to a 2019 survey by the International Food Information Council, a nonprofit. Three out of fivepeople in the U.K. are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly food options, according to a survey of 1,000 people by professional services firm GHD released in November. 

VCs and Employees cash out 💰 for over $500m from SafetyCulture

SafetyCulture founded by  Luke Anear raises $34 million while planning a $500 million VC share sale at a $2.7 billion valuation.

Safety Culture turnover is $132m (32% up from previous year )- valuing it at 20X revenue !

Anear said the funding and the turn to profitability would take them to the flywheel -  giving them  an “infinite runway”

It’s our understanding that $500 million will payout  Blackbird and Index Ventures  who have invested for 10 years as well as employees who have participated in their share scheme.

This should free up equity to allow you to investment  from US VC at a higher valuation giving a payday for the funds LPs ands empmoyees! 

Blackbird also sold $150m of Canva shares  last week,

What does Safetyculture do ?

It helps keep your workplace safe easily and affordable by providing an extensive library of resources crafted by safety experts who understand the complexities of health and safety programs. Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS), Management Plans and much more are available to help you meet compliance standards, protect employees and keep your business running smoothly.

Examples of products you can buy from their extensive library  are quality management systems for $700 , quality management systems for $30and risk management plans for $50!

Any company, large or small  can create their  own safety library with their own logo on a saas model! 

IK note!  A Learning Platform  should fit into this space - which boards well for the likes of Edtech, BSI learning be a part of the #nexttechrevolution ! 

Pendulum raises a further 14.5m after a 6.75m raise 2 years ago

Sydney-based customer communications start-up Pendula has closed a $14.5 million funding round led by Octopus Ventures after they raised  $6.75 million in a series B funding round  from  MA Financial Group  and Equity Venture Partners 2 years ago -  in 2021!

Pendula has built a very impressive product that enables its equally impressive customer base to quickly and easily communicate with businesses through automated SMS and emails and has an impressive client base managing over 20m conversations.

Clients  include iconic brands including amaysim, Cancer Council, TEDX, Ramsay Health Care and Origin Energy. 

The product has enabled its  clients to attain 500% increases in conversation rates and 430% stronger engagement when compared to traditional email-based customer communications.

Upstream a Solar Energy company has raised $20 million

 Upstream  a Solar Energy company founded by Nathan Begley has raised $20 million from MA Financial’s growth ventures business. 

Upskilled helps corporates go solar and save money !

Upskilled places solar panels on its clients’ sites, who then purchase energy from Upstream, instead of the grid at a lower cost.

They currently operate 15 megawatts of rooftop solar energy and battery storage and is looking to reach 100 MW in three years.

“The generation amount of coal fired power stations that will be shut down in the next 11 years is the same amount of generation needed by the state of NSW at 7.00am in the morning – 7 GW or 7 million kilowatts. To power the electric vehicles needed in future is 40 times that amount. We need to invest massive amount of money and innovation into fixing this problem.“

Nathan Begley, Managing Director of Upstream Energy

Four lessons-learned from founders at Main Sequence - Peerless

Peerless -  Main Sequence portfolio forum . Collaboration learning and growth at its finest 

Phil Morle share 4 insights taken from The Main Sequence portfolio annual meetup called Peerless where 55 companies gathered to connect , contribute and collaborate with a view to learn and grow 
He shares 4 common ideas that resonated with him - Thanks Phil Morle for your insights !

#1 — Communities can’t prosper online alone

Post-pandemic, I am slowly remembering this. Life online can default to a transactional and hollow mode. We get lost in urgent, literal work and miss the magic that happens when people come together.
This is where our intuition pulls us into the conversations we need to have. We find inspiration in places that we would not think to visit. When people are in the same room, the ‘ecology of talent’ is visible and the collective power of the group that Brian Eno calls Sceniussprings into life.

#2 — Growth comes in stages, and phase transitions are always messy

After all these years of making companies, it is still possible for me to believe that a perfect, smooth growth experience is possible. It isn’t. I finally accepted this at Peerless.
As companies grow, they reach a point where they can’t grow any further in their current shape. There are structural reasons for this. The right team for what we just did is the wrong team for what we need to do next. The cap table may misalign shareholders to adjust the strategy. Or we ran out of customers in the set where we found product/market fit.
There are many reasons. But all companies hit a conflation of headwinds at some stage. This requires recognition in the first instance, then a deliberate effort for phase transition.
What usually happens is one of these two things:

• Companies don’t see (or resist) phase transition and growth plateaus, or

• Companies find themselves in a forced phase transition.

In both cases, it hurts like crazy. It looks messy. It looks like failure.
But it isn’t. It is normal.
Let’s figure out how we sense an incoming phase transition.
Then accept it will hurt like hell.
Then get into it.
This is the work.

#3 — A Founder's first responsibility is to ensure the best CEO is in the seat.

The ‘Founder’ and the ‘CEO’ are often the same person, especially in the early stages. But they don’t need to be. And sometimes they shouldn’t be. The CEO of a startup is an impossibly difficult task, and there is much personal development to be done so that the person grows with the company.
How do Founder/CEOs know that they are still the best person to be in the CEO seat? How are they measuring their own performance to take on new skills and capabilities or perhaps knowing when to find a replacement?
As one of the biggest shareholders in a company, the Founder’s first responsibility is to have the best person in the world leading the company.
Some ideas:

• CEOs accept they can’t do everything they need to do yet and need to establish a program for learning it. Like professional athletes, CEOs need to train. No matter how experienced they are.

• Find someone outside the company to share experiences with. The old cliche holds true that ‘It is lonely at the top’. Find who you can share experiences with to explore your own mind.

• If CEOs bring on a coach, consider that you might need a different coach for the different stages of the company. Coaches run out of ‘experience capacity’ as well as CEOs.

#4 — Pay attention to the people when building an enduring businesses

Neil Perry joined us to discuss how he has grown his food business, including restaurants, TV shows, books and the Qantas food service. His secret is an idea he calls the “Care Principle”.
We don’t think about that enough in venture and startups. We’re transactional, looking for every optimisation and efficiency and sometimes not thinking enough about how it makes the team feel and how that, in turn, makes the company perform.
He said at one point:
“I want everyone that leaves one of my companies to leave a better person than the one that walked in.”
It is easily said but non-trivial to do. How do you operationalise that? How is an encounter with a team member different every single time because this is a guiding principle?
If you care, what do you do differently?
He told a story about the price of fish at the market and a relationship with a supplier. If the market price is less than the price that has been agreed, do you haggle? Or do you acknowledge that that supplier goes to sea each day to catch the freshest fish that you rely on each evening in the restaurant, so you stay with the agreed price?
If you care, what do you do differently?
—

🖖🏻 #hack+hustle+flearn
Phil is a deep tech investor, and he’s  building out loud. Subscribe here or follow him @philmorle

Collaboration between Universities, Corporate and Government is key

Another great example of the collaboration between universities and tech companies!!!

Universities working alongside tech companies is a proven formula. 

Stanford University and Silicon Valley coexist in a collaborative and symbiotic way. Seeding over 6000 tech companies and 45 unicorns in recent years. 

A pleasure to pop by the ATOMOS offices yesterday in Melbourne. Strategically placed in the modern offices of the University of Melbourne’s engineering and tech  tower in Swanson St. And great to catch up with newly appointed advisor to the Atomos board and chair of the audit and risk committee, James Joughin 

Atomos is a great Australian tech company, with a world wide brand presence in hi rez video monitor tech for the broadcast and entertainment industries.

(Paul Greenberg has been recently  appointed non exec chair of the Atomos board).

Side Stage Ventures backed by founders of Linktree, Go1 and Airtasker

A $30m early stage fund -   Side Stage Ventures led by   Ben Grabiner and rich lister Markus Kahlbetzer  has been backed by a bunch of 

Aussie tech start-ups and funds .

Kahlbetzer was a founding partner at Tank Stream Ventures which led the seed round of ed-tech unicorn Go1 - and Andrew Barnes and  Tim Fung is now backing Markus!

Whose invested 

Limited Partners include 

• Alex and Anthony Zaccaria of Linktree 
• Tim Fung and Andrew Barnes of Go1 , 
•  Matt Allen from Tractor Ventures , 
• Jaddan Comerford of Unified Music 
• Andrew Barnes of UK-based venture fund LocalGlobe

“Focus will be in investing up to $500k seed funding in creative arts and talent startups to help scale their businesses.

Some of its investments Heaps Normal, Mr Yum and EQL

Markus Kahlbetzer told Tegan Jones of startupdaily that the start-up ecosystem in Australia is ripe with innovation, with some successful unicorns as proof of concept!

He enthused

“We have world-class talent, a burgeoning startup ecosystem, government support and plenty of other competitive advantages in a post-COVID world that can transform Australia into a world-leading innovation hub. There has never been a better time to build and invest in Australia than now.”

Bens shares in a blog  why he is so excited https://medium.com/side-stage 

Australia leading the way in Quantum Sensors - and customers are excited

Nomad Atomics have landed a $10m series A round to commercialise their mvp after having raised $2m in 2020 to build it .

Born out of the ANU from atomic physicists  Kyle Hardman, Paul Wigley and Christian Freier,  have built a world-leading quantum sensor technology they makes underground mining safer.

Their technology measures the movement of the cosmos into something about the size of a shoebox

The Nomad sensor can create a detailed and accurate map of the deep underground while its user stands at the Earth’s surface. For underground mining, then, Nomad provides an absolute source of truth for the potential difficulty of a mine, and supports safe underground mining and operations, with accuracy and ease that is currently inaccessible.

It is no wonder that  have some super-eager early customers. 🛠️

Opportunities are not just in critical minerals mining, but in monitoring of CO2 sequestration and aquifers, to environmental monitoring, and beyond.  

The value of Strategic Partnerships - Joyned and NexusTours

Very often , strategic partnerships are more valuable than venture capital!

There is no dilution in your existing business , and there is shared profit/revenue on business that you do together! 

Often a win win win at its finest! 

A win for each other party and more important a win for the customer! 

An example of a strategic partnership at its finest 

Israeli startup Joyned - an innovative social booking technology will be used across  NexusTours online platforms. (serving the Caribbean, Central America, and North America.)

This strategic partnership will enhance the travel experience for users in 20 countries across these regions. The technology enables people to invite friends and family to the NexusTours websites, and collaborate in a private, on-site platform to discuss and book group trips.

A win for the customer 

Joyned’s technology  transforms the reservation process for Friends & Family (F&F) travelers, resulting in significantly higher conversion rates and an enhanced user experience for businesses utilizing the Joyned Booking system.

Jonathan Abraham, CEO of Joyned, said: “”we look forward to working closely together in future to provide the best experience possible to customers. “

A win for Nexus Tours 

Joyned Booking will shorten the decisions and debates of customers in real-time, while F&F travelers explore NexusTours’ site offering which includes a choice of trips to 58 different destinations.

Rubén Gutiérrez, President of NexusTours, enthused: “Through the utilization of Joyned’s booking technology, we’re not only able to enhance the customer experience, but also maintain a competitive edge in our industry. So far, we have seen an impressive 20% increase in conversion rate among customers 

A win for Joyned 

Their technology is being deployed and enhanced that can hopefully make it ubiquitous for the travel industry 

Kevin O’Hara, thanks for the heads up boet! 

OIf Venture fund to raise $75m to back ARR 10m plus companies

OIF team members David Shein, Jerry Stesel, Laurence Schwartz ,Geoff Levy, Isabella Rich,, David Cohen, Oliver Darwin , Anna Isipov and Keren Dorfan.

Founders from Go1, Instaclustr have backed OIF Ventures in their $75m raise for another opportunity fund.

This fund  is focussed on investing in  technology businesses that have more than $10 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

OIF investments include Go1 and Advanced Navigation - 

It’s previous funds have returned more than 3x to investors in cash, net of all fees, 

with eight major portfolio companies remaining including Go1, Advanced Navigation, Kasada, and Enboarder, 

In 2022 their exit from interclustr gave a  20x return, and in 2021 exited XM Cyber, EFTsure and 50 per cent of Assignar.

Other OIF investments include 

• funeral industry disruptor Bare, 
• online bridging loan fintech Bridgit, 
• legal tech software provider Josef, and 
• large-scale construction program dashboard Mastt. 

About OIf 

The mission at OIF is simple: to partner with exceptional founders, add material value to them and their businesses and to do our best to help them succeed. If they succeed, so too will our investors. 

  

They have high-conviction in the power of the founders and they back to build generational teams and businesses that set the standard globally and they strive  to be their partner of choice – 

  

As long-term partners and investors, they are  confident that exceptional founders will continue to launch exceptional businesses and that OIF Ventures will be in their corner every step of the way.