3% Aussie Venture Capital (VC) Pledge
Access to capital is the biggest challenge for Indigenous entrepreneurs and while venture capital (VC) firms continue to raise record amounts of cash for their billion-dollar funds, the median funding invested in Indigenous ventures remains $0.
More than $1.6 billion was raised by Aussie VCs in 2020
Call to Action – Venture Capital
We’re calling on VCs to stop talking about diversity and put their money where their mouth is and commit to investing 3% of their billion-dollar funds towards Indigenous ventures.
Indigenous people have been innovating for thousands of years from being the world’s first bakers to building one of the world’s most comprehensive and oldest aquaculture systems which are older than Egypt’s pyramids.
And despite only making up 5% of the world’s population, Indigenous people protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity – the results from supporting Indigenous Entrepreneurship goes without saying.
| Name | Total Fund Size (millions) | Total Number of Investments | Total Amount Invested (millions) | # of Indigenous Investments | Total amount invested in Indigenous entrepreneurs | Does this firm support Indigenous Entrepreneurship? (Western vs Indigenous Entrepreneurship) | Ask VCs to support Indigenous Entrepreneurship (Tweet) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AirTree | $581.3 | 66 | $300 | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Blackbird Ventures | $791.7 | 148 | $536 | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Square Peg Capital | $1,000 | 82 | $680 | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Telstra Ventures | $50 | 88 | - | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| GBS Venture Partners | $292.9 | 60 | $239.5 | 0 | $0 | No | |
| Brandon Capital Partners | $404.5 | 29 | $240 | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Carthona Capital | $220 | 65 | $120 | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| OneVentures | $445 | 32 | $365 | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Reinventure | $137.3 | 48 | $100 | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Ellerston Capital | - | 18 | - | 0 | $0 | No | |
| M. H. Carnegie & Co. | $132 | 4 | - | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| GV (Google Ventures) | $100 | 809 | - | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Main Sequence Ventures (CSIRO Innovation) | $232 | 28 | - | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Grok Ventures | $500 | 15 | - | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Skip Capital | $500 | 20 | - | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Sequoia Capital | $19,000 | 1,442 | - | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Techstars Ventures | $179.8 | 352 | $179.8 | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| NAB Ventures | $100 | 16 | - | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
| Artesian VC | $65.5 | 182 | - | 0 | $0 | No | Tweet |
Notes:
- Data is collated directly from venture capital firms (monthly survey email + tweet), however, when they don’t bother (which is unfortunately 80% at this stage) we utilise information from Crunchbase and other sources.
- Where needed, we calculate the approximate funds invested through (known) total amount raised minus the latest raise (VCs normally raise more money after exhausting their previous funds).
- We’ve added a couple of global VCs but they all have one thing in common – they don’t care about First Nations people/entrepreneurship.
How you can help
Feel free to share, like and join the conversation e.g. email/tweet to VCs about supporting First Nations Entrepreneurship.
Venture Capital firms talk a big game (they have a good PR team) when it comes to diversity but let’s keep them accountable and get them to “put one’s money where one’s mouth is”.