Victoria’s startup agency LaunchVic has kicked off the startups start here campaign to champion the state’s most successful startups and scaleups and encourage more Victorians to commercialise their ideas with the support of the state’s robust ecosystem of investors, accelerators and founder support programs. The first-of-its-kind Victorian Government advertising campaign – distributed across the State today for 12 weeks – will promote entrepreneurship and celebrate the achievements of the diverse AUD$91 billion startup ecosystem that now employs more than 52,000 Victorians. Startups Start Here tells the story of some of Victoria’s best startups and how the people and place backed them to be where they are today. Featuring some of the State’s best founders including Zac Leigh of Tixel, Hannon Comazzetto of AirRobe, Ben Pfisterer of Zeller, Dr Ben Hurst of HotDoc, Kim Teo of Mr Yum, Jordy and Julia Kay of Great Wrap and Jeanette Cheah of Hex their stories aim to inspire the next wave of budding entrepreneurs to start their startups here. Victoria’s forward-thinking and resilient startup ecosystem supports approximately 2,950 scaling and successful businesses, according LaunchVic data (from Dealroom) released as part of a new interactive map showing the location of the state’s startups. LaunchVic remains the only state government startup agency with a mandate to proactively grow the startup ecosystem since its inception in 2016. Since then, the value of the ecosystem has grown 16 fold to AUD$91B – the same size that Tel Aviv was in 2016 – and has become the home of 19 unicorns (80% reaching that status after 2017). “The Startups Start Here campaign is about putting the State’s most exciting companies on a pedestal and showing how the people and the place have backed them to be where they are today. Victoria is doing an amazing job producing globally competitive companies, but not enough people know. Startup founders shaping the future of Victoria should be revered – much like our sports stars – so they can inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs from all across our State.” Dr Kate Cornick, LaunchVic CEO “The startup ecosystem in Victoria is very progressive and in addition to Melbourne being the place Tixel was born, it was a fantastic place for us to find our feet as we scaled. We simply wouldn’t be where we are today without the network of advisors, investors and founders we found in our home city, in addition to the Melbourne music fans who quickly adopted Tixel as the place to buy and sell their tickets. LaunchVic provides the kinds of programs, opportunities and networking that every startup should have access to, and aspiring entrepreneurs should know that from humble beginnings they can create a successful global business like Tixel if they set their mind to it and seek out the right resources.” Zac Leigh, Tixel CEO and Co-founder View the campaign at launchvic.org/startups-start-here
VICTORIAN STARTUP ECOSYSTEM RAPIDLY MATURES, GROWTH OUTPACING MAJOR GLOBAL CITIES LaunchVic, Victoria’s startup agency, has found the state’s startup ecosystem is maturing rapidly, with growth outpacing some of the world’s most renowned entrepreneurial cities including Tel Aviv, Toronto and Amsterdam. The 2022 Startup Ecosystem Mapping Report, the fourth report of its kind developed by LaunchVic in partnership with consulting and research firm dandolopartners international, identified 1,300 new firms since the previous report in 2020, reflecting a strong pipeline of new ventures in the state. The number of first–time founders has also jumped by 20 per cent since 2020, increasing from 44 to 53 per cent of all founders. New ventures are becoming more innovative. Between 2018 and 2022 the share of Victoria’s startups aiming to create a new market more than doubled from 24 to 58 per cent of all firms surveyed. In another sign of maturation, there is a higher proportion of larger startups, with 32per cent firms now having 10 or more employees compared to just 21 per cent in 2018. In total, Victorian startups employed more than 52,000 employees in 2022, an increase from 38,000 jobs in 2020. LaunchVic CEO, Dr Kate Cornick said findings of the report vindicate LaunchVic’s strategy to aggressively invest in programs to support new and more innovative startups to be created and help existing startups to scale. “The impressive growth rate of the ecosystem, demonstrated by the number of new startups coming to market, the increase in innovation and the growth of larger firms is extremely positive for Victoria’s future.” LaunchVic CEO, Dr Kate Cornick DIVERSITY OF FOUNDERS Firms with at least one-woman founder havegrown from 20 per cent in 2020 to 34 per cent in 2022, however they still only represent 22 per cent of founders across all firms. This suggests that in firms that have both men and women founders, male founders are outnumber by a ratio of 2:1. Firms with a woman founder have a significantly smaller median firm capital raise. Most founders have one or more parents born outside Australia, reflecting almost identical proportions as in 2018 & 2020, while the shareof founders from outside Australia has reduced slightly from 35 to 32 per cent. The average founder age is 42, the same average reported in 2020. However, the share of founders in their 30’s has increased substantially from recent years. “It’s exciting to see the number of women-led founders increase but there is still work to do to ensure that women founders and their firms reach their full potential. LaunchVic is committed to increasing access to capital for women founders in the startup ecosystem through initiatives such as the Alice Anderson Fund.” LaunchVic CEO, Dr Kate Cornick SECTOR STRENGTHS The share of startups in the Enterprise & Corporate Services, Consumer Goods & Manufacturing and Financial Services sectors has also grown since 2020. Growth in the number of Health firms remains unchanged from 2020, which remains the joint largest sub-sector at 16% along with Enterprise & Corporate Services (also 16%). INCREASED PARTICIPATION IN ACCELERATOR PROGRAMS A third of startups surveyed participated in accelerator programs in 2022, up from 27% in 2020. The average age of startups participating in accelerators increased. Dr Cornick said this indicates a growing recognition amongst experienced operators that these programs can add substantial value. CAPITAL RAISES An estimated $4 billion in total capital was raised by Victorian startups and scaleups in 2021, from both venture and non-venture capital sources such as corporate investment and debt financing. There was also growth in deals worth more than $1M and a decline in smaller raises since 2019. These findings are consistent with LaunchVic’s State of Startup Funding Report released in December 2022, which revealed that Victorian startups raised a record AUD$2.3B venture capital funding in 2021.However, this report showed that much of the growth is in later stage capital raises (Series B and beyond), while early-stage funding continues to flatline. Dr Cornick said the report highlighted that Victoria’s early-stage investor ecosystem continued to lag and that more work was required to get capital flowing to startups at this vital stage. DRIVING RESEARCH COMMERCIALIZATION Only 6 per cent of firms reported that they were commercializing a technology developed at a university. Relatedly the report shows 88% startups have a founder with at least 2 years of prior work experience in a relevant industry and 83% of firms have at least 1 founder with a business degree or at least 2 years’ experience as a manager. “More needs to be done to drive research commercialization into startups. We mustrecognize that most founders have commercial experience, so more needs to be done to connect commercial expertise to university research commercialization opportunities to generate new startups from our universities,” said Dr Cornick The full 2022 Startup Ecosystem Mapping Report can be found at LaunchVic Research. Article originally published by LaunchVic on 8 March 2023 Victorian startup ecosystem rapidly matures, growth outpacing major global cities