{"id":37967,"date":"2023-10-20T14:53:23","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/avcal-releases-election-blueprint-to-fix-venture-capital-in-australia-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:53:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:53:23","slug":"avcal-releases-election-blueprint-to-fix-venture-capital-in-australia-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/avcal-releases-election-blueprint-to-fix-venture-capital-in-australia-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"AVCAL releases election blueprint to fix venture capital in Australia – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The next federal parliament needs to act quickly to bridge the \u201csecond Valley of Death\u201d and keep fast-growing startups\u00a0in the country, according to a policy blueprint released by Australia\u2019s peak body for the private equity and venture capital industry.<\/p>\n

With less than two weeks left in the election campaign, AVCAL has\u00a0released a set of policies that it wants the incoming federal government to implement in its first month of office in order to fix the venture capital industry in Australia.<\/p>\n

The blueprint focuses on encouraging further foreign investment in Australian startups as well as ensuring capital is available to companies in a \u201cscale-up\u201d phase.<\/p>\n

Following last year\u2019s innovation statement<\/a>, which focused on early-stage startup investment, AVCAL chief executive Yasser El-Ansary says this needs to be the next big priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe National Innovation and Science Agenda will be transformative for Australia\u2019s startup ecosystem, providing investors and entrepreneurs with the right risk-return incentives,\u201d El-Ansary says.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we have to turn our attention to the next phase of that work, NISA 2.0, which must be focused on boosting the availability of later-stage capital for fast-growing Australian businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Increasing the availability of large funding rounds of between $5-20 million for startups that are looking to rapidly scale, hire staff, drive sales and invest in R&D would ensure that more of these potentially lucrative companies remain in Australia rather than relocating abroad, El-Ansary says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is essential that Australia has a competitive environment for those companies at the heart of the economy,\u201d the AVCAL blueprint reads.<\/p>\n

The first policy recommendation from the group is to relax foreign investment rules in order to encourage foreign investment into Australian tech companies, including a review into the current framework to remove things that may \u201cunintentionally deter routine passive investments\u201d into Australia.<\/p>\n

AVCAL is also calling for the accelerated introduction of a \u201cnew, collective investment vehicle for limited partnerships\u201d and says Australia\u2019s current policies are \u201cout of step with international practice\u201d.<\/p>\n

The blueprint outlines a new \u201cstreamlined, simplified limited partnership vehicle\u201d that could be implemented by July next year.<\/p>\n

It is also focusing on unlocking superannuation funds for venture capital and the various roadblocks that are currently preventing this, recommending the government \u201crecalibrates\u201d existing policy to put a focus on net returns and removing regulatory hurdles.<\/p>\n

Other polices AVCAL is campaign for include government funding for commercialisation and business skills course for STEM students, quarterly R&D tax credits for \u201cinnovative, cash-poor businesses\u201d, a Biomedical Translation Fund and investigations for further opportunities for long-term private-public co-investment strategies.<\/p>\n

StartupAUS CEO Alex McCauley says the group has worked closely with AVCAL to develop the blueprint and it is a \u201csensible, helpful addition to the innovation policy debate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a period of unprecedented opportunity for Australian startups and we must be careful not to squander it,\u201d McCauley says.<\/p>\n

\u201cA record $1 billion has been raised or is being raised in private equity and venture capital funds since this time last year. That investment is an enormous boost to our early-stage startups and a great indication of the powerhouse of high-growth startup brands emerging around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he says that while the focus on early-stage startups is positive, more emphasis needs to be placed on longer-term growth by both major parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cStartupAUS shares AVCAL\u2019s concern that unless we take a long-term approach to supporting these startups we may lose many of them to offshore competition or local funding challenges,\u201d McCauley says.<\/p>\n

He says a crucial aspect to this is increasing the R&D tax incentive for innovative startups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see an increase to research and development in this country because it\u2019s the best way governments can support innovative young companies in Australia,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about fixing something that\u2019s broken. This is about taking a government initiative that is working fantastically for startups and making it even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other polices that StartupAUS is lobbying for include improvements to employee visas and their availability to startups and further funding for incubators and accelerators.<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next federal parliament needs to act quickly to bridge the \u201csecond Valley of Death\u201d and keep fast-growing startups\u00a0in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}