{"id":38365,"date":"2023-10-20T14:56:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/aussie-startup-founder-that-has-raised-100-million-in-venture-capital-in-silicon-valley-is-returning-home-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:56:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:01","slug":"aussie-startup-founder-that-has-raised-100-million-in-venture-capital-in-silicon-valley-is-returning-home-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/aussie-startup-founder-that-has-raised-100-million-in-venture-capital-in-silicon-valley-is-returning-home-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie startup founder that has raised $100 million in venture capital in Silicon Valley is returning home – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Australian founder who has raised nearly $100 million ($US73 million) in venture capital in Silicon Valley will be returning to Sydney to become the new muru-D entrepreneur-in-residence.<\/p>\n

Sydney native Ben Sand is the co-founder of Silicon Valley-based augmented reality headset startup Meta, which raised the funding across two huge rounds after going through the esteemed Y Combinator accelerator program.<\/p>\n

Muru-D\u2019s former entrepreneur-in-residence Mick Luibinskas recently announced that he would be relocating to Silicon Valley<\/a> to support the Telstra accelerator\u2019s participants internationally.<\/p>\n

After completing a global search, muru-D co-founder Annie Parker says she couldn\u2019t go past Sand\u2019s proven track record.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen\u2019s extensive experience in the startup scene in Australia and the US makes him the perfect fit for this role,\u201d Parker says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who spent years building a company in Sydney and went on to graduate from one of the world\u2019s leading accelerator programs, he can completely empathise with the muru-D recruits and help them reach the highest levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says it\u2019s also a positive for the wider ecosystem to have an esteemed Aussie entrepreneur returning home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Mick heading over to the US I\u2019m really pleased we are bringing an Aussie home,\u201d Parker says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen will be able to share invaluable insights and knowledge following his extensive experience from the Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sand says he\u2019s excited to be returning to Australia at such a transformative time for the local startup community.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing technology startups on the national agenda is very encouraging,\u201d Sand says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have a long way to go but at least we are now heading in the right direction. I chose muru-D as it\u2019s a special kind of accelerator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen a program that sustains such a high level of hands-on support for a six-month period.\u201d<\/p>\n

The muru-D accelerator program was launched by Telstra in 2013<\/a> and invests $40,000 in each participating startup in exchange for 4% in equity. It now runs in Sydney, Brisbane and Singapore and has seen 44 startups pass through its doors.<\/p>\n

The current Sydney cohort will be demoing their companies at the end of July, while Sand will share his startup journey at the muru-D open house on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe startups in the program right now are very promising,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait for demo night on the 27th of July when they will present their progress to the best investors in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

An Australian founder who has raised nearly $100 million ($US73 million) in venture capital in Silicon Valley will be returning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38365"}],"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=38365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}