{"id":41161,"date":"2023-10-20T15:12:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/reinventure-launches-second-50-million-startup-fund-with-the-backing-of-westpac-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:12:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:01","slug":"reinventure-launches-second-50-million-startup-fund-with-the-backing-of-westpac-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/reinventure-launches-second-50-million-startup-fund-with-the-backing-of-westpac-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Reinventure launches second $50 million startup fund with the backing of Westpac – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sydney-based venture capital firm Reinventure has closed a $50 million fund with the backing of big four bank Westpac as it continues the hunt for the most promising Australian fintech startups.<\/p>\n

It is the group\u2019s second $50 million fund and sees Westpac double down on its support for the local fintech sector.<\/p>\n

Reinventure co-founder and managing director Danny Gilligan says the close relationship with the corporate bank made the process of raising capital very smooth.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor VCs the second fund is always the hardest because you don\u2019t have any exits at the time,\u201d Gilligan tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we have a great relationship with Westpac and it has strengthened as we progressively get more confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilligan says Reinventure will continue to make seed and Series A investments in startups that could work with Westpac in developing their business and scaling rapidly, and that are also led by \u201cgreat entrepreneurs\u201d, have market traction and the ability to dominate a market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere won\u2019t be a major change in our investment strategy, but we\u2019re certainly cognisant of the changing nature of the financial services tech landscape and how technology is impacting other industries as well,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re following the trends and changes that we\u2019ve seen and finessing rather than changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A rapidly developing sector<\/h3>\n

Reinventure\u2019s first $50 million fund was launched in early 2014<\/a>, and he says the fintech sector today is virtually unrecognisable from that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a huge change in both the quality and quantity of ventures in Australia over that timeframe,\u201d Gilligan says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we proposed our fund to Westpac in mid-2013 fintech wasn\u2019t a word.\u201d<\/p>\n

The VC firm\u2019s first fund investment in 10 Australian startups including PromisePay<\/a>, SocietyOne<\/a>, Data Republic<\/a>, Valiant Finance<\/a> and Hey You<\/a>, and Gilligan says all signs are positive with the portfolio companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve all continued to receive follow-on support from other investors,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cVenture capital is a long game so it\u2019s hard to measure when you\u2019re a quarter of the way through the race but there are great signs and we\u2019re confident with how it\u2019s going,\u201d Gilligan says.<\/p>\n

For the big bank, the fund is an opportunity to forge partnership with local entrepreneurs in order to make the banking process smoother for customers, Westpac chief strategy officer Gary Thursby says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian fintech industry is developing rapidly and we continue to be impressed by the quality of the talent, ideas and technology that exists in the startups,\u201d Thursby says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vision is to be one of the world\u2019s great services companies and we believe the adoption of new customer-focused technology is an important step in achieving this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The year of venture capital<\/h3>\n

The new $50 million startup fund continues a strong year for venture capital in Australia, with several large funds announced and closed.<\/p>\n

In June Rampersand announced its new $50 million fund<\/a> to support the next generation of Australian founders and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

In May tech advisory group StartMesh revealed it was aiming to raise a $20 million startup fund<\/a>, the Aura Group set out to secure a $30 million fund<\/a> and CapitalPitch unveiled its $10 million \u201chybrid\u201d fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Signal Ventures kicked off the year of VC by announced its $10 million fund<\/a>, while the $20 million Dragon Egg Fund was launched to specifically help Aussie startups break into the China market<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Reinventure Fund 2 is set to make its first venture announcement in the coming week.<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, <\/em>LinkedIn <\/em>and <\/em>SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney-based venture capital firm Reinventure has closed a $50 million fund with the backing of big four bank Westpac as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,25,6,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41161"}],"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=41161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}