{"id":41164,"date":"2023-10-20T15:12:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/new-20-million-startup-fund-launches-to-fill-a-major-gap-in-the-australian-ecosystem-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:12:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:03","slug":"new-20-million-startup-fund-launches-to-fill-a-major-gap-in-the-australian-ecosystem-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/new-20-million-startup-fund-launches-to-fill-a-major-gap-in-the-australian-ecosystem-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"New $20 million startup fund launches to fill a \u201cmajor gap\u201d in the Australian ecosystem – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new $20 million Australian VC fund will help local early-stage companies access the lucrative China market, plugging a \u201cmajor gap\u201d in the current ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Launched by Mai Capital, the Dragon Egg Fund will help Australian startups \u201cnavigate the complexities of doing business in China\u201d and has been approved by the government as an Early-Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership, meaning investors will be able to access tax breaks.<\/p>\n

The fund is backed by the founder of property developer ICD Property Michael Mai, who says it\u2019s the first of its type of focus specifically on China.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is definitely a need between Australia and China to encourage and support entrepreneurship and innovation between the two countries,\u201d Mai says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will look to invest in emerging companies that are positioned to tap into the enormous Chinese market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis offers investors the chance to invest in high-growth innovative companies and provides these companies with a fast-track to the world\u2019s most populous country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fund will provide late seed to Series B rounds of between $150,000 and $500,000 and will focus on five sectors: logistics, health, clean-tech, education and agriculture.<\/p>\n

Mai says now is the perfect time for local startups to look towards the China market, with the country in the midst of a transformation from manufacturing and investments to an innovative and consumption-based economy.<\/p>\n

“China’s growing urban middle class will more than double its spending over the next 15 years, helping to lift China’s consumption as a proportion of GDP to almost 50%,” he says.<\/p>\n

“By way of comparison, that means China’s consumption in 2030 will exceed today’s GDP in the US.”<\/p>\n

Artesian\u2019s Tim Heasley will serve as an advisor for the fund, while Tom Ellis will be the investment manager.<\/p>\n

The Dragon Egg Fund is the second significant VC fund announced this year following the $10 million Signal Ventures fund unveiled last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Signal Ventures will be contributing between $150,000 and $250,000 in seed rounds and will bring with it experience from prominent Silicon Valley investors.<\/p>\n

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A new $20 million Australian VC fund will help local early-stage companies access the lucrative China market, plugging a \u201cmajor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61031,"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\/41164"}],"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=41164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}