Australian tech start-up BugHerd has secured a $500,000 investment from local venture capital firm Starfish Ventures, which will be used to bolster the BugHerd team and scale its product.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Founded by Alan Downie and Matt Milosavljevic, BugHerd came about after the pair were unable to find a bug-tracking solution suitable for logging and managing visual website issues.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After honing their idea, Downie and Milosavljevic pitched to Australian incubator Startmate and were selected to participate in their start-up class of 2011.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BugHerd has since attracted investment from US incubator 500 Startups, becoming the first Australian company to participate in the 500 Startups program.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It also won an award at technology innovation event Tech23, held in Sydney.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BugHerd co-founder Alan Downie says because the company received a lot of exposure in such a short timeframe, it could afford to be more discerning when choosing an investment partner.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFrom very early on, we were keen to work with Starfish Ventures,\u201d Downie says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNot just because they\u2019ve recently backed some pretty high profile tech companies like DesignCrowd and iSelect, but because it enables us to stay here in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA lot of start-ups are in a rush to get over to the US these days, but we\u2019re keen to show that with the right support, you can do it all from here without compromising the business.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd with Starfish, we still have the option of moving to the States if we ever choose.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As part of the deal, Starfish Ventures investment director Tony Glenning will join the BugHerd team as a director, with Downie describe Glenning\u2019s involvement as \u201cinstrumental\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMatt and I are great product guys but we know we have a long way to go before we\u2019re great business guys, and I think that\u2019s the sort of support you get from an investor like Starfish,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s also the obvious benefit of increasing your network, and getting exposure to people and companies that otherwise might not hear about you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to Glenning, Starfish Ventures is acutely aware of BugHerd\u2019s potential, hence the decision to invest in the company.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe could see how the products available on the market really weren\u2019t usable by non-technical users, leaving a huge gap in the market for a solution like BugHerd,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe guys have really identified a strong customer pain-point and developed a remarkable product to meet it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Downie says the funding will be used to hire \u201cgreat talent\u201d and scale the product.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe have a really good product at the moment that is squarely focused on small agencies, so we\u2019re looking to expand that vision,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re also bringing on support in marketing \u2013 James MacGregor, ex-Pollenizer marketing director, joined us last week \u2013 and looking for a few talented frontend developers.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Downie says while many Australian start-ups feel compelled to travel to the US to secure funding, they shouldn\u2019t underestimate the level of activity among local investors.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThere is a growing buzz around start-ups in Australia \u2013 angel investors and incubators are popping up everywhere,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many opportunities to get your product in front of people who are eager to help support and grow your business. It\u2019s a great time to be starting a business.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf I have one piece of advice, it\u2019s \u2018explore every avenue\u2019. You won\u2019t get anywhere waiting and hoping.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australian tech start-up BugHerd has secured a $500,000 investment from local venture capital firm Starfish Ventures, which will be used<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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\/42436"}],"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=42436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}