{"id":43747,"date":"2023-10-20T15:30:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/sydney-seed-fund-reveals-why-only-four-of-68-applications-were-deemed-eligible-for-further-investigation-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:30:51","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:30:51","slug":"sydney-seed-fund-reveals-why-only-four-of-68-applications-were-deemed-eligible-for-further-investigation-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/sydney-seed-fund-reveals-why-only-four-of-68-applications-were-deemed-eligible-for-further-investigation-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Seed Fund reveals why only four of 68 applications were deemed eligible for further investigation – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Only four of 68 start-up investment applications made to the Sydney Seed Fund, launched in June this year to back emerging technology companies, were deemed eligible for second round interviews.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Sydney Seed Fund<\/a> has revealed to StartupSmart<\/i> the reasons why the vast majority of applications failed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many of the ideas failed because they did not meet basic requirements set out in the application guidelines, such as the 3% which were no more than ideas on paper with no prototype, 4% who weren\u2019t based in Australia, and 6% of ideas were older than 18 months.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of the 68 applications, 30% were in software and services, 19% in transaction-based businesses, 11% in mobile and apps businesses and 8% in e-commerce. Just over 5% of applicants weren\u2019t tech companies, and weren\u2019t deemed eligible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fund co-founder Benjamin Chong says they\u2019re still reviewing the four eligible applications, but the high ineligibility percentage was significant.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>This underscores the reality that raising capital is a huge challenge for almost every start-up out there,\u201d Chong says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chong adds the main issues were companies that had only one founder (14%) or had little or no market potential (19%).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cInvestors need to be assured that the business is being run, not by a lone expert, but by a well-balanced team. Having both technical and business founders, along with domain experience, is ideal,\u201d Chong says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cNineteen per cent of the applications were assessed to have little or no market potential. Start-ups need to convince investors they’re chasing a large market opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chong says they\u2019re looking for people with domain experience and big plans.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cStarting with a niche market is fine, in fact it\u2019s fantastic. But you\u2019ve then got to be able to expand that to a larger market,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re after people who have that industry experience firsthand or have been breathing the problem and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Technology start-ups can apply to the Sydney Seed Fund all year. They\u2019re looking to back 20 start-ups with about $100,000 each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only four of 68 start-up investment applications made to the Sydney Seed Fund, launched in June this year to back<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59626,"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\/43747"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}