Aura Ventures

While our role at Aura is to underwrite unparalleled ambition in world-class founders — we know that sustained, impactful innovation requires the collaboration of capital, government, institutions and local communities. Grassroots innovation, capability development, and policy are the cornerstones of building strong local economies. Last week, Sabrina joined Spark Festival's panel to discuss Startup Funding and Growth, supported by partners UNSW Founders, Investment NSW and Catalysr, with a powerful opening keynote from Charishma Kaliyanda, MP. Key takeaways from the discussion: 1. When it comes to funding, no doesn't always sound like no. Measure success not by how many yeses, but by how many no's you hear. Use every no as an opportunity to reflect on how your articulated vision aligns with the market. 2. While Australia's startup ecosystem has made significant strides, fragmentation still exists. To support founders, we need cohesive collaboration across government, venture capital, education, and industry. 3. Technology and innovation are essential for local communities to thrive, develop, and connect with the world. Our communities hold lived experiences and unique insights into untapped markets. 4. We have access to a plethora of platforms that have democratised technology and technical capabilities. It's never been easier, faster and cheaper to test and iterate new ideas. It was a pleasure to contribute to this conversation alongside Andrew Corbett-Jones, Anne-Marie Elias and David Lt (Lillo-Trynes), connect with the local community, nurture tangible support and action, and be a voice for venture capital and founders in the Australian startup ecosystem. #venturecapital #startupfunding #techstartups

Interested in learning more about our portfolio? Here are the highlights from last month. 🌏 Shippit officially launched their multi-carrier platform in New Zealand. 💸 Integrated was acquired by Sydney-based fintech DASH Technology Group. 🌱 Harvest B launched B Strong, their new line of plant-based Meal Prep Proteins. 💻 Haast's partnership with Equitee Trustees set the pace for AI-led digital innovation in financial services. 🏛 Liam King, Co-Founder of Haast, presented the opening statement at the Senate Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence. 📱 Sahha released the Sahha Demo App, allowing users to start building applications with real-time data logs. 🥽 JigSpace's Co-Founder and CEO Zac Duff spoke at AWE, the world's #1 AR/VR tech event, giving the inside word on spatial computing for enterprise. Follow to stay up to date on our portfolio & ecosystem news. #investments #techstartups #venturecapital

The feedback loop in venture is long. After doing this for over a decade, and as long as the industry has existed in Australia, we have benefited from the gift of time. We have had the opportunity to learn, reiterate and improve. You are then ultimately marked by two things: founder feedback and exits. The latter is hard to control and takes much more time. But when you get it, it reminds you if you’re on the right path. Thanks for the write up Joseph L. and The Australian Aura Ventures Eric Tran Tristan Terry Sabrina Zeng

We're thrilled to announce our third investment exit in 12 months. Last month, the news of Sydney-based fintech DASH Technology Group's acquisition of Integrated was the linchpin for our trio of investment exits, following Catapult and Lannock Strata Finance, with an average five-times return. After leading the seed round investments for all three portfolio companies and partnering with the founders at each stage of the journey, we're thrilled to share this news with our incredible network of partners, investors and peers. It speaks volumes to the impact of our high-conviction, thesis-led investing approach, and how the Australian tech innovation ecosystem has collectively evolved in the last decade – we're excited to see what the next chapter brings. Read the full announcement write up by Joseph L. in The Australian below. #venturecapital #startups #investments

We're thrilled to announce our investment in JigSpace as part of the team's $13m Series A raise, alongside Breakthrough Victoria, Rampersand, Investible and others. There's been no shortage of JigSpace in the technology headlines of late. Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook's accolades of the company's world-class product, and their partnership with Apple Vision Pro, propelled JigSpace into the limelight. In the ensuing tide of investment announcements, we're thrilled to be partnering with the team and look forward to supporting their journey. We welcome the visionary Zac Duff, Numa Bertron and the JigSpace team to the Aura Ventures portfolio as they continue to develop world-class innovation and pioneer the business usage of augmented reality. Read the full investment memo by Eric Tran below. #technology #investment #venturecapital

Eric Tran recently sat down with the residents at Stone & Chalk in a closed room Q&A to share more on our investment thesis, lens on global markets, technology trends and how startup founders can leverage AI tooling for scale. At Aura, we are high-conviction investors who understand meaningful dialogue is the cornerstone of quality partnerships. This philosophy drives us to engage deeply, listen intently, and invest thoughtfully. Meeting founders in settings centred around curiosity and entrepreneurial ambition is a core part of that process. Thank you to Lucinda Batey and the S&C team for the invitation and creating spaces for founders to build meaningful connections across the innovation ecosystem. #venturecapital #startups

Every investor’s dream is to cross paths with a unicorn — how often do we get the chance to watch one at work as a peer, before they set out to conquer the very stage they’ve built? When Build Club began as a community project in Aura’s offices, Annie Liao 🇦🇺’s creativity, belief and inimitable work ethic lay the groundwork for outsized impact for the Australian tech community. She is the leading advocate for grassroots innovation and only continues to confound the entire ecosystem with her relentless efforts to build community inventively and collaboratively. We’re privileged to have been a part of her early journey, and immensely proud to continue our support for this powerhouse for the long-term, as a founding partner of Build Club’s AI Accelerator. Today, we celebrate the next milestone — the launch of Build House: a co-living Hacker House to bring the nation’s best and brightest technical founders under one roof. 🌌 At Aura, our role is to amplify and expedite epochal ambition — time and time again, our community continues to redefine and prove what's possible. What Annie and the team are achieving is nothing short of phenomenal, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of this next chapter. Keen to learn more about Build House? Read all about it — links in comments below. #ai #startups #venturecapital

Congratulations to the Haast team for winning the Zurich Insurance Innovation Champsionship. We couldn’t be more proud.

We’re thrilled to join Adam Jacobs , Chaz Heitner and the Hatch team on their journey to greatness Eric Chan Tristan Terry Eric Tran #venturecapital #startup #seedfunding

Elated to announce two scholarship tracks for The Builders Club AI Accelerator this summer. We are teaming up with our friends at Sahha to bring you this 🤝. We are offering two "scholarship" tracks valued up to $1K USD pp for two special focus areas. Our belief is that creating micro-communities at the grass roots level is a powerful way to double down on these areas and drive innovation: 1️⃣ Women in AI: 5x scholarships valued up to $1K USD 2️⃣ Health tech builds: Bounty for Sahha SDK usage of up to $1.5K USD Who are some builders who are dreaming in this field? Let's help them build, ship and monetise! Sign up in comments. P.S. Huge shout out to Aleksander Dahlberg and Sahha team for working with me around the clock to get these tracks shipped in 24 hours cc. Sinéad Fitzgerald, Gurleen Singh, Eric Chan #healthtech #womeninstartups