OneVentures Growth (Equity) Fund V combines capital and executional support to tech companies

OneVentures reaches first close of its Growth Fund V at circa AU$75M taking its funds under management to over $500M. The new growth fund seeks to partner with scale up technology companies seeking expansion capital and OneVentures’ unique strategic and operational support.

Left to right is Aaron Tan (Investment Associate), Grant Chamberlain (Partner), Dr Michelle Deaker (Managing Partner) and Nigel Dews (Venture Partner).

OneVentures, an Australian venture capital firm which invests in innovative technology and healthcare companies solving global problems, has completed the first close of its fifth fund, the OneVentures Growth Fund V (the Fund), at circa $75M. The Fund has received strong interest, opening for subscriptions in September and securing $75M over the two months to first close. A second close at $100M is expected by the end of calendar year 2020 with the firm having a hard cap on subscriptions at $200M at final close targeted in 2021. The Fund is backed by a suite of OneVentures’ new and existing local and international investors which include many of Australia’s largest family offices and high net worth investors.

OneVentures is actively seeking scale up technology businesses that have achieved product-market fit and that can leverage OneVentures’ hands-on strategic and operational support to achieve their full potential. The team is focused on business-to-business software as a service (SaaS), data analytics and machine learning and technology-enabled services companies. The Fund will seek to invest in companies that operate across industries or that are focused on industries such as healthcare, human resources, logistics, regulatory, property/infrastructure and education and training. OneVentures is seeking opportunities to invest around AU$20M per company from the Fund, with the potential for additional capital through co-investment for significant minority or control. The Fund will be “high conviction” and invest in 5 or 6 companies to ensure OneVentures is able to create a true partnership with founders and give portfolio companies intense and focused hands-on strategic and operational support.

Dr Michelle Deaker, OneVentures Managing Partner said “in an environment of low yield, the technology growth thematic is resonating with investors in the market. Along with strong support from existing OneVentures investors we have also been pleased with the level of institutional interest with one institution having already completed due diligence”.

Grant Chamberlain, Partner at OneVentures and former head of M&A and Financial Sponsors at Merrill Lynch, is Fund Lead. Joining Michelle and Grant in the Fund V team is Nigel Dews as Operational partner in the fund. OneVentures aims to provide world-class hands-on strategic and operational support to portfolio companies to help them unlock their full potential. The team at OneVentures is highly regarded for their executional experience with most of the partners having built substantial companies in management roles. Nigel brings global C-level leadership experience to benefit OneVentures portfolio companies. Nigel has been a leader in the digital media, technology and telecommunications industries for over 16 years, as CEO of Vodafone Hutchison Australia, 3 Mobile, and the first Chief Executive of the Fairfax Media’s digital business. He was involved in the beginning of the digital media revolution in Australia, building the start-up of Fairfax Digital for its first seven years and taking it through to break-even, as well as leading the development of a diverse portfolio of organically grown, joint ventured and acquired digital businesses, such as Domain. As CEO, Nigel led 3 Mobile through a period of rapid growth and cultural change to become a profitable multi-billion-dollar business with industry leading products and a well-regarded brand. In 2009 he led the merger and integration of 3 with Vodafone. In addition, Nigel led the transformation of Message Media as CEO, evolving the company from a single region, single product business to a fast-growing digital technology platform, culminating in a successful partial exit for the founder to Mercury Capital.

The Fund is continuing the mandate of OneVentures’ second Fund, the OneVentures Innovation and Growth Fund II, regarded as a top decile fund for its performance at just 5 years in and 3xinvested capital with IRRs >34%. The fund’s investments are global game changes and include companies such as Vaxxas, (Vaccine Micro-array patch replacing needles for vaccination), Employment Hero, (changing the world of work), Phocas (Supporting the enterprise through business intelligence) and Clinical Genomics (simple DNA blood test for cancer). OneVentures philosophy and investment selection is strongly aligned to improving outcomes for society. The firm recently became signatories to the UN PRI (Principles of Responsible Investment) with investment selection criteria aligned to UN Sustainable Development Goals. The firm will shortly to release its first ESG report across its portfolio to investors. The performance of Fund II and strong alignment to the UN PRI has captured investor interest in the new Growth Fund V.

Grant Chamberlain, OneVentures Partner leading the Fund said “OneVentures Growth Fund V will play an important role in filling a gap in the Australian technology ecosystem. We are excited to be able to support high quality Australian scale up companies seeking larger funding rounds to accelerate growth or expand offshore.”

The launch of OneVentures’ newest equity Fund follows the recent close of OneVentures’ Credit Fund (Fund IV), the most active domestic credit provider in Australia, which has provided venture credit to 6 Australian technology including Shippit (recently awarded one of Australia’s top 10 startups) and Zoomo (previously Bolt Bikes).

Media enquiries

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About OneVentures

OneVentures is one of Australia’s leading venture capital firms, with over $500M in funds under management. But we do more than invest. We take companies to that all-important next stage, by actively shaping their future. We apply our years of international experience, operational and executional expertise to accelerate the growth of our portfolio companies.

A global growth focus drives our investment selection with our current portfolio including companies with truly innovative products tackling multi-billion-dollar problems, from needle-free vaccinations to virtual communications to adaptive e-learning.

Game changers, that deliver lasting gains.

Learn more at www.one-ventures.com.

About OneVentures Growth Fund V

The OneVentures Growth Fund V launched in November 2020 with first close at circa $75M and looking to raise up to $200M.

The Fund will focus on technology, tech-enabled and healthcare growth stage companies investing up to $20M+ per company. The companies will be high quality scale-up technology businesses but may have fallen outside of the traditional VC mandate, bootstrapped or require support with corporate restructuring, offshore market entry and expertise to accelerate their next phase of growth. OneVentures’ operational and strategic expertise is provided in partnership with the leadership teams of our portfolio companies helping them to unlock their full potential.

The investment strategy for the fund considers major global thematics such as remote workforces, pandemic disruption, rapid digitisation of global economies, clean energy transition, urbanisation, aging populations, access to education and affordable healthcare. Companies selected for the portfolio provide an innovative product or service with a positive benefit to society.  Examples of company opportunities may be in  collaboration tools, remote workforce management, aged and disability care, food production, platforms servicing healthcare and education, the enterprise cloud, logistics,  property and infrastructure optimisation and management, robotics and automation, Internet of Things (IoT and sensors), big data and artificial intelligence (AI). The Fund has a preference for subscription based / recurrent revenue business models.