Victoria’s Alice Anderson Fund, which coinvests in startups founded and led by women, will double in size with Innovation Victoria another $10 million to extend its life.
The investment, from the Labor government, just weeks away from November’s state election, comes five years after the sidecar fund began under the auspices of LaunchVic (now part of Innovation Victoria) in 2021. Since then, more than $9 million has been deployed across 46 Victorian companies attracting over $64 million in co-investment from angel investors, family offices and VCs.
The new allocation continues its sidecar model, with private investors putting forward early-stage deals for the fund to back alongside them.
Innovation Victoria head of funds management Olga Hogan said every dollar invested through the fund had attracted almost seven dollars in co-investment.
“If you are an angel, family office or VC backing a Victorian women-led company, we want to see the deal,” she said.
“The Alice Anderson Fund II gives investors a co-investment partner that follows their lead and adds weight to their round. For founders, that means less time fundraising and more time building their business.”
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Recent investments include Butter, which builds community management software aimed at tackling adult loneliness; Spektrum, which tracks critical minerals value chains; and Misti, which is developing aerosol technology to improve the delivery of inhaled medicines. Its potential applications include asthma, COPD and cystic fibrosis treatment.
Another, needle-free IVF solution GonGlobal, scored Seed funding in a $1.2m round after cofounder Ellen Gonda participated in an Innovation Victoria pre-accelerator.
The company used that backing to advance product development and build investor confidence, before securing a separate $1 million investment through Innovation Victoria’s University Innovation Platform.
That investment will support collaboration with RMIT University researchers and commercialisation work.
Innovation Victoria CEO Rod Bristow said access to capital was central to building the state’s innovation sector.
“At Innovation Victoria, we’re committed to ensuring that talented founders of all backgrounds can access the capital they need to start and scale successful ventures,” he said.
The fund is named after businesswoman and mechanic Alice Anderson, who opened Australia’s first all-women garage workshop in Kew in 1919. She died, aged just 29, in September 1926.