Today we’re proud to announce Airtree’s Fund V, a $250m Seed fund and $400m Growth fund backing the most ambitious Aussie and Kiwi founders, as they build tomorrow’s iconic technology companies.

This milestone comes at a defining moment for our region. Australia and New Zealand have emerged as an undeniable source of globally competitive technology companies. 

From unicorns like Linktree, Employment Hero and Go1 to exciting upstarts like ProcurePro, Constantinople, Fetch, Human and Haast, our local founders are proving that you can build global category leaders from here. It’s happening more frequently, more confidently, and at a more accelerated pace than ever before. 

Our region’s growth has not gone unnoticed by fund investors around the world. In this fund, Airtree has brought on board world-class international institutional partners — the same investors who seeded the most storied firms in Silicon Valley. They’ve caught wind of what we’ve known for a long time, ANZ founders have something special. 

Airtree doesn’t just back founders from the beginning; we also take pride in investing early in tenacious young investors. Dan Coughlan, Sid Kasbekar and Raaj Rayat all joined Airtree early in their careers and live the values we champion — hunger, humility, and insatiable curiosity. We’re delighted to announce their promotion to Principal with this fund.

We are filled with gratitude and excitement for the chapter ahead. Our heartfelt thanks to the founders who have put Australia and New Zealand on the map, those who have chosen to partner with us, and to the LPs who have supported us from the beginning of our journey, a decade ago.

A moment of maturity for our ecosystem

When we founded Airtree in 2014, a $60 million fund felt like a big bet on the future of ANZ technology. Fast forward to today: we’re closing a $650 million fund with over 50% of capital coming from tier-one global institutional investors — many backing Australian venture for the first time.

Most of our new investors hail from the U.S., Europe and Asia. They include some of the largest university and charitable endowments, fund of funds, insurance companies and pension funds in the world. These new partners join our long-standing and earliest local investors, including the largest superannuation funds in the country. Their vision and support has been instrumental in the emergence of the local tech ecosystem.

“This is not just validation for Airtree. It’s a signal to the world that Australia and New Zealand have become a credible and competitive home for innovation."

"The ecosystem has matured dramatically with repeat founders, secondaries, large growth rounds and high-quality liquidity events are all now part of the fabric of building here.” – Craig Blair

On our shores the narrative is well known, but it’s now caught the eyes of some of the most experienced investors in the world. We’re the world’s most capital-efficient producer of unicorns per VC dollar invested, and 3rd in venture-backed liquidity behind only the U.S. and China. 

It’s not difficult for any of us optimists to imagine that we are still at the very beginning of our growth curve. This next chapter in the book of innovation is going to be even more exciting than the last.

“We've spent months on the road bringing the world's best investors up to speed on what's happening down here on the ground. It's such a privilege to play that ambassador role."

"Now that they're tapped into the opportunity set, we're sure that much more international capital will start flowing toward the best Aussie and Kiwi companies both directly and through funds. This is fantastic news for our ecosystem.” – John Henderson

For Airtree, our growth has been a team effort. Our wonderful investor relations team including Charlotte Edelman and Jess Heffernan have helped build global bridges, as our finance and operations team have constructed a robust and institutional investor-ready back-office. Our platform and impact team continues to ensure Airtree’s dedicated approach to portfolio support is top quality, as we continue to focus on uplifting the ecosystem as a whole. 

Big things start small 

At the heart of Fund V is $250 million dedicated to pre-seed and seed stage investments. This is an intentional pool of capital built to supercharge companies from the very start of their journey. In our last fund, 83% of our investments were at Seed stage and 48% were pre-revenue, and we intend to keep it that way. 

We strive to lead at the earliest stages, when conviction matters most, then help accelerate the startup’s trajectory with our full force. When we invest in a round, we lead with intention. We’ve been privileged to earn the trust of hundreds of founders since we opened our doors, including nine companies that have grown to become unicorns, and eleven that have surpassed $100 million in revenue.

“There’s a virtuous cycle for founder talent in ANZ. A flywheel of incredible people who have contributed to building startups from our region into global household names."

"Now, armed with ambition and knowledge, they’re taking this hard-earned experience and forging out to build their own businesses. We’re proud to support them right from the beginning of their founding journey.” – Elicia McDonald

AI is creating a “why now” in almost every category. Enterprise customers facing board pressure for an AI strategy are actively seeking solutions to previously intractable problems.

As a result, the early-stage environment in ANZ is richer and more exciting than we’ve seen in a decade, and we believe staying focused on backing generational founders first will continue to generate outlier outcomes. We’re keeping our portfolio size concentrated, our bar high, and our support deep. 

Supporting founders beyond capital

As ever, our ambition is not just to invest early but to provide an unfair advantage to every founder we back. Our tactical support, programs, communities and Open Source VC library are all designed to help founders shortcut company-building firsts, and demystify company building for thousands of founders (and future founders) across the region. 

We remain tightly focused on software and AI startups with ANZ roots targeting category leadership in global markets. When you join the Airtree portfolio, you’re joining a group of startups that look like yours, facing the same scaling challenges and opportunities. 

We work to make every part of scaling a software startup easier, whether that’s hiring world-class talent, connecting to other founders who have solved the problems you’re facing, or facilitating partnerships with external providers and advisors.

“When you’re backed by Airtree, you’re joining a group of ANZ’s most impressive and capable founders."

"I’m constantly impressed with how this community of founders and operators lift each other up and learn from one another. We aim to be the first call our founders make when they need support. And most often the next call is to connect you with other founders in our portfolio that we know have faced the same problem in the past and want to help.” – James Cameron

Our efforts to support our own portfolio companies also extend to the ecosystem at large — we’re dedicated to making it easier to build a startup (Open Source VC), become an angel investor (Explorers), or meet like-minded people you can build with (Pioneers)

Backing founders through their entire journey

Alongside the Seed-focused fund, our $400 million Growth Fund allows us to double down on breakout companies — from our own portfolio and from the broader market — as they scale towards global leadership. This structure ensures we can remain a consistent partner, from the earliest cheque through to growth, supporting generational companies at any stage in their journey.

“When Airtree launched its first growth fund in 2017, fewer than 8% of technology deals were at the growth stage."

"Today that number is over 20%, with a significant cohort of early-stage companies maturing to growth-stage over the last decade. From SafetyCulture to Employment Hero, Airwallex to Canva, our leading start-ups have grown into global category leaders and we feel privileged to be able to deepen our partnership with the most compelling growth companies from Australia and New Zealand.” – Kell Reilly

Today, the growth market relative to the size of the early-stage market is approaching that of mature venture ecosystems like the U.S. The number of growth-stage companies is growing 20% every year, and we’re one of the only VCs in Australia with dedicated growth-stage expertise, allowing us to meet the opportunity.

The next generation of ANZ startups 

It is now that the real hard work begins. Our ambition is to be ever-present, proactive, and bold. We will continue our long-standing commitment to uplift the entire ANZ ecosystem, and serve as one of its ambassadors to the world.

“The founders we invest in operate with speed and intensity, bringing good judgment to markets with clear tailwinds behind them."

"Today, we’re investing behind the largest technology wave of a generation. Airtree aspires to match their pace, making decisions quickly with conviction, aiming to be the preferred partner to relentless founders.” – Jackie Vullinghs

There is no archetypal founder, we look for ambition in every form. If you’re building software that could reshape an industry on a global scale, we want to hear your vision. Our doors and our dms are open — we can’t wait to hear from you.

Team Airtree