August 12, 2022

Rapid Runway - Vitruvian Seed | Brisbane Investor Dinner | New Flight Crew

Catch up on all the news and fund raising announcements from TEN13, Australia's fastest growing syndicate.

Written by

Doug Oliver

We’ve seen a rapid launch so far this year at TEN13 helping fuel ambitious founders through major funding rounds, platform expansion, and new employees!

We’re building out Australia’s largest syndicated investment platform, currently with 235+ investors including founders, operators, VCs, and professionals from companies like Google, Afterpay, Plaid, Canva, Nitro, Nearmap, and more.

Sophisticated Investor? Interested in joining our platform? Sign up here. Or join us for our next Virtual Boardroom Lunch at 1:00pm on Tuesday 20th July — if you are interested in attending please register here. Lunch is on us. (Currently open to Australian & NZ residents/citizens).

If you are a sophisticated investor we encourage you to jump online with us.

Here is a quick rundown of our flightpath this year to date:

🚀 Since launching in Dec 2019, we’ve grown our platform to $26m+ in funds under management, with $15m being invested in the first half of this year. For us this has meant fuelling 13 companies to date and providing our investors access to highly curated venture deals.

🌏 We’ve invested globally and are proud of our TEN13 portfolio mix supporting founders domiciled across Australia, US, Africa, and South East Asia.

Lift-Off With Vitruvian

We announced our investment in Vitruvian as part of an oversubscribed US$6.0m round and released our investment notes which you can read in full here.

We first met Jon in a hot shed with no A/C in Perth in early 2020 with a vision about creating the next generation of connected fitness hardware.

Vitruvian have set out to build the best ‘smart weights’ fitness product to use as a replacement for lifting pieces of steel in a gym; think about data-driven and gamified resistance training in your own home.

We saw the ambition behind the team he was building to scale their technology to the world and knew we had to be a part of the journey.

If you want to become a customer (like us), use discount code “Founders#circle” at the checkout for 10% off. Thanks Jon 😉

You can also read more about the fundraise in the West Australian (pay wall) and in Boss Hunting here.

Brisbane Investor Dinner

🥂 We held our first Brisbane Investor Dinner, welcoming 130 of our investors and their guests to celebrate our first 18 months in the market and showcase some of the amazing founders and companies that we’ve fuelled.

If you’re interested in partnering with us for an event in your city, let us know.

New Flight Crew

We continue to deliver on our ambition of creating the best early-stage venture management platform in Australia & New Zealand. As such, we’re investing in our product team with the onboarding of Melanie Harrison as our Salesforce Lead.

Mel has been working on the Salesforce Platform since 2007 and has worked in multiple industries developing Salesforce including Travel, Food, Franchise, Government and Healthcare.

Investor Showcase

Our Investment Manager An Vo highlights an investor on our platform each month and you can follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter or stay up to date.

This month we talked to Rob Coe. Who spends his time outside of investing as a Film Director.

Rob’s probably best known for his work as a Director & Producer at THIRD MAN FILMS PTY LTD, the production arm of Madman Entertainment, which was behind some great documentaries like Red Obsession, available on Netflix which talks about the rise of the Chinese Economy and how Bordeaux in France is being fuelled by it’s obsession with Red.

Rob’s recently been busy working on another awesome documentary, Blind Ambition, which follows the lives of four refugees who, having escaped starvation and tyranny in their homeland of Zimbabwe, conquered the odds to become South Africa’s top sommeliers. Blind Ambition was recently awarded The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature — Tribeca (NY) Film Festival.

In addition to his work in the film industry, Rob also doubles as a savvy angel investor, having backed several TEN13 companies and many more around the world.

We highly recommend checking out Rob’s new film trailer for Blind Ambition below.

TEN13 Talks to Tech Point Africa

Stew sat down with Tech Point Africa to talk about what it means to miss great deals and our great track record so far — see the article here.

TEN13 has deployed about $26 million in 13 startups, fintech startup, ImaliPay; and Africa- focused Fintech, Chipper Cash and we are just getting started.

Portfolio News

Arkose Raises $70m from SoftBank Fund

Our Transition Level Investment’s Company Arkose Labs, a startup developing a platform to detect and mitigate online fraud, today announced that it raised $70 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

With new customers like Honey, CES, and Minecraft this year joined by existing clients Roblox, EA, Dropbox, Microsoft, PayPal, and Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The company says that the fresh capital will go toward platform development, new hires, and global expansion.

Unicorn Spotting

Unicorns are may be mythical creatures but their occurrence is becoming more prominent as private companies valued at more than $1 Billion continue to emerge.

Transition Level Investment’s portfolio company Go1 is looking to be the next likely candidate as the AFR covered some of Australia’s more prominent technology rising stars in Australia over the last couple months.

Adding More to Cart(ed)

Carted has welcomed several new employees to their brand new Surry hills office this month and remotely.

Mr Yum Partners with Deliverect + Afterpay

Mr Yum is continuing its expansion into the US and UK announcing their partnership with Deliverect a late-stage food delivery management platform in Europe.

Those fancy dinners taking a toll on the wallet or that huge family reunion bar tab running away? Mr Yum has been the first food provider in Globally to partner with Afterpay services for your next feast.

Chipper Talks Communicating to Build Trust

Technology is our tool. Empathy is our lens. Unlocking global opportunities is our mission.

Chipper Cash CEO Ham Serunjogi sat down after their huge US$100m Series C to talk about what it means to build Chipper in Africa and where this round is going to take them next.

ImaliPay talks Pre-Seed Funding in Africa

Imalipay sat down with Entrepreneurs Talk Africa to discuss the problem they are solving in the gig economy in Africa.

Imali provides short term loans to gig workers in Africa to purchase business related expenses.

Car Next Door goes ‘Minority Report’

Our Transition Level Investments Portfolio got some highlights this week with Car Next Door being featured in the Australian Financial Review for their machine learning technology that allows them to pick up bad actors.

Car Next Door allows you to rent your vehicle out when you’re not using it for extra cash. They are always looking to add to their fleet!

QPay Raises $1.15m

Aussie student-focused fintech QPay (Transition Level Investments portfolio company) has secured $1.1 million through an equity crowdfunding campaign, as it ramps up to meet a global opportunity in the disrupted university sector.

The Birchal campaign raised $1.1m from 745 investors, smashing its minimum target of $500,000.

Founded in 2014 by Andrew Clapham, Muhammad Satti, and Zaki Bouguettaya, QPay appeared on Shark Tank in 2018, securing $380,000 from Naomi Simson and Steve Baxter in one of the largest deals ever seen on the show.

Hiring

💳Chipper Cash is hiring across all departments. Product, Compliance, Engineering, Marketing, Growth and more.

🍔 Mr Yum is hiring massively in Sales / Accounts in Brisbane, Sydney, London & Engineering Melbourne or Remote.

✎ Drawboard is hiring Account Executives & C# Developers in their Melbourne HQ

👩🏻‍🏫 Go1 is picking up pace to revolutionise corporate training and education and our hiring in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane & Salt Lake City.

🛒 Carted is hiring designers, Go Engineers & React developers.

📖 Bookipi is hiring Growth Marketers, Operations Associate and Data Analysts.

Come to our next virtual boardroom lunch?

Keen to learn more about building your own portfolio of early-stage technology companies? Join us for a briefing on TEN13 via our next Virtual Boardroom Lunch at 1:00pm (AEST) on Tuesday 20th July — signup here.

Currently limited to sophisticated investors that are Aus & NZ residents / citizens.

Jump Aboard

We are always looking to add to our network of investors as we allow them to build out their own portfolio and thesis through vetted high-quality venture deals. If you qualify as a sophisticated investor and are domiciled in Australia or New Zealand, you can join the ride here.

We partner with some of the world’s most ambitious founders in Pre-seed to Series A deals with cheque sizes ranging from $500k-$2m. We will often lead rounds but also love co-investing with emerging managers and established funds. You can pitch to us here.

Safe Travels,
TEN13 Crew

‍

Latest Articles

Investor Spotlight Series - Daniel Johnson

Introducing our Investor Spotlight Series, highlighting the leading supporters of startups in the Australian ecosystem. First up, Daniel Johnson, a successful founder turned angel investor with over 70 startups in his portfolio so far.

READ MORE

Flight Plan #22 - Our Investment in Arintra

Arintra leverages the latest advancements in AI to provide a world-leading autonomous medical coding platform

READ MORE

Flight Plan #21 - Our Investment in Rockfish

Rockfish is building state-of-the-art generative AI software solutions to assist enterprises in generating "synthetic data"

READ MORE

We're fuelling founders and
arming the rebels that back them.

Sign up for our newsletter

Let's keep you in the loop
InvestorsFoundersCareersBlogTeamPortfolioGet In Touch
Conflicts PolicyPrivacy PolicyWebsite Disclaimer
AFSL Disclaimer
‍TEN13 Management Pty Ltd (TEN13 Management) is a corporate authorised representative of Boutique Capital Pty Ltd (BCPL) AFSL 508011, CAR Number 1298306. TEN13 Nominee Pty Ltd (TEN13 Nominee) is a corporate authorised representative of BCPL, CAR Number 1298307. Together, TEN13 Management and TEN13 Nominee are referred to as we, us, or our in this document. To the extent to which this document contains advice it is general advice only and has been prepared by us for individuals identified as wholesale investors for the purposes of providing a financial product or financial service, under Section 761G or Section 761GA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The information herein is presented in summary form and is therefore subject to qualification and further explanation. The information in this document is not intended to be relied upon as advice to investors or potential investors and has been prepared without taking into account personal investment objectives, financial circumstances or particular needs. Recipients of this document are advised to consult their own professional advisers about legal, tax, financial or other matters relevant to the suitability of this information. The investment summarised in this document is subject to known and unknown risks, some of which are beyond our control and our directors, employees, advisers or agents. We do not guarantee any particular rate of return or the performance, nor do we and our directors personally guarantee the repayment of capital or any particular tax treatment. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. The materials contained herein represent a general summary of our current portfolio construction approach. We are not constrained with respect to any investment decision making methodologies and may vary from them materially at its sole discretion and without prior notice to investors. Depending on market conditions and trends, we may pursue other objectives or strategies considered appropriate and in the best interest of portfolio performance. There are risks involved in investing in our strategy. All investments carry some level of risk, and there is typically a direct relationship between risk and return. We describe what steps we take to mitigate risk (where possible) in the investment documentation, which must be read prior to investing. It is important to note that despite taking such steps, we cannot mitigate risk completely. This document was prepared as a private communication to clients, is confidential and is not intended for public circulation or publication or for the use of any third party, without our approval. Whilst this report is based on information from sources which we consider reliable, its accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. Data is not necessarily audited or independently verified. Any opinions reflect our judgment at this date and are subject to change. We have no obligation to provide revised assessments in the event of changed circumstances. To the extent permitted by law, BCPL, we and their directors and employees do not accept any liability for the results of any actions taken or not taken on the basis of information in this report, or for any negligent misstatements, errors or omissions.
‍
TEN13 Disclaimer
TEN13 Nominee may, from time to time hold securities referred to in the information herein and may trade in these securities as a nominee (either as principal or as agent). We may receive commissions, fees or other forms of remuneration from transactions involving investments referred to in the materials. By accepting the materials contained herein, you agree to indemnify TEN13 Management, TEN13 Nominee, Transition Level Investments Pty Ltd ACN 154 457 155, TEN13 Holding Pty Ltd ACN 634 042 783, and Birkdale Holdings (Qld) Pty Ltd ACN 120 407 981 ATF the Baxter Family Trust and any of their respective directors, officers, employees, consultants, advisors or agents (TEN13 Parties) against any claim, liability, action, damage, loss, cost or expense sustained by any of them arising from or as a result of any breach by you of the confidentiality obligation under this disclaimer. The TEN13 Parties: disclaim and exclude all liability for all losses, claims, damages, costs and expenses of any nature arising out of or in connection with the materials contained herein (or any accompanying or subsequent information); and do not have any obligation to advise any person if they become aware of any inaccuracy in, or omission from, the materials contained herein (or any accompanying or subsequent information).