Victoria doubles women-led startup fund with $7.02M top-up
What's the deal? LaunchVicDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised US$6.47M (around $7.02 million) for Alice Anderson Fund II, doubling the size of its venture capital vehicle that co-invests in startups founded and led by women. The money comes from Victoria's Labor government via Innovation VictoriaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which now oversees LaunchVic.
How it works: The fund runs a sidecar model. Private investors put forward early-stage deals, and the fund backs promising startups alongside them.
The track record: Since launching in 2021, the fund has deployed more than US$5.82M across 46 Victorian companies. Those bets attracted over US$41.4M in co-investment from angel investors, family offices, and VCs.
Why now? The top-up lands just weeks before Victoria's November state election. It extends the life of a fund that began five years ago and had largely deployed its original capital.
What's the endgame? Innovation VictoriaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → wants to be the partner that follows private investors into women-led rounds. "If you are an angel, family office or VC backing a Victorian women-led company, we want to see the deal," said head of funds management Olga Hogan.
She added that the fund "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."
Who's getting backed: Recent investments include Butter, a community management software firm tackling adult loneliness; SpektrumDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which tracks critical minerals value chains; and MistiDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, developing aerosol technology for inhaled medicines with potential uses in asthma, COPD, and cystic fibrosis treatment.
The fund is named after Alice Anderson, the businesswoman and mechanic who opened Australia's first all-women garage workshop in Kew in 1919. She died in September 1926, aged 29.
The signal: By touting that every dollar invested drew almost seven in co-investment, Victoria is framing targeted public capital as a lever to pull private money into underfunded founders — a model it is now betting on for a second round.
Read more: smartcompany.com.au
Image credit: LaunchVic
