Accelerator
Australia's largest and longest-standing tech startup community
Sydney, NSW
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round Fishburners raised.
Every published round Fishburners took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
Companies Fishburners has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio companies recorded yet. | ||||
Fund closes reported for Fishburners, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies Fishburners has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Fishburners did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio company of Fishburners is recorded as having been acquired. | ||||
The transaction that ended Fishburners's run as a startup, per published coverage. It closes the funding history too, where it is the ladder's last rung.
| Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scalare Partners | Acquisition | 6 Jun 2026 | - | Scalare Partners, This Week in Australian Startups, Startup Daily (5 Jun 2026), SmartCompany, Startup Daily (2 Jun 2026) |
Companies Fishburners acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Alan Jones | interim-CEO (former) | SmartCompany |
| Bilyana Smith | Chair | Startup Daily (13 May 2026), Startup Daily (14 Sep 2023) |
| Majella Campbell | CEO (former) | Startup Daily (5 Jun 2026), Startup Daily (13 May 2026), Startup Daily (7 May 2026) |
| Martin Karafilis | CEO | Startup Daily, SmartCompany (30 Jan 2023), SmartCompany (14 Dec 2022) |
| Sabrina Zeng | Head of Ecosystem (former) | Aura Ventures, Aura Group |
Stories naming Fishburners. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Listed investor Scalare Partners has taken an undisclosed early-stage stake in Sydney AI scent startup Auric, which has opened a lab at Tank Stream Labs after earlier backing from Antler and Sputnik ATX.
Scalare Partners has bought Fishburners out of administration, keeping the founder community operating within Scalare's ecosystem, with planned hub access, revived pitch nights and a future investment vehicle for startups.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·This Week in Australian Startups
Weekly roundup: eight funding rounds totalling $12.1m; Airwallex bought Leapfin; 4DMedical agreed a deal for Contextflow; Scalare Partners took over Fishburners; Airtree and Build Club each unveiled new founder programs.
Also Australian FinTech
Fishburners operated as Stone & Chalk's subsidised sub-tenant at Tech Central before entering administration; KPMG is running a fast EOI process to find buyers or investors.
Roundup: three startups raised $5.71m combined; Canva's local revenue passed $4.1b with profit and IPO plans; Sweden's Legora bought Melbourne regulatory-tech firm Graceview; Fishburners went into administration.
Fishburners, the Sydney not-for-profit co-working community, has gone into voluntary administration over a long-running rent debt to the NSW government. KPMG administrators will keep it trading while pursuing a sale and recapitalisation.
Fishburners profiles ex-Google engineer Tomasz Mikolajewski, who quit after thirteen years to build Sydney AI startups: voice-controlled app builder Poppable and the recently launched bedtime-story app Lulululu, after his first app idea was rejected.
Fishburners profiles StoryTribe founder Yunmie Kim, tracing her journey from designer to founder of a storytelling tool, the community that supported her, and how she eventually won investors over after repeated rejections.
Blackbird partner Samantha Wong reflects on a decade of the firm's Sunrise conference and Australia's startup ecosystem, recalling Atlassian's Nasdaq listing and Aconex's float and sale to Oracle.
Also OIF Ventures portfolio·OIF Ventures portfolio·thelawyermag.com·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·LaunchVic·LaunchVic
SmartCompany's rolling coverage of SXSW Sydney day two, recording Polymath's pre-seed raise and Build Club's recent funding, the Equity Clear launch, Startmate's Demo Day, and women-founded startup pitches at Google's event.
Aura Ventures announces Sabrina Zeng has joined as corporate development manager, citing her background across banking, Fishburners and UNSW, and the firm's funds and regional presence.
Aura Group announces Sabrina Zeng has joined Aura Ventures in a corporate development role, bringing banking, startup ecosystem and academic experience.
Profiles Stori, an AI game-worldbuilding startup by founder Nilushanan Kulasingham: pre-seed investment by Antler and investor Jason Calacanis, plus a place in AWS's GenAI Accelerator.
Startup hub Fishburners appoints two new directors, replacing a departing member now leading a screen agency and another whose term ended, amid funding uncertainty around its Sydney premises.
Queensland robotics startup SwarmFarm closed a $12 million Series A led by Conexus Venture Capital, following an earlier grant and a 2020 raise, to scale its autonomous farming platform.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·AgFunderNews
Techboard's September 2022 roundup reports Australian raises led by Morse Micro's $140m Series B, several acquisitions including ResApp Health to Pfizer, fund closes by Telstra Ventures, OIF and Main Sequence, and open raises.
SmartCompany profiles five Australian regional startups to watch in 2023, recalling recent funding rounds for OceanFarmr, Zetifi, Sea Forest and Subpod, and noting SwarmFarm Robotics' farmland reach.
Also Startup Daily
Startup hub Fishburners has appointed Martin Karafilis as chief executive after an interim period, with plans to support regional founders and expand beyond Sydney.
Investible interviews bluesheets co-founder Clare Leighton about building the financial-automation company remotely from her co-founder, her earlier roles at Uber and DishDash, and its growth and partnerships.
A republished impact-investing newsletter covering climate mapping tools, games for crisis thinking and science fiction, plus two newly launched Australian investment funds and a program launch for women of colour entrepreneurs.
Also Techboard
A Sydney medical messaging startup has landed seed backing led by Right Click Capital to let clinicians share patient videos securely, its founder says, after earlier government grant support and a women-in-tech pitching program.