Government · 32 deals
Victorian government agency supporting startup ecosystem
Every published round LaunchVic 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, and a place in one of its own programs is under Cohorts.
Everyone LaunchVic has named to a program in published coverage. A place in a program is not a raise: the cheque is the figure recorded with the place, which is the program's standard terms where we hold them, and a blank is one we don't.
| Member | Program | Announced | Cheque | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BATSafe Australia | CivVic Labs EnergyTech Challenge | 11 Dec 2025 | - | LaunchVic |
| FleetOPT | CivVic Labs EnergyTech Challenge | 11 Dec 2025 | - | LaunchVic |
| Solstice AI | CivVic Labs EnergyTech Challenge | 11 Dec 2025 | - | LaunchVic |
| EnAccess Maps | CivVic Labs | Nov 2025 | - | LaunchVic (12 Jan 2026), LaunchVic (27 Sep 2023) |
| EstimateOne | 30X30 | 14 Mar 2024 | - | LaunchVic, Startup Daily |
| InvestorHub | 30X30 | 14 Mar 2024 | - | LaunchVic, Startup Daily |
| Jet Charge | 30X30 | Apr 2023 | $25m | SmartCompany, LaunchVic |
| Thriday | 30×30 | 2023 | - | Startup Daily (16 Dec 2025), Startup Daily (24 Apr 2023) |
| HammerTech | 30×30 | 2022 | $6k | LaunchVic, SmartCompany, Startup Daily |
| Jet Charge | 30×30 | 2022 | $25m | Startup Daily (19 Dec 2024), Startup Daily (24 Apr 2023) |
| Mr Yum | 30×30 | 2022 | - | Startup Daily (30 Jan 2023), Startup Daily (24 Aug 2022) |
| Seer Medical | 30×30 | 2022 | - | SmartCompany, Startup Daily |
Companies LaunchVic has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AirAgri | Australian agtech company providing farm safety and biosecurity services | 21 Aug 2023, Grant | 1 | 1 |
| Australian Medical Angels | 9 Aug 2024, Grant | 1 | 0 | |
| BATSafe Australia | developing tech to help Australians manage battery safety, reducing risk and building con… | 5 Aug 2025, Accelerator | 2 | 2 |
| Birchal | Equity crowdfunding platform | 9 Aug 2024, Grant | 1 | 1 |
| Circle In | Platform for creating safe, inclusive and caring workplaces | Apr 2023 | 1 | 0 |
| Climate Angel Network | 17 Aug 2022, Grant | 1 | 1 | |
| Cut Through Angels | 17 Aug 2022, Grant | 1 | 1 | |
| Edrolo | 14 Mar 2024, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| EnAccess Maps | Nov 2025, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| EstimateOne | 14 Mar 2024, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| Factor House | Builds developer tools for managing real-time data streaming, including Kpow and Flex pla… | 2024, undisclosed | 1 | 0 |
| FleetOPT | building a physics-based digital twin to optimise energy use and transport operations for… | 5 Aug 2025, Accelerator | 2 | 2 |
| Fresho | Melbourne-based food-wholesale ordering platform | 3 Nov 2025, Accelerator | 1 | 1 |
| Great Wrap | Makes compostable cling wrap out of potato peels and food waste | 24 Apr 2023, Accelerator | 1 | 1 |
| HammerTech | 2022, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| InvestorHub | Promotional platform for ASX companies (formerly Fresh Equities) | 14 Mar 2024, Accelerator | 1 | 1 |
| Jet Charge | EV charging company whose project explores network benefits from vehicle-to-grid technolo… | 17 Feb 2022, Accelerator | 2 | 2 |
| July | 2022, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| Kali Healthcare | Digital health platform for pregnancy monitoring | Jul 2023, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 |
| Kite Therapy | 8 May 2024, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Maxme | 28 Jun 2024 | 1 | 0 | |
| Milkdrop | 14 Dec 2021, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| Mindset Health | 14 Mar 2024, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| Mr Yum | Digital ordering and hospitality technology company | 2022, Accelerator | 1 | 1 |
| Nuggets Academy | 28 Nov 2023, Seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Nutromics | diagnostics startup | 2 Sep 2025, Accelerator | 1 | 1 |
| One Key Access | 6 May 2022, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Ovum | AI-powered women's health platform building a longitudinal health dataset. | 4 Aug 2026, Seed | 1 | 0 |
| Phnxx | Portable containerised solar and battery systems that replace diesel generators or grid p… | Mar 2025, Seed | 1 | 0 |
| Playbook Angel Network | 18 Aug 2022, Grant | 1 | 1 | |
| ReciMe | 27 Oct 2022, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Seer Medical | Medtech company providing advanced patient monitoring and diagnostics | Accelerator | 1 | 0 |
| Solstice AI | using AI and satellite imagery to deliver short-term solar forecasts for solar farms | 5 Aug 2025, Accelerator | 2 | 2 |
| Steppen | Gen Z fitness app built and sold by Cara Davies | 2022, Accelerator | 2 | 0 |
| Team Timbuktu | 14 Dec 2021, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| The Leaf Protein Co. | Developing functional plant proteins from green leaves | 13 Jun 2024, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 |
| Thriday | AI-powered financial management platform for SMEs | 2023, Accelerator | 1 | 1 |
| Tixel | Secondary ticket marketplace leader | 14 Mar 2024, Accelerator | 1 | 1 |
| Yume | Platform helping manufacturers redistribute surplus packaged food to businesses and chari… | 29 Jan 2024, Seed | 1 | 0 |
| Yume Food | Food redistribution platform | Jan 2024, Seed | 1 | 0 |
Fund closes reported for LaunchVic, as distinct from the investments it has made.
| Fund | Announced | Committed | Target | Close | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hugh Victor McKay Fund | 21 Aug 2023 | $1m | - | - | SmartCompany, LaunchVic |
| Alice Anderson Fund | 18 Apr 2022 | $10m | - | - | LaunchVic, Women's Agenda |
Investors that coverage says has money in a fund LaunchVic runs. This is a stake in the fund, not in any company the fund has backed.
| Investor | Fund | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Victorian Government | Alice Anderson Fund | SmartCompany, Startup Daily (3 Aug 2022), LaunchVic, Startup Daily (14 Dec 2021) |
Companies LaunchVic has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal LaunchVic did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mr Yum | Me&U | Merger | 29 Nov 2023 | - |
| Thriday | Tyro Payments | Acquisition | Jan 2026 | - |
The transaction that ended LaunchVic'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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Innovation Victoria | Merger | 17 Jul 2026 | - | foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au, innovationvictoria.com |
| Breakthrough Victoria | Merger | 24 Jun 2026 | - | Startup Daily (24 Jun 2026), Startup Daily (29 Dec 2025) |
Companies LaunchVic acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round LaunchVic raised.
Investors whose own portfolio pages list LaunchVic, even though we haven't found any coverage of the round yet.
| Investor | Listed on |
|---|---|
| Glitch Capital | its portfolio page ↗ |
Stories naming LaunchVic. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Victoria's opposition pledges to shut down Breakthrough Victoria and sell its investments, calling the state fund a failure. The piece recalls portfolio raises, a rescue deal, an NYSE listing and the LaunchVic merger.
Roundup of the week's Australia and New Zealand raises: Gridsight, Pearler and Apate.AI secure the biggest cheques, Drumbeat and GonGlobal add smaller sums, and ten AI startups join Airwallex's Latitude 37 program.
Skalata Ventures, the seed fund and founder-training program led by Paul Little and Rohan Workman, is raising a second vehicle plus growth capital, reporting 30 investments and a 44 per cent IRR.
Touch Ventures' investment lifts commitments in Skalata's second fund beyond $25 million, with Afterpay co-founder Anthony Eisen investing personally; Touch also recently headed a $5.5 million raise for portfolio company Preezie.
LaunchVic selected nine Victorian start-ups, including Preezie, for a mentoring bootcamp with executives from Atlassian, Uber, Dropbox, Seek and Canva.
Melbourne women's health app Ovum raised $4m Seed funding led by Admiralty Capital Group to expand AI-driven health data tools, valuing it at $18 million.
Victoria has folded LaunchVic and its Breakthrough Victoria investment fund into a new body, Innovation Victoria, naming its chair, deputy chair and leader, while recapping agrifood startups the fund has backed.
Australian women's health AI startup Ovum AI has raised a 4 million dollar seed round led by Admiralty Capital Group, following an earlier pre-seed, with several impact and government backers participating.
Also Startup Daily·Forbes Australia·Women's Agenda·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
As Breakthrough Victoria and LaunchVic combine into Innovation Victoria, nine partner organisations will share government funding to run pre-accelerator programs for founders at the idea stage.
La Trobe University spin-out AlleSense has secured $5 million to develop slide-based imaging for earlier cancer detection, led by Welcome Ventures with Breakthrough Victoria and the Australian Economic Accelerator's grant program also contributing.
Also Dealroom·Startup Daily
ANDHealth selected 15 Victorian digital health startups for its ACTIVATE 2026 scale-up program, backed by LaunchVic and the Victorian Government, spanning aged care to cancer support.
LaunchVic announces Innovation Victoria, a new body combining its work with Breakthrough Victoria's, with Rod Bristow installed as chief executive and long-time chairs Leigh Jasper and John Brumby departing.
Actor Hugh Jackman has signed on as Humanitix's first Head of Impact, the Sydney not-for-profit ticketing social enterprise having donated almost $21 million to charity and targeting $100 million by 2031.
LaunchVic has unveiled the newest group of founders and startups entering its Basecamp program, which coaches them on hiring and team building; deep tech venture Space CoLAB is among the seventeen Victorian participants.
LaunchVic and dealroom.co report Victorian startups raised a record $2.4 billion in 2025, driven by late-stage deals despite early-stage declines.
LaunchVic names The Past Connection and nrtureAI winners of its tourism startup challenge, each winning an extra $25,000 after a bootcamp that funded ten Victorian startups.
AndHealth has appointed Seer Medical's co-founder and former COO George Kenley as its 2026 ACTIVATE Executive in Residence; she will mentor Victorian digital health startups, with applications due 22 March.
Breakthrough Victoria recounts how its joint fund with La Trobe University seeded hydroponics developer YieldX, now running a commercial greenhouse in Victoria and expanding to India via a deal with Zomato's Hyperpure.
Roundup of the week's Australian startup funding: fresh raises for five companies, Startmate's Summer '26 accelerator intake of 19 startups, and Affinda's acquisition of Pathfindr.
Also Startup Daily
LaunchVic is seeking applicants for its 2026 Basecamp program, which coaches founders on hiring and leadership choices; a graduate, Calcs.com's CEO, credits it with guiding recent team expansion.
ANDHealth launches applications for its 2026 ACTIVATE accelerator, citing record participant satisfaction and strong cumulative results across prior Victorian digital health cohorts.
Profile of founder Sabrina Leung, whose platform EnAccess Maps helps mobility aid users check venue accessibility; it notes $78,000 secured, three engineers hired, and her stint in LaunchVic's CivVic Labs with VicHealth.
Profile of Dr Kyle Turner launching the LaunchVic-funded Ochre pre-accelerator for First Nations founders, recalling his dental AI startup Pearlii and his role at a new First Nations venture fund.
Founders backed by LaunchVic's Alice Anderson Fund fear the fund may not survive the Victorian government's confirmed merger of LaunchVic with Breakthrough Victoria; the piece recalls raises by Elita, MoreGoodDays and TalkiPlay.
Also Startup Daily
ASX-listed Tyro is acquiring AI financial-admin startup Thriday for an undisclosed sum, with the deal tipped to close in January 2026. Thriday cofounder and CEO Michael Nuciforo will move across to Tyro.
Also Australian FinTech
LaunchVic names four Victorian startups as winners of its energy technology challenge, with $35,000 apiece in extra funding, and flags a tourism-focused follow-up challenge and a February 2026 showcase.
Victorian women-led startup founders warn a government restructure merging LaunchVic with Breakthrough Victoria could end the Alice Anderson Fund's backing, recalling raises by Elita, MoreGoodDays and TalkiPlay.
Leigh Jasper keynotes SmartCompany's February 2026 startup event in Melbourne; the profile recalls his Aconex journey to an Oracle sale, Firmable's seed raise and his venture fund roles.
REA Group has acquired Melbourne lifestyle-data platform Neighbourlytics, delivering exits to investors including Aliavia Ventures and LaunchVic's Alice Anderson Fund. Terms were undisclosed; the company had raised $1.3 million in 2022.
Also SmartCompany
First Nations-focused venture firm Ochre Ventures has closed the first tranche of its debut fund at $30m against a $100m goal, with PSG Holdings, MicroProse and Xylo Systems among five early investments.
The surplus-food marketplace has entered liquidation with its assets for sale; the piece recalls its 2024 seed raise led by Investible vehicles and its founder's next steps.
Also Startup Daily
Profile of a Melbourne medtech firm making lifelike artificial organs that let surgeons rehearse robotic procedures, noting its 2023 capital raise, rapid growth, and leadership training through a Victorian scaleup program.
LaunchVic introduces the ten startups chosen for its CivVic Labs Experience Victoria Challenge, a pre-accelerator pairing early-stage companies with the state's tourism operators.
Profile of Melbourne-based biotech Neurala Biosciences, founded by two researchers turning DMT and harmala compounds into medicines, covering its origins, grant and investor backing totalling $4.5m, and planned first-in-human studies.
Press Play Ventures, a program for aspiring women founders, took out the GSD trophy at Startup Daily's 2025 awards; alumni noted include GonGlobal, which raised pre-seed funding, and Umbrellus, now in a LaunchVic challenge.
Profile of Advance VC, Max Kausman's Melbourne fund of funds buying secondaries in existing venture funds, which received a $300,000 LaunchVic grant through the VC Support Program to establish itself in Victoria.
New York's Teladoc Health has bought Telecare, a Victorian virtual care startup, marking the Alice Anderson Fund's maiden exit. Telecare, a 2021 Startmate participant, previously raised $2.2 million in a seed round.
Femtech startup Ovum has started clinical trials of its AI women's health journal at two Sydney hospitals, with $40,000 in fresh backing from Soul Pattinson following a $1.7 million pre-seed round.