CEO, AlleSense
Stories naming Rod Bristow. 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.
Melbourne biotech AlleSense, developing cancer pathology imaging tech, raised $5 million led by Welcome Ventures with Breakthrough Victoria and an AEA grant contributing.
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.
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.
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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.
Xefco, held by Breakthrough Victoria, has secured a $4,999,122 federal Industry Growth Program grant as it sends its first production-scale waterless plasma dyeing unit to Indonesia, with twelve systems already committed by customers.
La Trobe University opened its Eagleworks Innovation Centre, home to the $18m Eagle Fund co-funded with Breakthrough Victoria, part of the $100m University Innovation Platform.
Funding wrap: Advanced Navigation lands a $158m Series C for GPS-free navigation, legal AI platform MiAI Law launches with $2m, and Deftbiotech raises $1m pre-seed toward a fungal nail treatment.
A roundup of three raises: Advanced Navigation's $158 million Series C, legal AI platform MiAI Law's $2 million launch funding, and Deftbiotech's $1 million pre-seed for a fungal nail treatment.
Breakthrough Victoria staff attended agrifood, climate finance, women's health and deep tech events, and joined the launch of agritech firm YieldX.
Breakthrough Victoria collects press coverage of Infleqtion's New York listing via a SPAC merger, which multiplied the fund's investment in the quantum company fivefold.
Breakthrough Victoria's release marks Infleqtion's New York Stock Exchange listing, the investor's first portfolio listing, and notes further quantum backing of Quantum Brilliance plus Infleqtion's Victorian operations and partnerships.
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Breakthrough Victoria's chief executive marks his first year, tallying 70 investments, university and fellowship programs, a Jumar Bioincubator grant with partners, and looks ahead to a consolidated Victorian innovation entity.
Recap of Breakthrough Victoria's end-of-year gathering in Docklands, where portfolio founders shared scaling stories and the investor noted its portfolio now spans 77 commitments worth $480.7 million.
Breakthrough Victoria's CEO reviews its 2024/25 year: growing capital base, strong co-investment leverage, portfolio milestones including Amber's $10m raise, first fellows awarded, and projected economic impact ahead.
Victoria's Breakthrough Victoria has committed $75m to five specialist VC funds covering climate tech, life sciences, female founders and healthcare, each pledging a quarter of its capital to local startups.
Breakthrough Victoria is putting $75 million into five venture capital funds, including Virescent, SYNthesis BioVentures, Scale and Galileo, each of which has pledged a quarter of its capital to Victorian startups.
Breakthrough Victoria has chosen three academic founders for its new fellowship, providing each with $150,000 to help commercialise research in mental health, IVF and skin cancer detection.
Breakthrough Victoria announces the first three fellows of its $7.5 million fellowship, giving each researcher $150,000 and support to turn research into startups in mental health games, IVF imaging and skin cancer detection.
Weekly roundup covering 19 Australian and New Zealand raises, headlined by Andromeda Robotics' $23m Series A, plus Freckle, Marloo, X-Hemp, Harvest B, Wable, Starboard and Techstars Sydney's 12-startup cohort.
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Harvest B, a Sydney-based protein maker, raised a $3.5 million pre-Series A with Mandalay Venture Partners leading and Breakthrough Victoria contributing $2 million, alongside a $2.2 million federal grant and a 2021 seed round.
Breakthrough Victoria's CEO sets out the fund's investment record and an EY report finding its portfolio delivers strong returns and economic impact for Victoria.
Two Victorian backers put a combined $2.25 million into three university spinouts pursuing biologics, antibody drugs and delivery devices, launching a new $15 million pre-seed vehicle.
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Weekly roundup: Breakthrough Victoria and Monash University co-invest $2.25 million across three university healthtech spinouts, while Blackbird backs Hall, which helps businesses win visibility on AI platforms, with $2 million pre-seed.
Also Startup Daily
Breakthrough Victoria and Monash University put joint pre-seed backing into three life-sciences spinouts and launched the $15m Monash Ventures pre-seed fund, part of a $100m platform commercialising Victorian university research.
The investor's site reports a joint pre-seed investment with Monash University totalling $2.25 million across three health startups, and the launch of Monash Ventures' $15 million pre-seed fund for research commercialisation.
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The fund's authors recap two climate-investment events, weighing the massive global capital needs, mixed public-private funding models, and its clean-economy portfolio activity in Victoria.
Citing AFR reporting, the publisher relays that the federal reconstruction investor is set to announce a stake in a glaucoma treatment developer, alongside venture co-funding, and plugs its June funding panel.
Agtech spin-out Gaia Project Australia has raised $1.7 million from Breakthrough Victoria, La Trobe University's Eagle Fund, Mandalay Venture Partners and LaunchVic to commercialise plant-spacing technology that lifts leafy green yields.
AgTech firm YieldX has attracted a $1.7 million round, with Breakthrough Victoria and La Trobe University's Eagle Fund contributing $500,000 apiece alongside Mandalay Venture Partners and LaunchVic's Hugh Victor McKay Fund.
Breakthrough Victoria's chief executive reflects on the sovereign fund's first four years, its university co-funding partnerships and OECD evidence that government venture capital works best alongside private investors.
Australian Catholic University signs on as the seventh university in Breakthrough Victoria's co-investment platform, with matched funding pledged; the article also recaps four earlier startup investments via Melbourne's Genesis Pre-Seed fund.
Navi Medical Technologies gained US FDA clearance for its Neonav catheter guidance system; the Melbourne firm, backed by Breakthrough Victoria, plans a capital raise later in 2025 to fund its American rollout.
Breakthrough Victoria, the Victorian government's $2bn investment fund, appoints Rod Bristow, previously Investible's CEO, as chief executive, succeeding inaugural CEO Grant Dooley. The article also recalls Seer Medical's administration.
Rod Bristow, lately of venture firm Investible, takes the top job at the Victorian government's investment fund Breakthrough Victoria, succeeding Grant Dooley, with COO Lauren Morrey having held the role meanwhile.
Breakthrough Victoria has appointed Rod Bristow, previously Investible's CEO, as its chief executive, citing a 33-company portfolio, over $300 million invested and $1.06 billion attracted from co-investors.
Breakthrough Victoria names Rod Bristow chief executive, citing his Investible and financial-services background, and outlines the fund's portfolio scale, co-investment record, and ambitions for patient capital and eventual exits.
Birchal appoints Crowdcube's founder Darren Westlake as strategic advisor and ex-Investible chief Rod Bristow as non-executive director, aiming to accelerate equity crowdfunding growth in Australia.