Excellent post, with which I agree. Particularly re- emerging VC practice.
However, the contrarian in me would wonder whether the VC industry has also become a bit of a "circle jerk" in ANZ. Characterised by:
1. Such events being about career progression - within the industry for junior folks, through knowing who has raised and needs new folks - a value add for them, but not about change
2. Everyone having a shared infrastructure - which is good and bad (good in that most of the LP proposals I receive are bog standard Ts and Cs). BAD in that there is little innovation in fund structure outside of crypto
3. Excluding most of the new means of capital formation - For instance, most of the major AU crypto early-stage investors are not part of this club
4. Domestic market deal focus - the major problem of traditional AU VC - they try to hoard local deals and are not well networked internationally (Sam Wong recent CA preso was a classic in this genre)
5. Fail to deal with international Day 1 startups - some sectors, such as defi, breed international startups. The AU VC sector is out to lunch in participating in these deals
6. The formal AU venture capital industry is largely protectionist - it wants deals that meet the EVSLCP guidelines - it may become a drag upon innovation
The wine analogy is appros since every region has their own regulatory micro-climate and you have to be most adroit at navigating the subtleties. As for the next level
a) co-operative route ... identify common infrastructure that all ANZ VCs need such as single regulatory sandbox (a la law of England/Wales) and that graduating from one country sandbox gives your presumptive tick in other commonwealth countries that support digital objects (xref UKJT report)
b) as a supporting plank to a) make better use of UK-NZ/AU-FTA (free trade agreements) to try and get a bigger "single" (for imperial meaning of singular) market ... then expand via ASEAN+2 (SG/Malaysia) / RCEP (+India ... China might be a bit of a strength)
c) improve valuation transparency by allowing different stage funds to rebalance portfolios and allow small fractions of ownership to be valued by wider market
Terrific challenges, Terry. Thanks. A few quick comments/questions:
1) This one was focused on partner level participation.
2) VCs share infrastructure???? Whaaaa? Who's doing that? Agree we need to innovate more on structure though. In my case, especially as venture funded deep tech companies need faster access to project financing for capex etc.
3) I don't know much about this.
4) I'd say this is not true for all. There was a LOT of international connection in the room.
Phil,
Excellent post, with which I agree. Particularly re- emerging VC practice.
However, the contrarian in me would wonder whether the VC industry has also become a bit of a "circle jerk" in ANZ. Characterised by:
1. Such events being about career progression - within the industry for junior folks, through knowing who has raised and needs new folks - a value add for them, but not about change
2. Everyone having a shared infrastructure - which is good and bad (good in that most of the LP proposals I receive are bog standard Ts and Cs). BAD in that there is little innovation in fund structure outside of crypto
3. Excluding most of the new means of capital formation - For instance, most of the major AU crypto early-stage investors are not part of this club
4. Domestic market deal focus - the major problem of traditional AU VC - they try to hoard local deals and are not well networked internationally (Sam Wong recent CA preso was a classic in this genre)
5. Fail to deal with international Day 1 startups - some sectors, such as defi, breed international startups. The AU VC sector is out to lunch in participating in these deals
6. The formal AU venture capital industry is largely protectionist - it wants deals that meet the EVSLCP guidelines - it may become a drag upon innovation
The wine analogy is appros since every region has their own regulatory micro-climate and you have to be most adroit at navigating the subtleties. As for the next level
a) co-operative route ... identify common infrastructure that all ANZ VCs need such as single regulatory sandbox (a la law of England/Wales) and that graduating from one country sandbox gives your presumptive tick in other commonwealth countries that support digital objects (xref UKJT report)
b) as a supporting plank to a) make better use of UK-NZ/AU-FTA (free trade agreements) to try and get a bigger "single" (for imperial meaning of singular) market ... then expand via ASEAN+2 (SG/Malaysia) / RCEP (+India ... China might be a bit of a strength)
c) improve valuation transparency by allowing different stage funds to rebalance portfolios and allow small fractions of ownership to be valued by wider market
Terrific challenges, Terry. Thanks. A few quick comments/questions:
1) This one was focused on partner level participation.
2) VCs share infrastructure???? Whaaaa? Who's doing that? Agree we need to innovate more on structure though. In my case, especially as venture funded deep tech companies need faster access to project financing for capex etc.
3) I don't know much about this.
4) I'd say this is not true for all. There was a LOT of international connection in the room.
5) Are you saying we don't see new trends?
6) Protectionist how?