PAUL BASSAT
Co-Founder, Partner
Melbourne | AUS

BARRY BROTT
Co-Founder, Partner
Melbourne | AUS

LI-YING CHONG
Operations Manager
Sydney | AUS

BEN HENSMAN
Investment Associate
Melbourne | AUS

AMANDA HJORRING
Chief Operating Officer
Sydney | AUS

TONY HOLT
Co-Founder, Partner
Sydney | AUS

ARAD NAVEH
Partner
Tel Aviv | ISR

TUSHAR ROY
Partner
Sydney I AUS

Paul is a co-founder of Square Peg Capital. 

Prior to founding Square Peg, Paul co-founded SEEK in 1997 and served as Joint CEO from 1997-2011. SEEK is the world’s largest online employment business and has market leading businesses in Australia, China, Brazil, Mexico and throughout South-East Asia. 

Paul is a director of Wesfarmers Ltd and a Commissioner of the Australian Football League (AFL).  He is also on the board of Innovation Australia, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation and the P&S Bassat Foundation. Paul started his career as a lawyer and practiced for 6 years.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce from The University of Melbourne.

Barry is a co-founder of Square Peg Capital. He has substantial experience in early stage investment through working across the venture portfolio of Jagen Pty Ltd, a Melbourne-based family office. He now manages a number of Square Peg's investments.

Prior to joining Jagen and founding Square Peg, Barry headed corporate development and strategy at MYOB Limited, an ASX listed software company, and before then worked in corporate development at Village Roadshow Limited. Prior to his corporate roles, Barry held advisory positions at Merrill Lynch and the corporate finance and tax divisions of KPMG. 

Barry holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Economics from Monash University.

Ben joined Square Peg's Melbourne office in 2016. He is passionate about software businesses and technology more generally.

Prior to joining Square Peg, Ben was an Investment Analyst at Fidelity International in Sydney, covering investments in the telecommunications, media, software & technology sectors across A&NZ. Prior to that, he was an Analyst in Deloitte Brisbane's Corporate Finance team.

Ben holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from the University of Queensland, and has completed the CFA Level 1.

Justin is a co-founder of Square Peg Capital. He thrives on working with dedicated entrepreneurs focussed on building innovative technology-driven businesses.

In addition to Square Peg Justin is also Principal and Chief Executive at Jagen, a family office with investments across all major sectors. He brings >18 years experience in early stage investment in technology companies. Justin is actively engaged in venture and growth investing in Australia, US and Israel and is passionate about emerging trends and translating them into investment strategies.

Justin is a Social Capital investor in Adara Partners (www.adarapartners.org). Adara Partners is an innovative corporate advisory business that was established for the sole purpose of generating revenue to support people in poverty through the work of the Adara Group (www.adaragroup.org).

Justin holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Economics from Monash University.

Li Ying joined Square Peg’s Sydney office in 2016.

Li Ying was previously the COO of Asian hedge fund, CastleBay Capital Management and Operations Director at private equity company Mountain Pine Capital, both in Singapore, where she set up and oversaw compliance programmes and played a key role in engaging stakeholders, service providers and regulators.  Prior to that, she was a projects engineer at Singapore Airlines.

Li Ying has a Bachelor and Masters of Engineering from the University of Cambridge, where she studied aeronautical engineering, and has a Diploma in Compliance from the International Compliance Training Academy.

Tony is a co-founder of Square Peg Capital. 

He has deep experience in investment banking, corporate finance, M&A and capital raising gained in industry-leading global organisations. He has also worked in Melbourne, New York, Sydney and Asia and has breadth and depth of knowledge and experience doing business in and across different geographies.   
  
From 1991 through 2006, Tony was with Merrill Lynch in the Investment Banking division. He had experience in a wide range of Corporate Finance, M&A, and Capital Raising advice. 

From 2006 through 2008, Tony was a Managing Director at Citigroup’s Sydney Investment Banking Group and Head of its TMT business in Australia and New Zealand.

In 2008 Tony joined Macquarie Capital where he worked until co-founding Square Peg Capital.  While at Macquarie Tony held a variety of roles including co-head of TMT for Asia and Head of Principal Investments for Macquarie Capital Asia.
  
Tony holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne.

Amanda joined Square Peg in 2015 as its Chief Operating Officer. 

She has worked in the finance and funds industry for 20 years and has held a variety of senior management positions. 

Most recently Amanda was a principal of Taemas Group, a principal investor in private equity with a turnaround and opportunistic focus. Amanda was on the deal origination and execution team and was also responsible for the financials and tax structuring for the group.

Amanda has been a responsible manager and key person for AFSL licences including Taemas Funds Management Limited and Waltus Investments Australia Limited.

Prior to Taemas Amanda spent 7 years at Babcock and Brown heading the investment management team and then financing and developing structured property products. At Babcock she was actively involved in two ASX listed funds as a member of the audit and compliance committee and acting CFO.

Amanda holds Bachelors of Commerce and Laws from the University of Auckland.

Tushar focuses on early and growth stage tech companies in Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia. He has led investments for Square Peg in companies at stages seed through growth and serves on the Boards of several portfolio companies.

Tushar has a long-standing affinity to technology, having studied computer science, worked as a programmer and then obtained 10+ years of advisory experience in technology and growth. Prior to Square Peg, Tushar was a management consultant at BCG specialising in growth and tech, media and telco (TMT). Prior to that he was a lawyer at Baker & McKenzie focused on TMT.

Tushar holds a Bachelors of Computer Science and Law from the University of New South Wales and an MBA from INSEAD. He has lived in Australia, England, France, India and Singapore.

Dan has been with Square Peg since its inception, originally in the Australian office before moving to Tel Aviv in 2014 to establish and manage its Israel office.

He focuses on early and growth stage companies with a particular passion for B2B and marketplaces businesses.

Dan began his career as a management consultant before joining Paul (Square Peg co-founder) at SEEK in the Corporate Strategy team. Here he further developed his passion for technology driving not only the broad company strategy, but also supporting the core operational areas of the world’s largest online employment business. Dan has extensive expertise in corporate strategy, with a strong focus on internet and marketplace businesses across a range of industries.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne.

Arad joined Square Peg Capital in Israel in 2014. He has extensive operating and venture capital experience in Silicon Valley and Israel.

Arad brings 10+ years experience as a General Partner with Benchmark Capital, where he led numerous investments in the areas of enterprise IT, networking and internet infrastructure. Prior to Benchmark Arad was director of business development at Cisco, where he was responsible for Cisco's investment and M&A activity in Israel from 1999-2002. 

Arad was also founder and CEO of Class Data, which was acquired by Cisco in May 1998.

Arad holds a BSc Cum Laude in Electronics and Computer Engineering from the Ben Gurion University in Israel.

Eli Novershtern joined Square Peg’s Israel office as a Partner in 2016. He is a veteran of the Israeli venture capital industry, having previously served as a Principal at Pitango and an Associate at Canaan Partners, focusing on the fund’s Israeli investments.

Prior to joining Canaan Eli was a strategy consultant and team leader at Shaldor, where he created and helped implement business strategies for leading companies in IT, healthcare, and the consumer goods industries. His understanding of technology is rooted in the prestigious “Haman Talpiot” project, within which he served for six years as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

Eli holds an MPA degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Fischman Scholar, as well as an MSc in Management from the London School of Economics, where he was a Chevening Scholar. Eli holds a BA in Political Science, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he also graduated from the “Amirim” honors program.

Yuliya joined Square Peg's Boston office in 2017. She is dedicated to enabling entrepreneurs to succeed in solving business problems with the help of technology, with a specific interest in healthcare .

Prior to joining Square Peg, Yuliya was the Director of Strategic Initiatives at PillPack - a healthcare start-up in Boston, working to improve pharmacy using technology to enable a better experience. Prior to that, she worked as a consultant at Bain & Company and was a Senior Product Manager at Amazon.

Yuliya holds a Bachelors in Economics from Bryn Mawr College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Philippe is an investor in Internet-related businesses. He is based in Boston. He joined Square Peg as a Venture Partner in 2014 and became a Partner in 2015.

Philippe is passionate about supporting early stage companies to execute on their product and go-to-market strategies, especially in the areas of Internet of Things (connected health), consumer Internet and telecommunications. With over twenty years of experience as a senior executive in these markets, Philippe has a proven track record in developing companies toward high-revenue growth and profitability and in identifying new market opportunities.

In his previous role, he was President of Withings Inc., having previously been the founder and CEO of ooVoo, Divisional CEO at MRV Communications (NASDAQ: MRVC) and an officer in the Israeli Navy.

He holds a BSc. in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology and an MBA from INSEAD, the European Institute of Business Administration.

David Thodey is a Special Advisor to Square Peg Capital.

He is an innovative Australian businessman and an experienced board chairman and senior executive who offers expertise in management, corporate and government relations, information and communications technology, and sales and marketing. Mr Thodey was the CEO of Telstra from May 2009 to April 2015, and prior to that had a 22-year career with IBM, working in senior marketing and sales positions, including CEO of IBM Australia/New Zealand.

He is currently the Chairman of the Board of the CSIRO, and is also on the Board of the GSM Association and has more than 20 years' experience working in Asia. Former board memberships include co-chair of the Infrastructure and Investment Taskforce of the B20 leadership group, and Chairman of IBM ANZ, TelstraClear, Information Technology (IT) Skills Hub, Industry Groups and Basketball Australia. 

#1

OUTSTANDING TEAMS

#2

SOLVING PROBLEMS

Square Peg invests in the best opportunities we see globally. Our focus geographies are Australia and New Zealand, Israel, Boston and South-East Asia.

Our global partnership brings a differentiated knowledge base and perspective, allowing us to actively support and add value to portfolio companies.

Australia + NEW ZEALAND

Track record of outstanding tech businesses.

Rapidly growing tech ecosystem.

Dramatic shift in entrepreneurial activity, breadth + depth.

5 partners focused on region.
 

BOSTON

Deep links to Israeli ecosystem.

Focus on IoT / wearables.

Strong network within MIT community.

ISRAEL

Israel is a thriving, well-established tech market.

A unique entrepreneurial culture built up over decades.

Fully scaled ecosystem + extensive government support.

4 partners focused on Israeli entrepreneurs.
 

SOUTH-EAST ASIA

A massive, young, connected consumer market.

An exciting tech ecosystem at an inflection point.

Underappreciated economic prospects + change through technology.

PRINCIPLES.

#1

BE EXTREMELY RESPECTFUL OF ENTREPRENEURS, WHETHER IN OUR PORTFOLIO OR NOT

#2

ALWAYS ACT WITH INTEGRITY

#3

ALIGNMENT WITH OUR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

#4

INVEST WHERE WE HAVE STRONG CONVICTION AND CAN ADD VALUE

#5

DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO HELP OUR ENTREPRENEURS ACHIEVE THEIR VISION

If you wish to discuss your business with us, we recommend you try to find a "warm introduction" to one of our team members. Otherwise, you can submit your details here.