March 21, 2022

2021 wrapped: a record-breaking year for fundraising and growth

A record-breaking year for many companies in the portfolio, 2021 was another for the history books.

Kate Stannett

December 23, 2021

2021 wrapped: a record-breaking year for fundraising and growth

A record-breaking year for many companies in the portfolio, 2021 was another for the history books.

Kate Stannett

A record-breaking year for many companies in the portfolio, 2021 was another for the history books.

Snapshot

⚡️ Total capital invested: US $300 million 🚀 New portfolio investments: 14 startups (Pluang, Vow, Joyous, Neara, OnLoop, ZeroCo + 9 in stealth) 👏 Follow-on investments: 17 companies 💌 Capital returned to investors: US $170 million ✌️ New team members: 14 🌏 IPOs/SPAC/Acquisitions: 4 🐣 New babies: 2

Investment spotlight

There's no doubt about it: the community of founders we work with are truly exceptional. And it's worth noting that the headlines, fundraising stats and growth metrics are the output of the real work that goes on behind the scenes—the immense grit, creativity and joy which our portfolio founders and their teams bring to their work every day. We see their work in high-fidelity, up-close and are fortunate to work with them all.

Square Peg came early, and looked at a non traditional business with fresh eyes. I didn't expect them to support us for so long, but they kept investing in every round until the very late stages - supporting the company in the good and the bad times. The team is a down to earth, extremely professional group of people, who's fun to work with and sees beyond the hype.

  • Bruce Buchanan's Rokt made history this year announcing a AUD$458m Series E raise, making them the third most-valuable private Australian tech company. This record-breaking fundraise comes as the team prepares for an IPO in 2023.
  • Airwallex cracked the $5b valuation mark, raising USD$200m in Series E round, and another USD$100m in their Series E1.
  • Canva raised $200m earning a valuation of USD$40b.
  • We led Vow’s AUD$6m Seed round, joining founders George and Tim on their mission to make sustainable food both irresistible and available to billions of people. James explored the cellular meat revolution and our investment thesis in his investment notes.
  • We led Pluang’s USD$55m Series B round. Read Tushar Roy's investment notes where he details the incredible ambition of the team to seize an opportunity to empower a generation in Indonesia to create wealth via investing.
  • FinAccel, on a mission to bring affordable credit to SEA markets, announced their decision to go public on NASDAQ via a merger with Victory Park Capital’s SPAC. The team also partnered with Standard Chartered Bank to offer BNPL to Indonesian customers.
  • Southeast Asian realty company PropertyGuru announced their decision to go public via Bridgetown 2 Holdings’ SPAC.
  • Tomorrow.io announced their decision to go public via SPAC merger with Pine Technology Acquisition Corp. This came after a rebrand and a USD$77m Series D funding round.
  • We joined Daniel Danilatos and the Neara team on their mission to bring infrastructure to the digital world, leading their AUD$7.25m Series A. James Tynan wrote up his investment notes.
  • Aidoc raised USD$66m in their Series C round. The funding going towards expanding their platform to support the most innovative health systems and radiology practices around the world with Aidoc’s latest Always On AI.
  • Business banking alternative, Zeller launched their all-in-one payments and financial services product and raised AUD$50m. The team also recently announced that 10’000 businesses have switched to the platform since May.
  • Q-CTRL announced its USD$25m Series B led by Airbus Ventures. The team are on a mission to build the world’s most advanced quantum control software, enabling engineers, developers, and researchers to build stable, reliable quantum computers and quantum sensors.
  • Athena set a new record for the largest capital raise completed entirely from local venture funds. They raised AUD$90m breaking their own record in the process.
  • We led Joyous’ NZD$15m Series A round. Joyous is an employee feedback SaaS tool designed for large corporates with thousands of employees. Barry Brott wrote up his investment notes exploring the opportunity.
  • We led Zero Co’s AUD$6m Series A raise and joined Mike and the team on their mission to untrash the planet by giving single-use plastic the flick. As part of their raise, Zero Co also set a record-breaking community powered $5m fundraise through crowdsourcing site, Birchal.
  • UpGuard, the cybersecurity management company helping businesses to manage security risks across their supply chain, raised their AUD$19m Series B.
  • Amber Electric raised AUD$20m with Commonwealth Bank. A massive milestone for the team, we are looking forward to a world where all homes are powered by 100% renewable energy.
  • Retrain.ai raised a further USD$7m in their USD$20m Series A raise. The funds will be used to expand in the US and hire key talent.
  • Doctor Anywhere, on a mission to use technology and innovation to transform the way people access healthcare, raised S$88M (US$65.7M) in series C fundraising, bringing the total raised to more than US$100 million.
  • Sternum raised USD$27m in their Series B from Spark Capital just one year after their $6.5m Series A which we were proud to lead. The new funding will be used to triple the size of their already world leading data and engineering teams.
  • We co-led OnLoop's USD$5.5m Seed raise with MassMutual Ventures. OnLoop make teams better by turning reflection and feedback into insights that drive actionable learning.
  • This list doesn't include startups in stealth.

Long-reads

We sent 45 newsletters as part of the All Signal Series, a weekly wrap full of original long-form content, insights, news and job openings at our portfolio companies. You can subscribe here. Below is a list of the most popular deep-dives.

"Finally, a VC newsletter that doesn't suck. I genuinely feel smarter."

Audio

We were joined on the 5* rated Founders Stories Podcast by founders from across the globe. Each episode is a 45m dose of storytelling, industry expertise and fundraising advice from the founders at the very cutting-edge of new technology and company building.

"Listening to these podcasts I feel like I am around the table at a founder’s dinner... privy to intimate stories of where each came from, what drives them, the keys they have found to success and the gifts from failure."

Proud moments

Team news

We announced plans to build the Global Tech Fund, a fund specialising in listed technology investments, which we successfully launched earlier this year. We believe there is real advantage in investing across all stages and compounding knowledge up and down the company lifecycle for the benefit of our team, our investors and the founders that we back.

We were also busy hiring, and have grown the team to find, invest in and help more companies. We welcomed eight brilliant new colleagues and expanded our raft of intern programs.

Thank you to our community for another exceptional year building together. Here's to 2022!