The who’s who of the Australian VC scene (Shearwater Capital)

Next up in our VC series: Shearwater Capital

Shearwater Capital are one of the real unique VCs in Australia who punch well above their weight.

I’ve gotten to know the team quite well over recent years, and am formally a Scout helping connect great Founders looking for capital.

What stands out to me is the experience of the partners, who are all former tech, media, and software founders themselves. They bring this experience to how they support Founders, which I think is a huge value add for their portfolio companies.

Finally, the Shearwater Capital partnership invest all their own money into the startups they back, meaning you’ll receive very high levels of skin-in-the-game when it comes to the investor-founder relationship.

If you fit the profile below, hit me up and I can make a warm intro to the team.

The snapshot:

⌛ Year Founded: 2018

💰 Latest Fund Size: ~$100 million

✍️ Cheque Size: $500k to $5 million

😎 Key Team: Zac Zavos is the Managing Partner and a Founding Partner alongside Michael Gregg, with Matthew Parbhu joining the Partnership last year. Other notable people include Charles Gibbon, who was a Founding Partner of the firm.

🦄 Notable Portfolio companies: Lyka, Nexl, Sitemate and Refundid. They’ve also made a few recent early-stage bets with Capital Brief and EvenBetter.ai.

🙌 What makes them unique: A small, tight partnership with a ton of entrepreneurial experience that they bring to their portfolio companies.

👎 Why Shearwater may say no: While the team has made a few early-stage investments, Shearwater often invest off the back of proven traction where companies have found broad product market fit and are then looking to scale. While the team are open to meeting good founders at all company stages, it’s rare that they make investments until they see that momentum.

🚫 Why should you not take their money: If you’re a Founder looking for a passive investor to sit on the sidelines, Shearwater are unlikely to be the right investment partner for you. They often get hands on with portfolio companies, taking board seats and really try to help Founders win. You’ll be getting investment from a true partner.

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KC Ventures is running a regular series spotlighting many of Australia’s top Venture Capital firms to help founders understand which investor is right for their startup.

Follow my page for further updates in the coming weeks!

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