Breakthrough Victoria provides a variety of funding delivered at the Research, Pre-seed, Seed, and Series A, B and C funding stages.

Investments can range from backing pre-revenue startups, to partnering with impact investors, to helping mature businesses to expand with impactful eight-figure investments.

Breakthrough Victoria’s investment programs are as follows:

Pre-seed

• Early-stage investment for proof of concept, pre-revenue and pre-mature prototype
• Typical investment up to $150,000

Venture Capital

• Direct equity investments in innovative businesses and follow-on from pre-seed program. VC investments help companies to grow until they are ready to scale, ensure Victorian companies can thrive in Victoria, and grow Victoria’s local capability to build new businesses
• Typical investment between $1 million and $15 million

Growth Capital

• Direct equity investments in mature businesses looking to expand existing innovative products/services into global and domestic markets
• Typical investment between $20 million and $40 million

Platform Fund

• Investment in core platforms across industry, universities and medical research institutes
• Typical investment of $25 million

Fund Investment

• Creating partnerships with impact investment funds to bring Breakthrough Victoria capital alongside other institutional and retail investors
• Typical investment of $25 million

Breakthrough Victoria Challenge

• Current challenge: Finding solutions to solar PV waste
• Up to $10 million

Breakthrough Victoria’s approach can be broken down into the following three areas:

Investment strategy

The Fund invests for:

• strategic impact
• technological, environmental and social impact
• delivering sustainable financial returns

Capabilities 

The Fund achieves its investment objectives by:

• connecting companies, research institutions, governments and investors
• injecting patient capital to spark ideas and grow businesses over the long term
• investing in ideas, people and businesses to create sustainable jobs in future industries

Breakthrough innovations

The Fund seeks to invest in innovations that:

• solve globally significant problems
• promote productivity
• create the industries of the future
• improve health and wellbeing
• generate sustainable returns for Victoria over the long term

The Fund has two high level investment objectives:

• Technological, environmental and social impact
• Financial sustainability

These priorities are supported by the following objectives:

Technological, environmental and social impact

Growing an ecosystem

• increase rate of IP commercialisation
• build strong networks
• fund technology innovation platforms
• create strategic industries

Strategic and social impact

• develop new sovereign capability
• accelerate investment to solve globally significant problems
• scale high-growth tech industries

Jobs and growth

• productivity growth
• economic growth
• future industries
• more jobs

Financial sustainability 

Sustainable investment model

• align profit and purpose
• deliver financial returns
• ensure Breakthrough Victoria is sustainable beyond the first 10 years

Breakthrough Victoria looks for the following capabilities in potential investee companies:

• Innovative products or services with the potential to grow
• Driven and talented teams with the skills and passion to achieve their goals
• Commercial and technical viability
• Investments that will deliver benefits to Victorians

The Fund also seeks to invest in organisations with market-led desirability, verifiable feasibility, and economic, social or environmental viability.

The Fund expects all investee companies to have co-investors, with Breakthrough Victoria typically not taking more than a third of an investment round. The Fund offers tiered investments to match the maturity of the investee organisation and its products.

Breakthrough Victoria invests in the following priority sectors:

• Clean economy
• Health and life sciences
• Agri-food
• Digital technology
• Advanced manufacturing

The Fund also focuses investment in key innovation and employment precincts:

• Arden Macaulay
• Bundoora
• Clayton
• Fishermans Bend
• Parkville
• Waurn Ponds

Significant opportunities generated elsewhere in Victoria may also be considered.

Research funding, Pre-seed and Seed funding are available to support basic research, translation and business planning. These investments target organisations in the translation valley of death.

Larger investments are offered as Series A, B or C funding rounds which assist with product development, commercialisation and expansion. These activities are typically undertaken in what is known as the scale-up valley of death.

See the Breakthrough Victoria Investment Plan for more details of funded stages.

The first step in the investment process is a Pitch Deck, which must address the following:

Problem / opportunity

• Outline the problem statement

Solution

• What makes your solution an innovative and how does it address the problem?

Market size

• How big is the market and how do you plan to enter the market?

Competitors

• How is your solution better than your competitors? Consider your defensible position and sustainable competitive advantage

Traction

• What progress have you made so far?

Business model

• How will your start-up be financially sustainable? Consider how you make money

Team background

• Why are you the winning team? Consider team’s relevant background

How will you have an impact in Victoria

Your funding ask from Victoria and what will the funding enable your startup to achieve

Breakthrough Victoria are looking for desirability, feasibility and viability. Successful applicants will demonstrate:

• purpose-driven founders and great teams
  
• a deep understanding of the problem
• breakthrough technologies or novel solutions
• a compelling market opportunity
• progress to date (traction) and how you plan to scale
• the impact your company will have on Victoria and the world

Pitch Decks are submitted via the Breakthrough Victoria website.

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