Led · Seed · Mar 2022

Gathar operates an in-home dining marketplace—described in coverage as the “Airbnb of dinner parties”—that connects customers with private chefs, cooks, caterers and stylists for date nights, dinner parties, corporate events and weddings. The service was launched by Jodie Mlikota (with co‑founders Nicky Jurd and Kaj Haffenden) in Cairns and Port Douglas in 2018 and has grown from Far North Queensland to cover 27 locations across all Australian states and territories. The company reports a community of more than 180 chefs, cooks, caterers and stylists and a 330% increase in demand last year. Gathar says it has created thousands of dining experiences and has grown revenue and attracted investment despite pandemic and flood disruptions. The business plans to use new capital to scale the platform and team in Australia and to establish a US presence in California, with Michelin‑starred chef Curtis Stone joining as co‑founder of Gathar USA. The focus is on supporting chefs moving into private‑chef and creator‑economy models while expanding its marketplace internationally. Gathar operates a marketplace that connects private chefs with hosts to provide catered home dinner parties, letting hosts focus on entertaining rather than cooking. The platform was born from co-founder Jodie Mlikota’s frustration with cooking and the co-founders’ desire to use their amateur-chef skills more often. The founding team includes Jodie Mlikota, Nicky Jurd and Kaj Haffenden. As COVID-19 restrictions ease, the founders say friends and relatives are tentatively returning to house calls, creating renewed demand for home dining. Gathar recently raised $600,000 in seed funding amid this rebound. The product emphasizes convenience and social dining experiences by matching cooks to small private events.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2021

Founded in 2019 by Camille Socquet-Clerc and Bertrand Caron, Bloom operates a climate-focused mobile investment app that enables everyday Australians to invest in diversified portfolios of clean energy infrastructure and cleantech companies. The platform offers access to tangible companies and infrastructure projects across more than 50 climate solutions, and accepts minimum investments of $100. Bloom emphasizes a rigorous scientific method to avoid greenwashing and targets solutions with deep decarbonisation potential such as geothermal, wetland protection, metal recycling, and low-carbon cement. The company has attracted retail demand and reports $1.6 million in funds under management. Recent funding is earmarked for a business development hire and operational development to support growth. Bloom Impact Investing, founded in 2019, is a climate fintech building a retail mobile investing app that democratises impact investing by allowing Australians to invest from $500 into portfolios of renewable energy projects and cleantech companies. The app is beta testing on Android and Apple stores and was scheduled for public launch later in 2021. Bloom plans to set up a managed climate impact fund, grow its local team (aiming to double headcount), and provide a community and sustainable finance education alongside investment access. The platform sources climate solutions using decarbonisation models developed by ClimateWorks and Project Drawdown and targets investments such as solar farms, EVs, energy efficiency, regenerative agriculture and clean water. The business reports more than $3.5 million pledged on its waitlist, and it emphasises direct investor feedback on returns and carbon impact.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2021

Cubiko builds data analytics and reporting tools to help medical practices understand and optimise their performance through custom metrics and dashboards. The product includes features for favouriting metrics and a My Dashboard for practice-focused insights. The company has developed over 500 metrics and reports and says it now services more than 500 medical practices. Over the prior 12 months Cubiko achieved 300% customer growth and grew headcount from 4 to 16. Upcoming product work highlighted in the article includes Cubiko Multisite for aggregated reporting across multiple practices and MBS Benchmarking using government MBS data. The team is based in Queensland, Australia and the company emphasises security measures such as third‑party penetration testing, joining Xero’s App Partner program, and AWS infrastructure with multiple ISO certifications.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2020

Vaulta is a Brisbane start-up developing lithium-ion battery casings that incorporate graphene in proprietary composite materials. The company is commercialising a simpler manufacturing method for casings that reportedly reduces the number of parts by up to 75%. Its graphene composites produce a casing that is about 10% lighter while maintaining strength and safety. Vaulta's design eliminates cell tab welding and enhances passive cooling of battery cell terminals, which the founder says could improve reuse and enable second-life applications in smaller electric vehicles such as scooters and skateboards. Following a $320,000 capital raise, Vaulta hired four new staff, including ex-Tesla engineer Alan Zorkot, and is preparing to trial its methodology. Energy storage company RedEarth is participating as a pilot customer to test the new design.

Led · Seed · Jul 2016

Lawcadia is a Brisbane-founded digital platform for businesses and government departments to find, engage and manage outsourced legal counsel. Over the past year the company has raised $1 million in funding. That total comprises a $500,000 seed investment from Queensland-based ACAC Innovation and a $500,000 matched funding grant from the Queensland government’s Business Development Fund. The latest $500,000 grant comes from the government’s $40 million Business Development Fund and represents the fund’s first legal startup investment. According to founder and CEO Warwick Walsh, the $1 million raised has helped Lawcadia expand its team to 14 people and the company is looking towards global expansion. Lawcadia launched in February and provides a platform to bring transparency to the legal procurement process by helping businesses and government find, engage and manage outsourced legal counsel. The core product centralizes legal procurement and vendor management. The company says the legal industry is ripe for disruption, which it views as an opportunity for its technology. Lawcadia plans to use new funding to fuel expansion plans. Founder and CEO Warwick Walsh noted the seed raise process was executed quickly, with a decision to raise at the end of March and an aggressive target close date of June 30 that they managed to hit. Financially, Lawcadia has secured $500,000 in seed funding from a Queensland-based angel investment team.