The Venture Codex

Led · Series A · Aug 2018

VendorPanel was founded in 2008 and first launched in 2010. The company is based in Melbourne, Australia and provides a procurement platform for government and enterprise in Australia and overseas. Its platform is used by 1,235 government bodies, universities, utility companies and corporate organisations to manage over $2.4 billion in low-value procurement. VendorPanel raised AUD$2.35m in a Series A round and intends to use the funds to accelerate growth, extend product development and expand into new international markets. Following the investment, Justin Lipman of Microequities Venture Capital Fund will join the VendorPanel board.

Led · Series A · Mar 2018

Biteable offers a template-driven online video builder with a library of 1.8 million pictures, clips and animations and hundreds of in-house animation scenes. The product targets reusable business video assets (explainers, marketing, product pages) rather than short-lived social clips, with typical videos between 30 seconds and 3.5 minutes. Biteable licenses content from Unsplash and Storyblocks and releases hundreds of scenes per month to keep its library fresh. The company operates a freemium subscription model (free tier with watermark; $19/month single user; $49/month professional plan; custom pricing available). Combined free and paid users exceed six million and they create roughly 100,000 unique videos per month, a figure that about doubled over 2020. With the new funding the company plans to hire and continue product development to scale the business. Biteable operates a freemium online video maker used by major brands and SMBs to produce ads, infographics, animations, explainer videos and presentations. The platform offers a free tier and a subscription option priced at $99 USD per year. Today nearly 3 million people use the online video maker. The company plans to use new funding to drive further global growth of the platform. Management intends to hire up to 50 new employees across development, design, marketing and copywriting this year. Biteable was founded to serve a global user base with simple, template-driven video creation tools. Biteable offers a template-driven online platform that allows users to produce professional promo videos quickly, with a watermarked free tier and a US$99 option to remove the watermark. The company has seen rapid user growth—over 90,000 customers have created more than 100,000 videos, with over 24,000 users joining in the last month alone. Founded in 2013 and based in Hobart, Biteable serves a mix of small businesses, schools and Fortune 500 companies, and most of its users are overseas. The new funding will be used to expand the team (including adding two local developers), further develop the product, and broaden the video content available to users. Management is considering changes to pricing, including introducing subscription plans to address heavy-use customers, while continuing to offer a free product that drives traffic via the watermark.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2018

Mad Paws is a Sydney-based marketplace for pet services that enables pet owners across Australia to book local, vetted and insured pet sitters and dog walkers. Launched in November 2014 by Alexis Soulopoulos, Jan Pacas, Rolf Weber, Justus Hammer and Bjorn Behrendt, the platform lists 15,000 approved sitters and dog walkers. To date, 300,000 pets have been registered on the platform. The company offers a vetted, insured local-sitter booking experience through its marketplace. Mad Paws recently completed a $5M Series A funding round. The new funds will be used to enhance the company's technology and customer support processes. Mad Paws operates a marketplace that helps pet owners find local, vetted pet sitters across Australia. Launched in November 2014 and based in Sydney, the service lists more than 3,500 verified pet sitters and was reporting about 50% month-on-month growth. The platform is also available via a mobile app launched in June. The company was co-founded by Alexis Soulopoulos (CEO), Jan Pacas, Rolf Weber, Justus Hammer and Bjorn Behrendt. Mad Paws raised $1.1M in venture funding to ramp up marketing and grow the team.

Led · Series A · May 2017

Practice Ignition offers an all-in-one client engagement and commerce platform that integrates digital proposals, payments and automated workflows with apps such as Gusto, Xero, QuickBooks and Zapier. Founded in 2013 by Guy Pearson and Dane Thomas, the company was created to modernize manual processes and reduce late payments for accountants and other professional service providers. The business nearly doubled client revenues facilitated via its platform in 2021 and reports more than 1 million clients across six markets with over $2 billion in client revenue under management. Practice Ignition intends to expand globally, focusing on growth in Asia, North America and EMEA and broadening its customer base into other professional services like marketing and consulting. The company is establishing a new R&D team in Toronto and pursuing strategic partnerships with Gusto, Intuit and Thompson Reuters to accelerate U.S. market expansion. Recent capital will be used to further product development, marketing and sales capabilities to support that scale. Practice Ignition provides a client engagement platform and front‑office system of record that helps accountants and bookkeepers create proposals, collect payments, manage scope and derive business insights. The product automates dynamic workflows, payment collection and client acceptance via a single digital signature. The company plans to use the new financing to deepen investment in its proprietary product and technology and to accelerate global growth. Practice Ignition supports over 225,000 clients globally and has offices in Australia, the USA, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. It has been named to the Deloitte Fast 50 in 2019 and 2020 and is consistently ranked among the most loved apps by Intuit and Xero customers. The company is backed by Tiger Global Management, Right Click Capital and Equity Venture Partners. Practice Ignition provides a cloud software solution that helps accountants and bookkeepers manage their practices, create digital contracts, and connect those contracts to workflow, invoicing and payment systems to create transparency. The platform automates time-consuming work to give professionals more time to focus on clients. The company says it now services over 1,500 firms in Australia and another 1,500 firms across the globe. Its team has doubled from 30 to 60 people since 2017. Practice Ignition plans to use the new funding to expand its specialist team, deepen relationships with its rapidly expanding global customer base, and deliver product enhancements via an innovation arm. Financially, the company completed a AU$26 million Series B round led by Tiger Global Management. Practice Ignition is a SaaS accounting platform that automates elements of the accounting process and offers accountants an easy way to manage work in the cloud. Launched in 2011 and based in Sydney, the company serves roughly 1,000 accounting firms and helps complete accounting work for over 40,000 small businesses globally. The platform processes about $100 million in payments annually and generates over 50% of its revenue from overseas markets. The company plans to ramp up product and marketing in key markets and expand its team, targeting a headcount increase from 30 to about 60 over the next two years. Target overseas markets named include the United States, Canada and the UK. Practice Ignition positions itself as a cloud-first, international-focused B2B SaaS solution for accountants and small business owners. Practice Ignition provides a cloud platform that helps accountants streamline client interactions and practice workflows. The company was formed in 2012 and is led by founder Guy Pearson, a former accountant who also runs Interactive Accounting. Practice Ignition has raised $650,000 in seed funding to expand its development and business teams. Investors named in the round include MYOB co-founder and early Xero investor Craig Winkler, New Zealand software developer Trineo, several accountants, and Xero’s vice president of payroll Stuart McLeod. Founder Guy Pearson said the company aims for all accountants across Australia to be able to use the platform by the end of fiscal 2014. The investors were people Pearson met through his previous venture.