Advice for Startups Raising Capital in Victoria

Advice for Startups Raising Capital in Victoria | BOLD

Plenty of founders aren’t quite ready when they think they are — and Victoria has an unusually deep set of ways in. Once you are ready, the ecosystem itself is the advantage: most investors know each other, co-invest by design, and call each other before they call the founder back. The panel closes the episode on what to do if you’re not ready yet, and why Melbourne’s density compounds for founders who lean into it.

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Key Takeaways

•Many founders aren’t quite ready when they pitch. Investors will tell you what they’d need to see — that’s often where the relationship starts.
•Use the Victorian ecosystem. Pre-accelerators, accelerators, mentors, and self-guided online resources are real entry points, not consolation prizes.
•Co-investment is the default at pre-Series A. Most rounds need more than one fund.
•Investors in Victoria talk to each other constantly. Reference calls happen before founders realise.
•Density is the operating advantage. Bumping into a co-investor on the way upstairs isn’t an exception; it’s the model.
•A continuous top-of-funnel matters as much as growth-stage scale-ups. The whole stack runs on it.

What I really appreciate about this investor community is a real, frank conversation around why there’s no’s. We don’t necessarily need to agree that that is the deal-breaker, but it allows us to really challenge each other.

— Timothy Hui, Partner, Mandalay Venture Partners

Featured Investors

Rachael Neumann – Founding Partner at Flying Fox Ventures. Flying Fox is one of Australia’s most active early-stage venture capital firms. Former Amazon executive with deep operator experience. Rachael backs founders at eye-wateringly early stages, invests off-balance sheet to build conviction, and champions Victoria’s tight-knit startup ecosystem. Portfolio includes 70+ companies.

Justine Carzino – Investment Principal at OneVentures. Justine focuses on Series A to Series B investments and helps companies build go-to-market strategies for international expansion. She brings a sharp lens on founder-investor alignment and long-term partnership over the 10-year fund lifecycle. OneVentures is one of Australia’s leading venture capital and growth equity firms.

Timothy Hui – Partner at Mandalay Venture Partners. Mandalay is a thematically focused fund investing in agri-food technology across Australia and Southeast Asia. Engineering background with a first-principles approach to startup evaluation. Timothy takes board seats selectively and brings deep commercial networks and governance expertise to early-stage portfolio companies.

Rohan Workman – Co-Founder & CEO at Skalata Ventures. Skalata invests at the pre-seed and seed stage across a portfolio of 80+ companies. Former accelerator leader with a practical, founder-first approach to early-stage support. Rohan is known for direct advice, strong co-investor relationships, and building the infrastructure that helps founders move from chaos to structure.

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