‘Small is beautiful’: Could Archangel’s $40m raise signal smaller funds are back?
With roughly half of $40m locked in, Archangel is betting the pre-seed and seed gap is a tailwind for small VCs.
Melbourne’s Archangel Ventures is raising its second fund, targeting $40 million to back Australian founders at pre-seed and seed — and managing partner Ben Armstrong says the firm has already locked in roughly half the target from existing investors.
The raise comes at a tricky moment for smaller Australian VC firms.
The country’s big three — Blackbird, Airtree and Square Peg — have each closed blockbuster funds in recent months: Blackbird secured $700 million in a first close for Fund 6 last September, Airtree raised $650 million for Fund 5 and Square Peg locked in another $650 million just weeks ago. For everyone else, the fundraising market has been far less hospitable.
Archangel’s three active partners — Armstrong, Rayn Ong and Andrew Cicutto — are raising the new fund without institutional backing.
As Capital Brief reported in January, 2025 was a hard year for a cohort of smaller VC firms — particularly those that raised $20–50 million funds during the 2020–21 boom and have struggled to raise a follow-on.
