Startup network Innovation Bay secures $700k to fund membership drive
The strategic investment is the group’s first external capital injection since its formation in 2003.
Innovation Bay, Australia's longest running networking community for VCs and startups, has secured $700,000 in fresh funding round as it looks to more than double its membership in the next three years.
The community – which was formed over two decades ago as a “loose meet-up group”, according to co-founder Ian Gardiner – turned to its membership for the debt investment.
“Funding rounds can be fiddly, painful, distracting, and everything else,” Gardiner told Capital Brief. “This one was fairly lightweight. We literally went out to a small handful of our members and I think pretty much all of them turned round and said ‘yeah, I’ll support you.’ One of them called it community service.”
Those members include Blackbird Ventures co-founders Rick Baker and Niki Scevak, Airtree Ventures co-founder Craig Blair and Tidal Ventures founder Grant McCarthy. They were joined in the round by angel investors Charles Carnegie, Andrew Sypkes, Jason Geogratos and William Scheer.
