Paul Bassat’s announcement last week of the launch of a new democracy initiative called Amplify generated a lot of buzz (and a little bit of derision) in startup and venture capital circles. Bassat is after all one of the elder statesmen of Australian venture capital and remains Australia’s most high-profile founder-turned-VC, so any moves he makes piques a lot of interest.
It has also provided a timely opportunity for Sweat Equity to check in on Bassat’s venture capital fund Square Peg (which he reassured us was his ‘first love’) and the many ways it is forging a different path to its peers.
Square Peg is one of the big three of Australian VC, alongside Airtree and Blackbird, and manages approximately USD3 billion ($4.5 billion) in assets, with about 85% of its investments in SaaS, AI and fintech.
All three funds were founded around the same time, and all three were early investors in Canva.
