🥊 Super fund vs startup
Hostplus helped grow the Australian VC sector to what it is today. So it was surprising to see Employment Hero, one of the country's most hyped startups, hit out at the super fund.
When it comes to startup funding in Australia, super funds like Hostplus and AustralianSuper are at the top of the funnel. Many Australians would be completely unaware that via their super savings they are effectively LPs in some of the country's most prominent venture capital funds, and therefore by extension, investors in many great Australian startups and tech companies.
So it was with some surprise that the ecosystem’s sugar daddy recently made a recommendation to government that it pass legislation that would hamper some startups in the interest of protecting its own turf.
Hostplus has been arguably the most enthusiastic investor in startups in the last cycle, both directly and indirectly via its status as an LP in Blackbird and Airtree funds. But in a recent submission to a Treasury review of the superannuation system it takes aim at employee onboarding software startups (which it refers to as Workforce Management Platforms or WMPs) for making recommendations around the “choice of fund, stapling and employee onboarding”.
Ben Thompson, CEO of one of Australia’s unicorns and biggest startup success stories Employment Hero, says that Hostplus is trying to prevent people from switching funds, and in a post on X went so far as to say “[Hostplus] wants to put [Employment Hero] out of business for being too good for members.”
