💰 Super squeeze
Super funds, once vital to local VC growth, now face disincentives as tough regulations discourage investing in riskier ventures with higher potential returns.
When Neil Stanford was head of the private equity and venture capital at Hostplus, he made an investment in the then-emerging VC firm Blackbird. Through that investment, Hostplus got exposure to Canva.
Hostplus then bought more equity in Canva through a secondary share sale from Paul Bassat's Square Peg. “All up, we invested $88 million,” Stanford told Capital Brief. “By the time I left Hostplus, at the end of 2021, that had grown to one and a half billion.”
Stanford, who now consults for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, is credited with introducing venture capital to Hostplus when he joined in 2014 and established the $400 million direct co-investment program at the super fund.
That and other investments by super funds into Australian modern venture capital over 10 years ago are regarded as the breakthrough moment for local VC, and even the very reason it exists today. The country’s highest-profile funds — Blackbird, AirTree Ventures and Square Peg — are majority-backed by the likes of Hostplus, Aware and AustralianSuper.
