The March Q 2019 was massive for Startup and Tech Funding but is investment growth slowing?
Techboard is pleased to present its latest startup and young tech funding report for the quarter ending 31 March 2019. This quarter on the lead up to the Australian Federal Election we decided to do more analysis of our numbers than usual for our ‘minor’ reports and we identified a number of trends that may provide some cause for concern.
During the March quarter 2019 Techboard identified over 150 funding events across a broad range of funding types ranging from accelerator program funding, acquisitions, equity crowdfunding, major debt instruments (sometimes called venture debt), grants, coin offerings, initial public offerings, ASX placements and private investment (including angel, VC and other large-scale private investment). The report reveals funding events for Australian startups and young tech companies totalling $2.697b during the March 2019 quarter, the largest quarter for funding yet since Techboard began producing its reports.
- Victorian company PEXA had the largest acquisition with over $1.6 billion,
- Largest private investment with the $100m USD ($141m AUD) Series C raise by Airwallex.
- The largest reported debt was the $250m debt financing by Victorian Fintech Moula.
- The largest equity crowdfunding raise (a new record) was by Victorian-based female ridesharing service Shebah which raised $3m on the Victorian-based Birchal platform.
- The only crypto-currency/token funding event was for Victorian-based lifestyle payment platform Liven, which raised $14m in its coin offering (so described by Liven as the company had already raised capital and had been operating for some time).