The thick plastic sheet currently encasing most Australian start-ups is begging to be pricked with a venture capitalists fork. It’s not secret that investment in the Australian start-up scene is very small, there are a few incubators in 2014 with more on the way, but relatively tiny amounts of capital with unfair terms.
Recently Australia was ranked 13th in Bloomberg’s Global Innovation Index which is a pretty stellar achievement for a country as small as ours.
Australia has always been at the forefront of innovation, rolling up your sleeves and getting things done without any help except from friends and family. Sadly in the tech space, times have changed and you can only get so far before you need some capital to go any further.
Not everyone has struggled of course, some known Australian start-up successes include:
- Atlassian
- Big Commerce
- Campaign Monitor
- Canva
- Envato
- Redbubble
- 99Designs
- GoCatch
- Parkhound
For all of the successes that the Australian market has shared, many struggle to get fair funding or a chance. The general consensus within the Australian startup community is to build a MVP, save your pennies and book a flight to San Francisco to have a shot at making it.
There certainly is no shortage of co-working spaces or incubators, in-fact, in many aspects the Australian start-up scene keeps on getting stronger despite the lack of funding. The Australian government needs to do more to prevent great startups leaving the country for San Francisco due to our archaic tax laws and lack of incentives.
There are definitely parallels to the Australian music scene being witnessed, we’ve had some well-known acts like the Bee Gee’s, ACDC and INXS, but most people fly under the radar.
It’s just going to take some time before the likes of Y Combinator come to Australia and start realising there is a relatively untapped diamond mind here in Australia of talent.
We are just waiting for the right person(s) to come along and pierce some holes in the plastic covering the scene to finally expose the greatness within.
