Uniseed and VentureCrowd partner in an Australian-first

 Industry and wholesale investors can now invest in the fast-tracking of Australian university and CSIRO research; enabling every Australian to support world-changing ideas

 

Sydney, Australia: 25 May 2021 – VentureCrowd, Australia’s leading equity crowdfunding platform for alternative assets, has partnered with Uniseed to secure funding for some of Australia’s most promising technology companies, built on excellent home-grown research. The Australian-first partnership will see university research ventures available for individual investment on VentureCrowd’s platform.

Backed by the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales and the CSIRO; Uniseed enables the higher education sector to commercialise research and technology that solves major industry challenges for global impact.

VentureCrowd CEO, Steve Maarbani, said that the partnership is a unique opportunity for wholesale investors to back Australian innovation, alongside one of Australia’s most established and respected venture capital firms.

“Uniseed is an industry leader in enhancing and advancing the commercialisation of publicly-funded research, and this collaboration provides a unique opportunity for investors to support companies that are solving some of the world’s biggest pain-points,” Mr Maarbani said.

“We are thrilled to be the first equity crowdfunding platform in Australia to support the commercialisation of university research in this way, and look forward to profiling Uniseed companies on the VentureCrowd website, as we work to democratise early-stage research investment.”

Uniseed CEO, Dr Peter Devine, said that the support from VentureCrowd would provide greater community engagement and support for the commercialisation of valuable intellectual property and research.

“Uniseed provides a bridge between universities and investors by providing companies with valuable seed funding in the early stages of development, and subsequent follow-on investment throughout the life of the companies. We are delighted to partner with VentureCrowd and engage with the wider investor community to back home-grown, cutting edge innovation,” Dr Devine said.

The first UniSeed deal to go live on the VentureCrowd site is for digital health company Cardihab. Cardihab is aiming to raise $2 million in Series A funding, in order to support channel expansion, ramp up enterprise sales, paid clinical trials and user acquisition of the platform. The company was spun out of the CSIRO in 2016 and current shareholders include Uniseed, Artesian Capital Management, Qld Cardiovascular Group, Stoic Venture Capital and CSIRO.

More information on the Cardihab capital raise can be found on the VentureCrowd website.

ENDS

About Uniseed
Uniseed is Australia’s longest running early stage commercialisation fund that makes investments in research emanating from five of Australia’s leading research organisations – The University of Queensland, The University of Sydney, The University of New South Wales, The University of Melbourne and the CSIRO. Uniseed is a mutual fund, owned by research organisations, for research organisations. The fund facilitates the commercialisation of its research partners’ most promising intellectual property and secures targeted investment in resulting products and technologies. Uniseed has supported 59 start-up companies to date, being the seed investor in most of these. For more information, visit: www.uniseed.com

About VentureCrowd
VentureCrowd is Australia’s leading equity crowdfunding platform with over 42,000 registered members; offering curated investment opportunities in high-growth private companies, diversified property development funds, property development projects and alternative credit. Having already raised over $117 million in total volume, VentureCrowd’s integrated proprietary technology platform has democratised access to crowdfunding opportunities; making them available to more investors. https://www.venturecrowd.com.au/s/