Purpose Ventures launched its early stage venture capital fund – with a little help from the WA Government – raising $37M earlier this year. Continued strong investor interest has added another $8M to a new total fund size of $45M. This has coincided with the announcement of its third investment into local female-founded WA startup, IDEAcademy.
The Purpose Ventures Fund has committed to investing at least 70% of its fund into WA-founded or operated companies. The $45M fund is one of the largest first-time funds to be established in Australia, with capital being raised during a year in which other funds across Australia and worldwide have struggled to attract new capital. The fund is made up entirely of West Australian investors with a focus on supporting the next generation of WA entrepreneurs and innovators.
In the Fund’s first six months, Purpose Ventures has received more than 160 applications for funding, with more than half of these coming from WA-based companies. Early investments included edtech company Paperly and healthtech company Plancare. The fund is also reporting a strong investment pipeline and is hoping to close a number of investments this side of Christmas.
Great IDEA
Purpose’s third investment is as lead on a $1.3M investment round, into local female-founded and led WA startup, IDEAcademy.
IDEAcademy was launched by two Perth-based educators Nicole Gazey and Rebecca Loftus in 2021 after their graduation from the Plus Eight 2020 accelerator program. IDEAcademy provides an alternative education pathway for students that want to focus more on entrepreneurial, innovation and creative skills.
“Having proved the model, this funding round will support their growth into new locations across Australia, beginning with the Peel region,” said Purpose Ventures General Partner, Kylie Gerrard.
With less than 1% of VC funding historically going into 100% female founded and led businesses in Australia, we are particularly excited to have this opportunity to back Nicole and Rebecca, as incredible female founders. Both Nicole and Rebecca are pursuing their ‘life cause’ of supporting the next generation of young entrepreneurs, creatives and innovators, by providing an alternative option to mainstream education for senior secondary-aged students and recent school leavers.
Purpose Ventures General Partner, Kylie Gerrard
“Nicole and Rebecca have demonstrated their passion and tenacity in successfully building IDEAcademy over the last two years, having seen strong market demand from parents and students who recognise that the more traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ education model, just doesn’t work for many students anymore. We are excited to help accelerate IDEAcademy’s capacity to provide their individualised project-based education to more students, utilising the capital and support of the Purpose Ventures Team,” she said.
IDEAcademy co-founder Rebecca Loftus said she was delighted with the investment, as the company and the fund had “great alignment”, and the funding would allow the business to scale.
“We’ve known the Purpose Ventures team for a number of years,” she said. “We already had great momentum since starting IDEAcademy almost two years ago and after our first investment round 18 months ago, were keen to raise further capital to allow us to accelerate our growth.
“As we open our second location, this capital will enable us to continue scaling and impacting the lives of students by adding capability to our team and expanding our locations.”
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