SEPTEMBER 13 2022

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Welcome to Edition V of Blast OIF, a monthly(ish) roundup of what’s been happening across the OIF portfolio.

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We thought the first half of 2022 was a big start to the year, but it looks like we are continuing to blast off with new investments, follow-ons, opportunities and events to see our founders’ ambitions amplified! Since our previous edition, our portfolio companies have continued to soar to new heights, so we’ll also be shining the spotlight on their achievements and recognising their recent successes.

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OIF Ventures Fund III

We’re thrilled to announce the close of OIF Ventures Fund III, which was oversubscribed at $140 million, up from our initial target of $100 million.

Our investors include some of Australia’s leading founders, entrepreneurs, business builders and family offices and excitingly, include many of the founders that we have backed through Fund I and Fund II – something that we are very proud of.

As long-term partners and investors, we’re confident that exceptional founders will continue to launch exceptional businesses and that OIF Ventures will be in their corner every step of the way.

Read more about this milestone in the Australian Financial Review.

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Big News

We are excited to welcome Stuart Low and the entire Biza.io team to the OIF portfolio, co-leading their Series A round.

As the Consumer Data Right becomes an increasingly integral part of the Australian economy, Biza plays a crucial role in supporting this ecosystem. Biza’s SaaS solution provides data holders with a platform that is easily implemented and entirely compliant with the complex CDR regulatory guidelines, helping businesses accelerate their open data capability. Biza’s products work to reduce the costly burden to implement and manage compliance on an ongoing basis.

As the CDR regime expands across an increasing number of industries, we’re excited to be partnering with Stuart and the entire Biza.io team.

Read more in our investment note and in the Australian Financial Review.

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Following On

After first backing Godfrey Dinh and the Futurerent team in 2020, we are thrilled to be continuing our support backing them again, this time leading their Series A round.

Fintech lender Futurerent is unlocking capital for property owners that quite simply wasn't available before. One of the largest barriers preventing property investors from creating wealth and increasing their rental yield, is access to capital. The current options available such as personal loans and refinancing are expensive, slow, painful and unreliable. Futurerent allows landlords to access up to $100,000 of their rental income in advance, whenever they want it, for a simple fixed annual fee.

We invested early and are excited to be doubling down to continue backing this exceptional founder and opportunity!

Read more in our investment note and in the Australian Financial Review.

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Continuing to Kick Goals

OIF-backed Bare Cremation have achieved an incredible milestone closing its $10M Series A round.

Bare is a technology-enabled ‘end of life’ platform, including cremation and memorial services, pre-paid services, online wills, powers of attorney and estate planning. By combining empathy with technology, Bare ensures end-of-life planning is as personal, simple and affordable as possible for individuals and families.

We’re delighted to be backing Bare as they continue to help thousands of Australian families that have lost a loved-one.

Read more in the Australian Financial Review.

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Making Headlines

• Advanced Navigation recently featured on 9News discussing their miniaturisation of laser technology, that is set to become the first piece of Australian technology to reach the moon
• D-ID featured on i24News, sharing how it’s AI technology is currently being used for social good, including social awareness campaigns, anti-violence activism and education
• Bare Cremation, Mastt and Vouch have all been named by The Daily Telegraph as one of Australia’s top 50 start-ups
• Kasada have been named as one of Australia’s best workplaces to work by Great Place to Work
• Neara was named as one of the top 30 Software Innovators in Electrifying Everything by Energize Ventures
• D-ID featured in Forbes, discussing how their AI videos will change how companies communicate with their workers
• Enboarder has won a Bronze Stevie Award in the HR Technology Solution Provider of the Year category and have also been featured as Best Employee Onboarding Software for Optimising your Onboarding process by Zapier
• Bridgit and Futurerent have both been nominated as a finalist in the ‘best innovation in proptech’ category for the 7th Annual FinTech Awards - 2022
• Bridgit CEO and Co-Founder Aaron Bassin recently sat down on Sunrise to share how Bridgit is helping Aussies access the perfect property without having to sell their current property first
• Kasada featured on Ticker News to discuss the dangerous impact of ‘Solver Service’ bots and how Kasada’s new product release is combatting this
• Go1 have been listed as a finalist in the 2022 Employer of Choice Award (Enterprise to Corporate) category at the Women in Technology Awards

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New Partnerships

• Amaka have extended it’s partnership with leading wholesale food order management platform Foodbomb, to facilitate the official MYOB integration
• Go1 recently announced its partnership with Halo Feedback, that will allow both Go1 and Halo Feedback to achieve their common goal of empowering workers in their careers

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Where we’ll be this month

OIF investors Anna Osipov-Heyman and Oliver Darwin, will be joining leaders from Stripe, Black Sheep Capital, Ten13, AWS and Rampersand at the Brisbane Startup Bootcamp, for in-depth conversations on growing and scaling your startup. This day is for startup leaders to access off-the-record stories, practical advice, and strategies for scaling.

This is not something to be missed – Register here

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Our Community

Over the past few months, the OIF Ventures team have participated in and organised some great events.

Just last month we participated in The Giant Warm Intro, run by Rampersand and AWS Startups, aimed at levelling the playing field in tech investment. Along with some of Australia’s other leading VC investors, we were able to connect with some of the 320 early-stage Aussie and Kiwi founders who attended.

We also held a great event, partnering with AWS startups to bring together some eager founders looking to accelerate their funding journey for an incredible session led by Partner and Co-Founder of OIF Ventures David Shein. David provided insight into how to raise capital in the current market and the key inputs that founders should follow when raising their next round.

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Join the team

Do you want to partner with and back exceptional founders every day, empowering them to realise their dreams? Are you looking to deep dive into the world of venture capital?

We’re hiring and are on the lookout for an Investment Analyst to join our growing and ambitious team.

If venture capital is your passion and early-stage start-ups your interest, then this is an exciting role for you!

Some of your responsibilities will include:

• Identifying high potential investment opportunities
• Conducting due diligence on potential investment opportunities and preparing investment committee papers
• Adding material value to and assisting our portfolio companies
• Reviewing and analysing financial data, metrics, and reporting from our portfolio companies
• Participating in eco-system events such demo days/nights, networking events, panels and more

Read more about this exciting role here.

We believe we’re building something very special, are a great team and are championing incredible founders who are building the future.

Think you fit the bill or know someone who does? Send us a CV and brief cover letter expressing your interest to oliver@oifvc.com or apply here.

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Top Jobs

There are some incredible opportunities going across the OIF portfolio, so if you know of someone exceptional who would be a good fit, encourage them to apply or reach out to our team to learn more.  

Be sure to check out our jobs board with over 200 jobs going across the portfolio! If you’re thinking of a new career in 2022, sign up to our talent network to keep up to date with the latest opportunities.

• Enboarder is looking for various roles across the US, India, Australia and the UK
• Bridgit is hiring a Credit Manager, Inbound Sales Associate and Senior Mortgage Credit Analyst
• Advanced Navigation is looking for a Photonics Engineer
• Circle In is hiring a Product Designer (UX/UI)
• Assignar is looking for a Senior Software Engineer

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We're seeing and investing in some exceptional founders of early-stage technology companies. So please reach out if you're creating something iconic, we love to partner with exceptional people building something special that we can all be proud of!  

Thank you for reading the latest edition of Blast OIF.  

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Until next time ...  

The OIF Ventures team