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Tidal Ventures | Atlassian and Yahoo Veterans Join US-Based VC Investor to Launch Australian Seed Fund That Backs Product-Led Companies Going Global
- Published May 03, 2020 12:00AM UTC
- Publisher Wholesale Investor
- Categories Company Updates
Tidal Ventures is a Seed stage venture capital fund that invests behind product-led founders bound for international markets. The Tidal team brings together operator and investor experience, with a combined 30 years of working in the venture capital sector and operational experience at global tech companies such as Atlassian and Yahoo.
The fund is headquartered in Sydney with a US office in New York.
Experienced Seed-Staged Investors
Tidal Ventures is raising the team’s 2nd Fund. The 1st fund is 3 years old and fully invested. It includes investments such as PredictHQ (which recently raised a USD 22 million Series B from US investors), Shippit (which recently launched in Southeast Asia and will be raising a Series B this year), SocialSuite and Frankie Financial.
Targeting 25% IRRs and 4x Cash on Cash Returns, Net of Fees
The life of a Seed investment is 7-10 years though it is the Fund’s priority to commence capital distribution in years 4-6 and drive successful exits as efficiently as possible. Fund 1’s track record has repeatedly demonstrated the opportunity to exit through secondary sales in later stage rounds.
GP Team Combines Operational, Product and Investment Experience
Executives roles held at Atlassian, Inference, Broadsoft and Yahoo for a combined 20 years along with more than60 years of investment experience at Macquarie, Industry Funds Management, UBS, Bailador Investment Management, and BOOST&Co. Founder with successful exit to US parent.
ESVCLP
The Fund is structured as an Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership, providing Investors with certain tax benefits (contingent on the fund maintaining unconditional approval with Innovation Australia). Most notable, investors are exempt from tax on income & capital gains generated by the Fund on all Eligible Investments.
Product-led growth focus
Companies that are product-led in their growth are able to demonstrate value to customers before closing the sale, driving a premium valuation for the Fund’s assets and minimizing the capital required to go global. The team’s deep product engagement with the portfolio helps unlock this potential.
International Presence
One of the General Partners in the Fund is permanently located in the New York office, which acts as a launchpad for companies expanding into the US and plays an active role in supporting founders through strategic initiatives (fundraising, partnerships). The US office has an established network of co-investors and opportunistically sources global deal flow.
1st Investment Completed April 2020
The Fund closed its first Seed investment in Sajari Pty Ltd, a proprietary enterprise search engine for sites & ecommerce stores. Sajari has demonstrated impressive revenues without a sales team and circa 50% generated in the US. It is headquartered in Surry Hills with a small office in California.
Tidal Expert Network (#ten)
#ten ‘codifies’ the professional networks of the Tidal team to enable Founders to seamlessly search & access valuable expertise in the form of interim C- suite positions, mentors, advisors, board directors, investors and full-time executive hires. #ten is available only to the Founders within the portfolio.
Tidal Venture Platform
A suite of tools and playbooks that helps scale the Tidal team and accelerate the maturity of the portfolio. It includes tools for Deal Assessment and On-boarding as well as Growth Staging, Product Engagement and International Expansion.
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