Start-up fund Seedcamp ponders Australian expansion

Seedcamp, the leading European fund for tech start-ups, has flagged its intention to expand to Australia, after raising a further two million euros, or $2.6 million, for its investment war chest.

The latest capital raising effort, from investors including ACT Venture Capital, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, GIMV, Reed Elsevier Ventures, Samos and HENQ, follows a three million euro funding round last year.

Seedcamp has also struck partnerships with 500 Startups, a US start-up incubator, and AngelList, a network that connects angel investors with budding entrepreneurs.

It is also set to launch an “experts in residence” program, that will match leading start-ups with relevant advisors, as well as further utilise mentor help from its 34 corporate sponsors, which include Facebook and Google.

Seedcamp, which holds regular events across Europe, allows early-stage web and mobile businesses to apply for funding and help from a network of 1,200 mentors.

The venture will typically take an 8-10% stake in successful start-ups, in return for 50,000 euros in investment.

Several Australian start-ups have applied to get funding from Seedcamp, despite its far-flung location.

Kirsten Campbell, general manager of Seedcamp, tells StartupSmart that the organisation was keen to expand the concept to the Asia-Pacific region.

“We’ve actually had a fair amount of traction with start-ups in Australia or work closely with Australian founders based in London,” she says.

“During Mini Seedcamp Ljubljana we had a team called GroupM8 fly over from Australia to attend, one of the founders of our company Nuji is based in Australia and the founders of EDITD are Australian.”

“We’d certainly be interested in partnerships covering the Asia-Pacific region.”

“We’re always open to partnerships in Asia-Pacific but haven’t got anything concrete yet.”

“I doubt we’ll make it to Australia in 2012 but we’d certainly love to host a Mini Seedcamp there if the volume of start-ups applying from there increased.”