Government · 3 deals
Every published round Innovation Victoria took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amber Electric | Series D+ | 21 Sep 2026 | $78.5m | Participant | Startup Daily, Cut Through Venture, Dynamic Business, This Week in Australian Startups, Forbes Australia, Dealroom, Business News Australia, RenewEconomy | |
| GonGlobal | Grant | Sep 2026 | $1m | Participant | SmartCompany (Wed 16 Sep 2026), Startup Daily (Tue 15 Sep 2026), SmartCompany (Fri 4 Sep 2026), datapile.co, Startup Daily (Wed 2 Sep 2026), Dealroom (Tue 1 Sep 2026), Dealroom (Tue 1 Sep 2026) | |
| Navi Medical Technologies | Unnamed stage | 4 Aug 2026 | $6.8m | Participant | Startup Daily (Tue 4 Aug 2026), bushletter.com, medicalbuyer.co.in, SmartCompany, finsmes.com, raising.fi, vir.com.vn, PR Newswire (Wed 29 Jul 2026), meditechtoday.com, navitechnologies.com, Startup Daily (Tue 28 Jul 2026), PR Newswire (Tue 28 Jul 2026), finance.yahoo.com |
Everyone Innovation Victoria has named to a program in published coverage. A place in a program is not a raise: the cheque is the figure recorded with the place, which is the program's standard terms where we hold them, and a blank is one we don't.
Companies Innovation Victoria has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navi Medical Technologies | 4 Aug 2026 | 1 | 0 | |
| GonGlobal | Sep 2026, Grant | 1 | 0 | |
| Amber Electric | 21 Sep 2026, Series D+ | 1 | 0 |
This is a stake in the fund itself, money that the fund's manager invests, not a stake in the fund manager.
| Fund | Manager | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Expansion | Galileo Ventures | - |
| Fund II | Galileo Ventures | Startup Daily, Amatil X portfolio, Dealroom |
| Galileo Ventures Fund II Expansion | Galileo Ventures | Galileo Ventures |
Companies Innovation Victoria has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Innovation Victoria did.
| Company | Bought by | Kind | Announced | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No portfolio company of Innovation Victoria is recorded as having been acquired. | ||||
Companies Innovation Victoria acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Company | Kind | Announced | Price | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakthrough Victoria | Merger | 17 Jul 2026 | - | foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au, innovationvictoria.com |
| LaunchVic | Merger | 17 Jul 2026 | - | foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au, innovationvictoria.com |
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Geoff Tarrant | Chair (former) | SmartCompany, Startup Daily, foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au, innovationvictoria.com |
| Monique Conheady | Director | SmartCompany, Startup Daily, foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au, innovationvictoria.com |
| Rod Bristow | CEO, Breakthrough Victoria / Innovation Victoria (former) | Startup Daily (Wed 2 Sep 2026), Startup Daily (Mon 24 Aug 2026), Galileo Ventures, medicalbuyer.co.in, vir.com.vn, PR Newswire (Wed 29 Jul 2026), navitechnologies.com, PR Newswire (Tue 28 Jul 2026), finance.yahoo.com, foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au, Breakthrough Victoria (Fri 12 Jun 2026), LaunchVic, Breakthrough Victoria (Thu 14 May 2026), Breakthrough Victoria (Thu 14 May 2026), innovationvictoria.com, Breakthrough Victoria (undated) |
| Susan Oliver | Director (former) | SmartCompany, Startup Daily |
Stories naming Innovation Victoria. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Weekly digest: Firmus withdraws its planned listing, Square Peg reaches a billion-dollar close on two vehicles, MUFG clears regulators to buy Grow Inc, and Lubdub, RocketDNA, Energy Bay and Metal all raise.
Weekly roundup recording a dozen raises and acquisitions, Firmus's scheduled float, a new $50m venture fund, a founder share sale, grant winners, an accelerator intake, and an AI agent's government breach.
Also DealStreetAsia·Dealroom·This Week in Australian Startups·AFR Technology·AFR Technology·Startup Daily·AFR Technology·AFR Technology·ABC News Technology·iTnews
Amber, an Australian home battery automation company, has secured a Series E round led by Morgan Stanley's 1GT climate fund, with earlier backers taking part, to support local growth and European expansion.
Energy retailer Amber has closed an oversubscribed $78.5 million round led by Morgan Stanley's 1GT fund, with existing backers participating, to add vehicle-to-grid capability and expand into Europe.
Also Business News Australia·Dealroom·Forbes Australia·Cut Through Venture·Startup Daily·This Week in Australian Startups·Dynamic Business
Victoria's opposition pledges to shut down Breakthrough Victoria and sell its investments, calling the state fund a failure. The piece recalls portfolio raises, a rescue deal, an NYSE listing and the LaunchVic merger.
Roundup of the week's Australia and New Zealand raises: Gridsight, Pearler and Apate.AI secure the biggest cheques, Drumbeat and GonGlobal add smaller sums, and ten AI startups join Airwallex's Latitude 37 program.
Melbourne medical device maker GonGlobal has received a A$1 million grant, split evenly between Innovation Victoria and RMIT University, to develop Ovulair, which delivers fertility medication by inhalation instead of injection.
Also Dealroom·Startup Daily·datapile.co·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany
Weekly roundup: Blackbird confirms a record fund close and Galileo reaches a first close, Genesis merges with Proudi, IREN secures massive debt, and several startups report raises, grants and program wins.
Artesian writes that Galileo Ventures' second fund has closed $15 million of a $30 million target, counting Artesian and Innovation Victoria among its backers, and has made a first investment in Fluent BCI.
Also Galileo Ventures portfolio·Dealroom·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Dealroom
Galileo Ventures has closed the first half of its second fund at $15 million, targeting $30 million, with Innovation Victoria a cornerstone backer; the fund's first cheque went to brain-interface startup Fluent BCI.
Roundup of eight Australian and New Zealand startups whose late-July funding totals $102 million across space capsules, medical devices, livestock breath analysis, sports analytics and AI crop forecasting.
Melbourne and Boston medical device firm Navi Medical Technologies has closed a 6.8 million dollar round led by KP Rx to commercialise its neonatal catheter technology in the United States.
Also Startup Daily·navitechnologies.com·meditechtoday.com·PR Newswire·vir.com.vn·SmartCompany·raising.fi·finsmes.com·finance.yahoo.com·Startup Daily·bushletter.com·medicalbuyer.co.in
Melbourne EV materials company Kite Magnetics has been awarded an Australian government grant to commercialise its motor-core material, with a larger Series A raise planned but not secured.
Also Startup Daily
Victoria has folded LaunchVic and its Breakthrough Victoria investment fund into a new body, Innovation Victoria, naming its chair, deputy chair and leader, while recapping agrifood startups the fund has backed.
As Breakthrough Victoria and LaunchVic combine into Innovation Victoria, nine partner organisations will share government funding to run pre-accelerator programs for founders at the idea stage.
LaunchVic announces Innovation Victoria, a new body combining its work with Breakthrough Victoria's, with Rod Bristow installed as chief executive and long-time chairs Leigh Jasper and John Brumby departing.
Breakthrough Victoria's release marks Infleqtion's New York Stock Exchange listing, the investor's first portfolio listing, and notes further quantum backing of Quantum Brilliance plus Infleqtion's Victorian operations and partnerships.
Also Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·Startup Daily·SmartCompany
Breakthrough Victoria is putting $75 million into five venture capital funds, including Virescent, SYNthesis BioVentures, Scale and Galileo, each of which has pledged a quarter of its capital to Victorian startups.
Breakthrough Victoria has appointed Rod Bristow, previously Investible's CEO, as its chief executive, citing a 33-company portfolio, over $300 million invested and $1.06 billion attracted from co-investors.
Breakthrough Victoria puts $2 million into ElectraLith, a Victorian startup whose lithium extraction technology was developed at Monash University, as part of a Series A led by Main Sequence.
Grant Dooley, Breakthrough Victoria's founding chief executive, will depart after roughly three years, staying briefly to aid the successor search. His tenure saw 27 portfolio companies and more than $350m committed.
Innovation Victoria launches, merging Breakthrough Victoria and LaunchVic; Geoff Tarrant chairs the board, Monique Conheady deputises and Rod Bristow is CEO; Tarrant co-founded Payapps, bought by Autodesk in 2024.
Also Australian FinTech
Breakthrough Victoria's page announces Innovation Victoria, a new Victorian entity combining Breakthrough Victoria and LaunchVic from early July, with Rod Bristow as CEO, existing programs and investments continuing and both chairs stepping down.