Investor · 1 deal
Melbourne, VIC
Every published round La Trobe University 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deftbiotech | Pre-seed | 19 Mar 2026 | $1m | Participant | Startup Daily, SmartCompany, Breakthrough Victoria |
Companies La Trobe University has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deftbiotech | 19 Mar 2026, Pre-seed | 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 |
|---|---|---|
| University Innovation Platform (UIP) | Breakthrough Victoria | Breakthrough Victoria (Fri 28 Mar 2025), Breakthrough Victoria (Thu 27 Mar 2025) |
Companies La Trobe University has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal La Trobe University did.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Adam Console | Researcher | Breakthrough Victoria |
| Adrienne Clarke | Emeritus Professor | Startup Daily, SmartCompany |
| Dr Alex Stumpf | Dr | Breakthrough Victoria |
| Dr Eugeniu Balaur | Researcher | Startup Daily (Wed 5 Aug 2026), Dealroom, Startup Daily (Thu 28 May 2026) |
| Professor Brian Abbey | Researcher | Startup Daily (Wed 5 Aug 2026), Dealroom, Startup Daily (Thu 28 May 2026) |
| Professor Chris Pakes | Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice President (Research and Industry Engagement) | Breakthrough Victoria (Fri 28 Mar 2025), Breakthrough Victoria (Fri 29 Nov 2024) |
| Professor Marilyn Anderson | Emeritus Professor | Startup Daily, SmartCompany, @AuManufacturing |
| Professor Theo Farrell | Vice-Chancellor | Startup Daily, Breakthrough Victoria (Fri 28 Mar 2025), Breakthrough Victoria (Fri 28 Mar 2025), @AuManufacturing |
Stories naming La Trobe University. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Percheron Therapeutics has appointed Arovella Therapeutics' former leader Michael Baker as CEO from October, with James Garner departing for an overseas role while joining the board as a non-executive director.
A fintech serving international students in Australia has secured A$3.5 million, with DoxAI leading, to grow its verified-funds platform already used by La Trobe University in student visa checks.
Melbourne biotech AlleSense, developing cancer pathology imaging tech, raised $5 million led by Welcome Ventures with Breakthrough Victoria and an AEA grant contributing.
La Trobe University spin-out AlleSense has secured $5 million to develop slide-based imaging for earlier cancer detection, led by Welcome Ventures with Breakthrough Victoria and the Australian Economic Accelerator's grant program also contributing.
Also Dealroom·Startup Daily
Breakthrough Victoria announces a $1 million investment in AlleSense, a La Trobe University spin-out developing nanofabricated slides for faster cancer diagnosis, joining round leader Welcome Ventures.
La Trobe University opened its Eagleworks Innovation Centre, home to the $18m Eagle Fund co-funded with Breakthrough Victoria, part of the $100m University Innovation Platform.
Victorian pre-seed program BVUIP, backed by Breakthrough Victoria and seven universities, has funded startups EntroMat, Excelligent and Remagine Labs, plus fellowship grants for three PhD-led ventures.
A roundup of three raises: Advanced Navigation's $158 million Series C, legal AI platform MiAI Law's $2 million launch funding, and Deftbiotech's $1 million pre-seed for a fungal nail treatment.
Melbourne biotech Deftbiotech secures $1 million combined investment from Breakthrough Victoria and La Trobe University's Eagle Fund to develop a topical nail fungus treatment.
Breakthrough Victoria staff attended agrifood, climate finance, women's health and deep tech events, and joined the launch of agritech firm YieldX.
Breakthrough Victoria recounts how its joint fund with La Trobe University seeded hydroponics developer YieldX, now running a commercial greenhouse in Victoria and expanding to India via a deal with Zomato's Hyperpure.
Also LaunchVic
Eight university- and company-led Australian quantum projects share $12.7 million in stage-two Critical Technologies Challenge Program grants, funding prototypes for data-centre cooling, medical imaging and rare-earth detection.
Alberts announces that former Rest fixed income head Tracey Duff has joined its Investment Committee, with a profile of her 40-year finance career and what drew her to the role.
Two Victorian backers put a combined $2.25 million into three university spinouts pursuing biologics, antibody drugs and delivery devices, launching a new $15 million pre-seed vehicle.
Also @AuManufacturing
Weekly roundup: Breakthrough Victoria and Monash University co-invest $2.25 million across three university healthtech spinouts, while Blackbird backs Hall, which helps businesses win visibility on AI platforms, with $2 million pre-seed.
Also Startup Daily
Breakthrough Victoria and Monash University put joint pre-seed backing into three life-sciences spinouts and launched the $15m Monash Ventures pre-seed fund, part of a $100m platform commercialising Victorian university research.
The Victorian government has granted ACAMI at La Trobe University $10 million to help deploy NVIDIA DGX H200 supercomputers for AI-driven medical research, including a Florey collaboration on a childhood neurodegenerative disease.
Federal government funds Care Economy Cooperative Research Centre; ANDHealth appointed commercialisation partner to help translate care research into market-ready products.
Breakthrough Victoria's Dr Olga Hogan explains its University Innovation Platform, which co-invests pre-seed funding alongside Victorian universities, plus a fellowship helping PhD researchers turn research into companies.
Agtech spin-out Gaia Project Australia has raised $1.7 million from Breakthrough Victoria, La Trobe University's Eagle Fund, Mandalay Venture Partners and LaunchVic to commercialise plant-spacing technology that lifts leafy green yields.
Melbourne agtech YieldX has raised seed capital from the Eagle Fund, Mandalay and LaunchVic's Hugh Victor McKay Fund to commercialise its NASA-recognised growing technology, with first commercial farm builds planned in Victoria and India.
AgTech firm YieldX has attracted a $1.7 million round, with Breakthrough Victoria and La Trobe University's Eagle Fund contributing $500,000 apiece alongside Mandalay Venture Partners and LaunchVic's Hugh Victor McKay Fund.
Breakthrough Victoria's update announces its Eagle Fund co-investment with La Trobe University, an $18 million pre-seed vehicle, and details $1 million backing each for agtech startup Yield X and diagnostics spin-out ExCelligent DX.
EntroMat, a Melbourne developer of high-entropy metal powders, has landed $1 million from Breakthrough Victoria and Swinburne under a university research commercialisation platform.
Australian Catholic University signs on as the seventh university in Breakthrough Victoria's co-investment platform, with matched funding pledged; the article also recaps four earlier startup investments via Melbourne's Genesis Pre-Seed fund.
Quantum Brilliance, a Canberra-based maker of diamond-based quantum chips, has drawn fresh equity from the National Reconstruction Fund and more from Breakthrough Victoria to build a diamond foundry, with prior grants and backers recapped.
The National Reconstruction Fund has taken a $13 million stake in quantum maker Quantum Brilliance, while a defence accelerator funds University of Western Australia quantum research and Germany's Cyber Agency contracts the company.
Also Forbes Australia·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany
Quantum Brilliance has locked in a $30 million Series A, with Breakthrough Victoria and the National Reconstruction Fund backing its plan to open the nation's first foundry making quantum diamond devices.
Also SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Tech Council of Australia
Breakthrough Victoria has put another $10m into Quantum Brilliance, which builds diamond-based quantum hardware, funding a new Victorian foundry and its joint research hub with two universities.
Also Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·Breakthrough Victoria·Startup Daily·Forbes Australia·Startup Daily·quantumbrilliance.com·thequantuminsider.com·quantumwire.com·quantumzeitgeist.com
Breakthrough Victoria has launched a fellowship offering graduate founders pre-seed convertible-note backing capped at $150,000 each from a $7.5 million pool, aiming to create as many as 50 companies from Victorian university research.
The Victorian government's VC fund Breakthrough Victoria slipped to a loss, its annual report showing startup investments, cost cutting and boardroom departures amid criticism of its spending and performance.
Roundup: 1414 Degrees locks in as much as $4.7m from Lind Global Fund II; Queensland Hydro awards Borumba dam contracts; FWPA's research chief is retiring; La Trobe and BIRAC sign a biotech corridor pact.
Breakthrough Victoria defends its spending and investment record against critics urging its abolition, pointing to portfolio companies, university partnerships and recent backing of startups including Aravax.
Breakthrough Victoria's media release marks three years, citing more than $300 million committed across direct investments, a fund, a grant and university partnerships, and discusses its Aravax and Seer Medical investments.
Manufacturing briefs roundup: WA government commits $5m to space facility Fugro SpAARC; Starpharma and Micro-X receive R&D tax refunds; Bulla licenses Violet Crumble for ice cream; SCEE wins $50m in contracts.
LaunchVic has granted Startmate $300,000 to run its Student Fellowship, a three-week program training at least 320 Victorian university students in startup skills over two years.
Weekly roundup of eight Australian startups raising a combined $30.2 million, spanning SME lending, quantum computing grants, proptech, consumer apps and recycling, plus Stylerunner's earlier sale to Accent Group.
Also Startup Daily
LENSELL, maker of the Diversiview portfolio analysis tool, joins The Big LEAP incubator's acceleration phase to prepare launching its product into the Indian market.
Breakthrough Victoria's technology director writes on quantum trends from the Sydney conference, noting the firm's earlier investments in Infleqtion and Quantum Brilliance and Infleqtion Australia's launch under a new president.