Funding announcement
Welcome to the team Mark
Aura Ventures announces Mark Esterhuizen as a new team member, profiling his finance career and his role scaling a seafood e-commerce group from seed through Series B.
VC firm blog
Aura Ventures
Everything we hold that Aura Ventures published.
aura.vc ↗
A bare $ here is the Australian dollar, inferred
First article Jul 2021
Latest 14 Apr 2025
A bare $ here is the Australian dollar, inferred
First article Jul 2021
Latest 14 Apr 2025
Articles
Every article we hold from Aura Ventures.
Series A
US$4.5m
Why We Invested in Jigspace
Aura Ventures sets out why it joined JigSpace's US$4.5 million Series A with Breakthrough Victoria, Rampersand and Investible, arguing spatial computing and accessible 3D presentation tools are ready for enterprise adoption.
Under Breakthrough Victoria ·leads this story in the feed
Key hire
Welcome to the team Sabrina
Aura Ventures announces Sabrina Zeng has joined as corporate development manager, citing her background across banking, Fishburners and UNSW, and the firm's funds and regional presence.
Seed
$7m
Why We Invested in Hatch
Aura Ventures explains its seed investment in Hatch, an Australian jobs marketplace for young professionals co-founded by Adam Jacobs and Chaz Heitner, alongside Rampersand, Investible, Jelix Ventures and Alberts.
Also Alberts Impact Ventures portfolio·Aura Group portfolio·Startup Daily·Early VC·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia
Seed
Why We Invested in Sahha AI
Aura Ventures explains why it led Sahha's seed round, citing the health-data gap, Sahha's behavioural-health API, its neuroscience-led team and its University of Otago research partnership.
Pre-seed
Why We Invested In Haast
Aura Ventures' post sets out its case for leading Haast's pre-seed round alongside Black Sheep Capital and angel investors, backing the AI startup's platform for brand and regulatory compliance across digital marketing.
Also Aura Group portfolio·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
Seed
Why We Invested In Tutero
Aura Ventures explains its seed investment in Tutero, an online tutoring startup, joined by Jagen and Commonsense Ventures, pointing to personalised mastery learning and early traction since the platform's December 2021 launch.
Also Aura Group portfolio
Pre-seed
Why We Invested In Zenphi
Aura Ventures' post explains its decision to lead Zenphi's pre-seed round, joined by Afterwork Ventures, citing the founders' Nintex roots and the opening for automation built around Google Workspace.
Also Aura Group portfolio
Seed
$3.9m
Why We Invested In Layer
Aura Ventures sets out why it backed Layer's seed round with several co-investors, covering the gaming IP licensing opportunity and the founders' relevant experience.
News
Web3: A Transformative And Disruptive Multi-Trillion-Dollar Opportunity
Aura Ventures maps the Web3 ecosystem, separating private blockchains from four public layers, and argues genuine value will migrate to scaling and application layers, citing its portfolio firm Lygon and Australian protocol Synthetix.
Seed
Why We Invested In Lygon
Aura Ventures sets out its blockchain thesis and announces it led seed funding in Lygon, a platform digitising bank guarantees built by a consortium of major banks and IBM.
Under Aura Group portfolio ·leads this story in the feed
Pre-seed
$4.5m
Why We Invested In Harvest B
Aura Ventures' thesis post explains its plant-based protein outlook and announces co-leading Harvest B's pre-seed round alongside Woolworths' venture arm W23.
Also Aura Group portfolio·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing
News
Finding The Exit: Australian VC exits and market roundup
Commentary piece on VC exit strategies (IPO, trade sale, secondary sale) referencing recent Australian tech M&A deals and venture funding rounds including Sendle, UpGuard, Sonder and others.
Rounds reported
Deals recorded from Aura Ventures's coverage. A round is listed once, however many of their articles mention it.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haast | Pre-seed | 6 Nov 2023 | $1.2m | |
| Harvest B | Pre-seed | 30 Jul 2021 | $4.5m | |
| Hatch | Seed | 19 Feb 2024 | $7m | |
| JigSpace | Series A | 12 Jul 2024 | $13m | |
| Layer | Seed | 10 May 2022 | $3.9m | |
| Layer | Accelerator | Aug 2021 | - | |
| Lygon | Seed | 28 Sep 2021 | $5m | |
| Tutero | Seed | 21 Feb 2023 | - | |
| Zenphi | Pre-seed | 31 Oct 2022 | - |
Companies covered
Companies named in Aura Ventures's articles, most-covered first.
Investors covered
Investors named in Aura Ventures's articles, most-covered first.
| Investor | What it does | Articles |
|---|---|---|
| Aura Ventures | 12 | |
| Black Sheep Capital | 2 | |
| Investible | 2 | |
| Rampersand | 2 | |
| Afterwork Ventures | 1 | |
| Alberts | 1 | |
| Antler Australia | Global early-stage VC investing in founders from first check to IPO | 1 |
| Breakthrough Victoria | 1 | |
| Carthona Capital | 1 | |
| Commonsense Ventures | Early-stage investment for fast-growing Australian businesses | 1 |
| Flying Fox Ventures | 1 | |
| Jagen | 1 | |
| Jelix Ventures | 1 | |
| Ten13 | 1 | |
| W23 | 1 |