Airtree Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Sydney, has closed its fifth fund with $650 million in capital. The fund has attracted support from a diverse group of global institutional investors, including Harvard Management Company, the University of Wisconsin, Adams Street Partners from Chicago, and MetLife Investment Management. This reflects a growing international interest in the startup scenes of Australia and New Zealand.
The $650 million Fund V will allocate $250 million for early-stage investments and $400 million for growth-stage companies that have already raised capital but need additional funding to expand. Airtree noted that over 70% of its portfolio investments occur at the pre-seed and seed stages, where the potential for high returns is greatest. The firm also highlighted that the availability of growth-stage capital in Australia has improved in recent years, with the proportion of local deals at this stage rising from less than 8% in 2017 to over 20% today.
General partner Kell Reilly, who joined Airtree in 2024 after senior roles in Silicon Valley, said the firm’s ability to attract major global investors highlights the maturity of Australia’s start-up market. While Airtree declined to reveal all its investors, industry sources indicated that returning Australian backers include superannuation giants AustralianSuper and the Australian Retirement Trust, as well as TelstraSuper. The fund’s investor base also includes some of the world’s largest endowments, insurance companies, pension funds, and fund-of-funds managers from the US, Europe, and Asia.
Startup growth gains international backing
Airtree has a track record of supporting companies that have scaled into billion-dollar valuations, including Canva, Go1, SafetyCulture, Employment Hero, Airwallex, Linktree, and Pet Circle. Canva, valued as high as $40 billion, is reportedly considering an IPO, underscoring the global ambitions of the firm’s portfolio companies.
The firm also invests in emerging ventures such as ProcurePro, Constantinople, Fetch, Human, and Haast, which it believes have the potential to become category leaders. According to partner John Henderson, some of Fund V’s backers are the same institutions that have supported top-tier Silicon Valley firms like Sequoia and Accel. He said their interest signals that Australia and New Zealand are firmly on the radar of global venture capital.
“They’ve caught wind of what we’ve known for a long time—ANZ founders have something special,” he added. Founded in 2014, Airtree now manages $2 billion across five funds, having raised A$60 million for its debut vehicle. The firm invests across sectors and stages, with an emphasis on scalable technology businesses in Australia and New Zealand.
With Fund V, Airtree aims to maintain its focus on early-stage innovation while ensuring that more companies have the growth capital they need to compete globally.
