This has a direct impact on whether there will be sufficient high value HMR ready to be commercialised to maintain the one third share of this much bigger pool of money. It should be noted that VC capital flows have historically varied significantly from year to year, and while there is reason to be optimistic about the future, there is no certainty that the recent trend will continue or that the VC funding will still be there when the supply of commercialisable IP catches up. The following table of VC investments, based on where the company is headquartered, indicates Victoria is under-represented in VC investments overall.
Distribution of investments in 2016-17 (by company headquarter)14 Venture capital Location
Amount ($m)
% of total
No. of companies
Australia
335.98
78%
90
New South Wales
198.75
46%
44
Victoria
82.90
19%
29
Queensland
6.54
2%
5
Western Australia
32.20
0.08
3
South Australia
3.04
0.01
2
ACT
12.55
3%
7
Other
0.00
0%
0
North America
45.90
11%
17
Oceania
17.94
4%
4
Other
29.53
7%
6
TOTAL INVESTMENT
429.36
100%
117
Note: 1. Locations with fewer than three companies receiving investments or for companies whose headquarter location have not been disclosed by the VC or PE firm have been aggregated into “Other”.
14 Australian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association Limited, 2017, AVCAL 2017 Yearbook Data, Table 6
Investing in Private Sector HMR 19