OIF Ventures has so far raised $55 million for a new growth fund which will primarily invest in companies the firm backed as early-stage ventures.
The fund may also make investments in other fast growth companies at around the Series B fundraising stage.
To date, Sydney-based OIF, formerly Our Investment Fund, has raised three early-stage venture capital funds, the latest closing in September last year at $140 million (APE&VCJ, Sept 2022).
The new OIF Ventures Opportunity Fund has a target of $75 million which the team expect to reach by the end of July.
Although OIF is a relatively young investment firm it has already achieved one very impressive exit resulting from the acquisition of Canberra-based data infrastructure company Instaclustr for more than $500 million by NASDAQ-listed NetApp last year.
The new fund’s initial investment will be $4 million in Sydney AI robotics and navigation technology company Advanced Navigation. The sum was committed late last year when the company raised a $108 million Series B round. Global investment firm KKR led that round with a $100 million commitment.
As with OIF Ventures’ earlier funds, investors in the new fund are family offices and individual investors including, according to the firm, “many of the founders that we have backed through Funds I, II, and III – something that we are very proud of.”
These investors include Kasada founder Sam Crowther, Instaclustr co-founder Peter Lilley and Go1 co-founder and chief executive Andrew Barnes.
Alongside raising the new fund, OIF has added Lilley and Kevin W, former global head of corporate development (M&A) at Xero (ASX: XRO), to its investment team.
The firm said the new fund was an exciting milestone and a big responsibility but it was confident that continuing to provide early backing and then follow-on support to exceptional founders would bring success.
Image: OIF Ventures team members.