Venture investor Jelix Ventures has completed the first close of a new fund for investment in startups, raising $15m from several high-profile investors.
Jelix’s fund is structured as an Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership (ESVCLP), which offers tax benefits to its investors. The company says it plans a further raise as part of the fund towards the end of the year, taking the total to $25m-$30m.
Investors include Airtree co-founder Daniel Petre, Afterpay executive Rachel Kelly, Our Innovation Fund founder David Shein, iiNet founder Michael Malone, Inquisitive CEO and Mathletics founder Tim Power, Mumbrella founder Tim Burrowes, Audible’s APAC head Matthew Gain, Bridge Climb founder Paul Cave, and Boomers and basketball star and Tokyo Olympic medallist Matthew Dellavedova.
Jelix was founded by CEO Andrea Gardiner in 2015, who was joined in 2018 by husband Ian Gardiner, formerly head of startups at AWS.
Andrea said there were many investors keen to back early stage tech startups, but a lack of deal flow and expertise to assess the opportunity and structure terms, and Jelix had filled the gap.
Jelix has already made its first investments from the new fund, including (with Blackbird and Skip Capital) in FL0 (billed as a version of online design company Canva for engineers); quantum computing company Quantum Brilliance and computer vision agtech company Bitwise Ag.
The company says several more investments will be completed in the next few months, and it expects to invest in up to 20-25 businesses from the fund, focusing on software and deep tech servicing huge global markets, and will continue to offer co-investment opportunities with first priority to fund investors.
Andrea said Jelix’s aim was to have a positive impact on the world while generating outstanding returns for its investors.
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