Lakeba launches scale-up fund to eliminate growing pains for startups
Australia’s specialist technology business builder, Lakeba, has launched a new fund designed to invest in scale-ups committed to exponential growth. Each investment will be structured as a unique partnership tailored for the businesses’ specific needs, challenges, and requirements.
The Scale-Up Fund is looking for businesses that have experienced fast growth but require significant investment in capital or resources. Lakeba’s Scale-Up Fund provides diversity in its investment, including capital, operational expertise, legal and risk guidance, marketing support, financial management, or even mentoring to enable the business to reach its full potential.
Giuseppe Porcelli, Group CEO at Lakeba, believes the fund will help many more Australian entrepreneurs follow in the footsteps of Australia’s most prominent technology exports. Helping their businesses to scale in terms of technology, geography or personnel.
“When building a business, it’s common to experience growing pains, especially if you have built a great product generating real demand. Rather than have your business splitting at the seams, Lakeba can help provide the perfect fit. Tailoring our investment to suit your specific needs. Offering the support, guidance and resources to help scale-ups reach their full potential,” says Porcelli.
“That’s why our investment is more than a cheque but a meaningful partnership to help entrepreneurs fast-track success. Having built 17 digital businesses since 2013, we know our track-record, skills and capital can help support Australian businesses ready to take on the world. We want to give them the tools they need to become Australia’s next big export.”
Lakeba has already made two investments in promising scale-ups, Australia based appreci and US based LÜM. Since investing capital, capabilities and resources, the two businesses have seen immediate success.
For appreci, Lakeba supported the business in its distribution by leveraging its partnership with Microsoft to integrate appreci with Microsoft Teams.
“We were doing well. Now we’re going gangbusters since Lakeba invested in us by growing our distribution and enhancing the UX of our app,” says Craig Mai, CEO and founder of appreci.
For LÜM, Lakeba has provided capital and development capabilities to scale the social media and music streaming platform. With Lakeba’s development team helping LÜM to more than double its addressable market.
“With Lakeba, we’re quickly scaling our platform across operating systems and countries,” says Max Fergus, CEO and founder of LÜM.
Lakeba has significant experience in helping businesses scale fast, having built many successful companies itself. One being BRICKLET, which it launched in 2019. Lakeba has supported BRICKLET in selling over $15M bricklets and provides fragmented property investments across several property types.
“Lakeba turbo-charged our app. The coding and technical know-how we gained from Lakeba’s investment reduced our dev-cycle by several months,” says Darren Younger, co-founder at BRICKLET.
Recently, BRICKLET completed its Series A capital raise at a value of $28 million.
“In just over a year, we managed to help BRICKLET through conception, creation and commercialisation. Our investment has now been joined by illustrious company, including Mirvac, Stockland and REA Group, as we look to grow the business.”
Since its formation in 2013, Lakeba has built 17 businesses, which have raised over $23M independently. Lakeba also shepherded three of these businesses to successful exits totalling more than $20M. It currently has 12 active ventures in its portfolio, achieving a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 84% between 2016-2019.
For more information on Lakeba’s Scale-Up Fund, visit www.lakeba.com.
