Spaceship super’s secret talks with APRA, a $50 million capital raise and Julia Gillard buys in
- Millennial super fund Spaceship has been in secret talks with banking regulator for its own licence.
- Investors have backed the licensing application with a $50 million capital raising round.
- One new investor, a US venture capital firm, has former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard on the board.
Millennial online superannuation fund Spaceship has completed a $50 million capital raising round, while waiting for a rare Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) licence.
Spaceship and other startup pension funds, like Grow Super, Zuper and Mobi Super, typically pay to use the licence of a traditional company to operate. Spaceship itself changed its parent licence holder over the winter, switching from Grosvenor Pirrie Management to Enva Australia.
Business Insider can reveal Spaceship, which has been criticised for its high fees since its launch a year ago, has been speaking with APRA since July about a direct licence to run a super fund.
A source said that the registrable superannuation entity (RSE) licence application was then submitted on August 25, and the licence would be issued “very soon”, allowing Spaceship “full control” of its products, including cutting fees.
APRA only has about 200 licences active, according to the source, and a new “greenfield” licence has not been granted for “years”.
Business Insider has contacted APRA for comment.
Julia Gillard jumps on to new $50 million capital raising round
Spaceship has also closed a new $50 million capital raising round, which was oversubscribed to the point of $66.5 million in investor commitments. This adds to the $19.5 million raised in June, taking the combined $69.5 million past PEXA’s $64.7 million to make it the highest capital raise in Australian tech this year.
The new cash, which takes the valuation of the startup to $170 million, would provide “full resilience to the Spaceship balance sheet” ahead of the new direct superannuation licence, according to the source.
While most of the new round was supported up by existing backers, the AFR reported $8 million came from its only new investor, Amplo. The US venture capital firm lists former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard as a “board partner”.
To read more, please click on the link below…
