2021 State of Australian Startup Funding Report - Introduction

For those of us deeply ingrained in Australian startups, this comes as no surprise. Last year was another milestone in the compounding evolution of an ecosystem that has been 20 years in the making. Excitingly still, we will no doubt see this compounding and scale continue for the next 20 years.

That said, Australian startups–– with the exception of the Atlassians and Canvas of the world –– and our funding ecosystem have flown under the radar for too long.

Despite valuable collective efforts previously – which Folklore also supported – no report has yet provided our ecosystem with a comprehensive understanding of our investment data. It’s one thing to see the headlines and member organisation contributions, but quite another to dig deeper to understand what’s happening from the ground up.

So, together with Cut Through Venture and other great supporters, Folklore is stepping up to the challenge to help produce an in-depth look at local funding data and trends.

We hope that this report will not only provide an actionable and transparent window into the Australian startup funding landscape, but unify our industry of investors and startup builders to collectively contribute to future reports.

More voices going into the report will only give us better insights as we strive to create the right environments to support great entrepreneurs.

That kind of clarity requires us to see past the success stories and to understand the sometimes messy underbelly of startups in a way that leads us to be able to answer important questions, such as: How do we scale our funding landscape? How do we continue to attract more female and minorities to become the entrepreneurs, builders and investors of tomorrow? How do we work with government to unlock our ecosystem’s catalytic potential? How do we continue to lay the foundations for our country’s technological relevance for decades to come?

By celebrating how far we’ve come while also highlighting any barriers in our way as we move from one stage of growth to the next, we hope the State of Australian Startup Funding 2021 report will help focus Australia’s founders, investors and policymakers on the opportunity and challenges that need to be addressed if we want to continue building the future from our shores, and creating economic resilience for future generations.