Impact Ventures, an early-stage climate technology investor, has passed $10 million in assets under management for the first time and reached first close on its inaugural follow-on fund — an annual $1 million vehicle built to keep backing its strongest portfolio companies as their business models mature. Final close is expected in August, with the capital deployed over the following 12 months.
The new vehicle lifts the firm's annual deployment to roughly $2 million.
Following the winners
The fund is designed around a well-known gap in early-stage investing: how to keep backing your best companies without ceding later rounds to growth-stage capital.
Impact Ventures has historically entered at the earliest stages, sourcing much of its pipeline through a partnership with EnergyLab, the climate technology accelerator. The follow-on fund lets it write additional cheques into portfolio companies that are already showing strong growth, rather than watching them raise elsewhere.
That logic is grounded in a portfolio that has produced several of the more visible names in Australian climate tech. Impact Ventures' early bets include Amber Electric, the consumer energy retailer that passes through wholesale electricity prices; Allegro Energy, a Hunter Valley developer of long-duration energy storage; and Infravision, which uses drones to string high-voltage power lines and speed up grid construction. Both Allegro Energy and Infravision have since gone on to raise substantially larger growth rounds — the kind of trajectory the follow-on fund is built to capture.
The follow-on fund roughly doubles the capital Impact Ventures deploys each year and gives its local investor base a way to keep backing an Australian cohort that is increasingly selling into international markets.
Our startups deliver critical technologies for the energy transition that are rapidly being deployed in Australia and internationally — from grid rollout through to sophisticated distributed energy management. Our alumni have had great support from Australian investors to date, and we're looking to extend that support as they move into their growth phases.
The backers
Founded in 2020, Impact Ventures was set up by climate and sustainability specialist James Tilbury and media and startup entrepreneur Piers Grove, whose ventures include The Daily Aus and the Betoota Advocate. Its investor base is made up of high-net-worth individuals and family offices. The firm provides support to organisations running acceleration programs in specific climate tech verticals, and takes that work as a source of proprietary deal flow.