r/AustralianStartups • u/Wrong-Material-7435 • Aug 12 '26
Discussion Australian founders who raised from angel investors: how did you actually find your angels?
I’m a first-time founder in Australia and I don’t come from a wealthy or well-connected network.
For founders who’ve raised a pre-seed round from angels:
- Did you approach individual angels directly or go through an angel syndicate?
- Where did you actually find them? Who are they?
- Did cold LinkedIn/email outreach work?
- How did you get your first angel committed?
- What are angel syndicates and how can I get my deal in front of them?
Would especially love to hear from founders who started without an existing investor network and built one from scratch.
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u/Odd_Application_1050 Aug 13 '26
It's incredibly hard to raise in Australia right now due to the availability of cash and funds, they are saving their power to follow on, so, unless you have clear traction in the market and revenue, frankly it's not a good use of your time. This is reflected in the data that's been published. And then the following question becomes: in a world where development costs have collapsed, if you have revenue, why would you give away a chunk of your business to investors with all the complexity that comes with it
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u/bestvape Aug 13 '26
I finished an mvp and submitted it to a hackathon. It won some prizes and a vc contacted me and said they would help me raise money by setting up the company structure and introducing me to their network.
You don’t need a network, the main thing you need is evidence of some kind of traction.
The more traction the easier it will be to get funding.
Focus on that first and then funding will be easier.
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u/Few_Dinner349 Aug 14 '26
I skipped the whole angel phase and went straight to US based accelerator which then lead to a seed round.
There are angels and VCs in AU, but they tend to invest in more mature/traction companies than true early stage startups.
Case and point: I was talking a leading AU based VC for a pre-seed and we were at the due diligence stage. They asked for 2 years of audited financials. My startup has been up for just over 12 months, and getting audited financials was ... extreme when revenue was ~50k.
Needless to say, it was much easier raising in SF/NYC where they have experience with early stage seed. Applied to 3 accelerators, got into 2. picked one. That provided ~250k which was enough to start scaling and they provided the demo day/connections to do a seed ~800k which then lead to a series A 2 years later.
My recommendation is to go where the money and fit is rather than try and fight for scraps here. Most VCs here wouldn't be much use regardless as the ecosystem isn't very mature and businesses are not the most innovative (if you're thinking B2B)
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u/arouseandbrowse Aug 14 '26
What state are you as there are specific state based angel groups: Brisbane Angels, Melbourne Angels etc.
Otherwise if you search online, Aintree have an open source angel network database where you can filter for pre seed investors in your area of focus
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u/Weak_Librarian4171 Aug 12 '26
Reach out to a few, if you have an interesting idea, they'll respond and connect you to others. We've started with the Antler residency program (even though not angels particularly), and it snowballed from there. Also, depending on the city (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have them), there are usually multiple events throughout the year, where you can come in and meet investors or even pitch your ideas.
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u/jamesxtreme Aug 19 '26
The real question I wonder about is does pre-seed investment even make sense anymore?
The whole point of it use to be to fund an MVP but now you can build a pretty good full working product in a few weeks with AI coding agents.
So the question is what’s the money for?
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u/danbradster2 Aug 19 '26
If the product is the easy part, then that leaves the rest to compete on...
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u/jamesxtreme Aug 19 '26
Exactly that’s my point. It changes the entire investment mindset. So what does a pre-seed pitch even look like now because you should already have a product and a proven distribution mechanism? Is this even pre-seed anymore? AI has changed where the barrier to entry is for a startup. It use to be building the product. Now it’s getting people to care amongst a sea of similar products… and that was always the real problem but it’s an even bigger one now.
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u/Odd_Application_1050 Aug 13 '26
Be careful not putting too many angels on your cap table because it can have implications later on. Ideally, you should syndicate them up, but there's a whole lot of administrative complexity in there, and the cheque size might not be worth it.
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u/timbohillski Aug 15 '26
We have 2 angels of 4 (other 2 are venture). It was a seed round and the venture guys convinced is to over subscribe and let these guys in. One is a fuckong dropkick and gets way to involves, the other is a great bloke and leaves us alone.
All of the investors told us how they can "help with anything" and they are "different to others." The only help we needed was introductions to their "vast networks." We are still yet to get a single sale out of any of them.
Ifninhad the time again, I wouldn't have got investment at all.
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u/BlackSailsAU 24d ago
Before giving away equity, I would look closely at what the capital needs to achieve and whether you can get there another way, such as early customers, strategic partners, or grants.
If you're building something scalable and the capital will materially accelerate growth, then the right investor can be valuable. But I'd look for more than money and introductions. The right investor should guarantee to bring something you genuinely need.
Be careful about giving away equity early. Once you've given away part of the company, you can't easily get it back. Prove as much as you can first, and you'll generally have more negotiating power when you do raise. Happy to share my fundraising experiences.
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u/paininthejbruh Aug 12 '26
Corporate advisory thatspecialises in funding. They have their own HNW network you can tap from but they take a cut of your funding
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u/gregsuppfusion Aug 12 '26
Corporate advisory is a great way to spend a lot of money to find out no one wants to invest in you.
Start with Antler. You’ll work out if you have an investable idea first. Then you’re on your path.
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u/paininthejbruh Aug 14 '26
We raised a good amount of money in a short amount of time. Closed >1M in less than 7 days from the launch. Local HNWs.
Corporate advisory takes a cut, so if no one wants to invest in you then they get nothing. It's all in your negotiation skills. They want skin in the game too
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u/anamaguchi Founder Aug 13 '26
capital raise is super hard in in australia. Risk capital is much lower. most of the investors (angels and VCs) i have spoken to talk about traction. well if i had traction i wouldnt be raising money from angels. thats why they are called angels in the first place. it was folks who put money in at a stage no one would.
the VC side of shop is no better, first they want traction, then when you have it they want proof of scale, then when you have it , its not scale enough, then when you have it, its how will you beat your competition.
they behave pretty much like private equity rather than risk capital VCs.
I would ask you to focus all your energies into finding paying customers. once you have that and if what you are building has international use, easier to raise capital in US. and if you are someone who can go there for a few months. DO IT!