Victoria's Startup Ecosystem Report 2023 (LaunchVic)

Summary

• The Victorian startup ecosystem valuation has reached greater than $103B, marking a 21x increase since 2016.p.6
• Victorian startups raised $668M in venture capital investment in 2023 so far, returning to 2018 levels.p.6
• Health, Fintech, and Real Estate startups raised 62% of all VC investment in 2023 and account for 43% of all local startup jobs in Australia.p.6
• The top 5 employers—REA Group, SEEK, MYOB, Carsales, and Judo Bank—account for 7.5K local jobs, or 21% of the total local startup workforce in Australia.p.27
• There are 19 Victorian tech unicorns founded since 1990, and the ecosystem includes over 1K active VC-backed startups founded since 2003.p.10

Key insights

1. In 2023, funding rounds between $15M and $100M remained above pre-pandemic levels, while there were no rounds above $100M.p.16
2. 2023 marks the first time in five years that Health, including Biotech, became the most funded industry in Victoria.p.20
3. Small startups with 2-50 employees base 61% of their total workforce locally in Victoria, representing 9.8K employees.p.28
4. Companies founded since 2013 employ 16.1K people, representing 46% of all startup jobs created in Victoria.p.30
5. Startups that raise more than $4M in VC funding scale on average to 35 people after 10 years, growing 2.5x faster than those raising $1M–4M.p.32
6. Victoria maintains its 2nd position in Australia for VC investment raised, behind New South Wales.p.18
7. The top 5 unicorns alone are responsible for 20% of all local startup jobs created in Australia.p.6