Eastend Ventures secures investment from Jim Whalley, Geoff Rohrsheim for $50m fund

Some of SA’s most successful entrepreneurs are backing a new $50m venture capital fund set up to invest in Australia’s ‘under-served markets’ from Adelaide.

Eastend Ventures co-founder and partner JD Sheard, portfolio success Sarah Shelton, and co-founder and partner Josh Garratt.

Nova Systems co-founder and former chief entrepreneur Jim Whalley, and Adelaide tech entrepreneur Geoff Rohrsheim, are among the first investors in a new venture capital fund targeting investment in Australia’s “underserved markets” including South Australia.

Adelaide-based Eastend Ventures was recently launched by Josh Garratt and JD Sheard from investment network Southern Angels, and has secured more than $13m from local and overseas investors for its debut fund ahead of a global roadshow targeting a total raise of $50m.

The fund is looking to invest in up to 30 early-stage, high-growth companies across South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland – states the duo say are “often overlooked by Australia’s Sydney-centric capital markets”.

About $4m has already been deployed in three companies in South Australia and Queensland.

Mr Sheard said Eastend Ventures was set up to bridge the funding gap that faces many founders looking to scale their businesses from Adelaide.

“We’ve developed an early-stage fund to give investors access to overlooked, high-potential markets and companies that remain underserved by the Australian VC industry’s old guard,” he said.

Nova Systems co-founder Jim Whalley is among the first investors in the Eastend Ventures fund. Picture Matt Turner

“When I moved to Adelaide, it was clear that talent, innovation and global ambition weren’t the problem. The real gap was access to capital; a problem we intend to help solve.”

Eastend Ventures is the state’s first early stage venture capital limited partnership (ESVCLP).

The ESVCLP program was established by the federal government in 2007 to stimulate investment in early stage ventures, offering a range of tax offsets, exemptions and other incentives.

Early investors in the first Eastend Ventures fund include Mr Whalley, Mr Rohrsheim, Hessel Group founder and chief executive Tanya Cole and Visualcare founder Lisa Norris.

Mr Garratt, who founded the Southern Angels investment network, and Mr Sheard, who relocated to Australia in 2021 after scaling and exiting multinational oil and gas services and technology business IRISNDT, have put more than $2m of their own money into their first fund, which has already invested in two Adelaide start-ups.

PrioriAnalytica, which uses machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence to predict asset failures in the defence, resources, energy and logistics sectors, and construction management platform JACK App, have both secured investment, as well as Gold Coast-based marketing technology company Heatseeker.

Mr Garratt said the three companies were all expanding into international markets, and proved some of the country’s most promising innovations were being developed in smaller markets outside of Sydney and Melbourne.

“Most Australian ESVCLP investment is deployed to companies in Sydney and Melbourne due to their proximity to the major venture capital markets,” he said.

“But historically, some of the country’s most exciting companies and standout successes have started in our markets – companies such as Canva, Safety Culture and, more recently, the exited success story Energy Exemplar in South Australia.

“Our fund is designed specifically for the markets we know are underserved by early-stage

investment. Raising a larger, later-stage fund wouldn’t serve the gap in the ecosystems we’re here to support.”

Eastend Ventures will kick off an investment roadshow across Australia, Singapore, Canada and the US next week.

Originally published as Eastend Ventures secures investment from Jim Whalley, Geoff Rohrsheim for $50m fund