Albanese’s $15b tech fund gets ready to write first cheques

More than a year after the Albanese government’s $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) was established, the fund is getting ready to announce its initial investments in “deep tech” companies.

Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic will tell the National Tech Summit in Melbourne on Wednesday that the NRFC has requested a $300 million drawdown from the government and will soon be cutting its first cheques.

Minister Ed Husic says the NRFC is ready to begin writing cheques.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Husic has positioned the NRFC, which was announced in 2022 and legislated in 2023, as a nation-building exercise to bolster Australia’s competitiveness in technologies and manufacturing.

“The tech sector in particular knows the $15 billion in NRF acts as a magnet for billions more in private capital,” Husic will tell the summit in a speech seen by this masthead.

“That’s especially important during these lean years, where conditions have been tight when chasing capital to back a great deal.

“And I can tell you, we are now on the cusp of announcing the first investments. Recently, the NRF Corporation wrote to me to request a $300 million drawdown from the government.

“This is the most concrete signal that the NRF is ready to ink a series of deals.”

A source close to the government not authorised to speak publicly said that ‘deep tech’ companies would be among the first to receive investments. The term refers to companies focused on engineering and scientific innovations, such as clean energy, robotics and quantum computing.

“That money is now in the NRFC account, there to capitalise those first groundbreaking investments,” Husic will say.

“This will be a watershed moment, lifting the trajectory of our tech and manufacturing capabilities.

“We will have more to say in coming days about these initial investments.”

The NRFC, which will co-invest with banks, private equity and super funds, has faced criticism from the Liberal opposition for being overly bureaucratic and slow to move. Its first investments are coming more than a year after it was established.

The investment mandate requires the NRFC to target a rate of return of between 2 per cent and 3 per cent above the five-year Australian government bond rate over the medium to long term.

“The NRF Corporation has been methodical and rigorous in the way it has gone about assessing the hundreds of proposals it received,” Husic will say.

“[It] worked with private partners on matters of significant complexity, all done within the strict confines of the investment mandate we provided.”

Last month, the inaugural head of the NRFC Ivan Power, stepped down less than a year into the role due to ill health. It is being run in the interim by Rebecca Manen and seeking a permanent replacement.

Manen recently faced questions at Senate estimates about the NRFC holding ‘sham’ meetings to help it comply with legislated requirements to meet six times in a calendar year. Manen denied those claims.

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