App-based, tech-focused Spaceship super fund launched

Atlassian’s CEO has led $1.6m in seed funding into a technology-­focused super fund aimed at millennials.

Spaceship’s Paul Bennetts, Andrew Sellen, Kaushik Sen and Dave Kuhn. Picture: Hollie Adams

Atlassian chief Mike Cannon-Brookes first shook up workplace software. Now he’s turned his eyes to superannuation, leading a $1.6 million seed funding round into Spaceship, a new technology-­focused fund aimed squarely at millennials.

The app-based super fund, to be launched later this year, will offer 18-35s the chance to invest in technology, which now accounts for the world’s five biggest companies.

“For our generation, when we ask anyone our age where their super is, we normally get a blank face,” chief investment officer Paul Bennett, who ran the $500m Malone family office and is a venture partner at Airtree Ventures, told The Australian.

“And then we ask ‘what companies?’ and we get a worried look. We’ve seen an extremely disengaged audience, and super is going to be an even bigger investment than buying a house over time.

“Atlassian is now bigger than our national airline Qantas, and technology is going to absolutely be the key differentiator for businesses going forward.”

Though tech firms are seen as risky propositions, with the dotcom bust still in investors’ minds, Spaceship’s founders argue all investments have risks — and big banks and miners are arguably riskier, given the disruption ahead in coming decades.

“Tech has proven itself now,” Mr Bennett said. “We should be investing in where the world is going, not where it’s been.”

The founders said they were extremely excited to be working with Mr Cannon-Brookes, who is investing in Spaceship through his investment firm Grok Ventures.

He has being joined by early Salesforce investor Simon Clausen, Aconex CEO and founder Leigh Jasper, Mike Baukes and Alan Sharp-Paul of UpGuard and Andre Eikmeier of Vinomofo.

“Spaceship will be a game-changer, and I’m looking forward to transferring my own super in when it launches,” Mr Cannon-Brookes said.

CEO Andrew Sellen told The Australian he’s well-positioned to steer the fund given his previous role at Australian Ethical Investment, where he led the marketing team and saw it increase funds under management from $500m to $1.4 billion in three years.

“All four of us have strong backgrounds in financial services, so we’ve all experienced from the inside what it’s like trying to do something remarkable and different,” Mr Sellen said, adding he came up with the idea over a beer with chief technology officer Dave Kuhn, a Silicon Valley veteran.

The fund’s point of difference is not just its focus on technology investment but how its members will use it, with Spaceship plotting an artificial intelligence-powered app, a decision Mr Sellen said was a reaction to the “insane” amount of paperwork generated by other funds. “We communicate through digital channels only, and make it extremely easy to get stuff done, like our instant super find, and one-tap combine functionality that you can do in the Spaceship app when you sign up,” he said.