Aura Ventures pockets $44m as it exits investment trio

Aura Ventures has recorded its third exit in 12 months, returning a total of $44m after another of its portfolio companies was acquired this month.

Aura Ventures principal Tristan Terry, investment manager Eric Tran, managing partner and co-founder Eric Chan and corporate development manager Sabrina Zeng.

Aura Ventures has recorded its third exit in 12 months, returning a total of $44m after another of its portfolio companies was acquired this month.

The Sydney-based venture capital firm has reaped a major payday from its early-stage investment in Integrated Portfolio Solutions, a fintech platform which has about $10bn in funds under management.

Aura Ventures took a stake in the business in December 2017 when the fund led a $3m capital raising at a time when Integrated had less than one fifth of the funds under management or about $1.7bn.

This month, Sydney-based DASH, another fintech serving financial advisers, raised $20m from ASX-listed Bailador just days before announcing it had acquired Integrated.

Aura Ventures co-founder Eric Chan told The Australian his team was delighted by the result.

“Venture capital is a very long feedback cycle of investing and you know with the market being so nascent in Australia, it’s exciting for us to be able to come full circle,” he said.

While the company wouldn’t supply the exact figure, Mr Chan said Aura Ventures had recorded on average a five-times return across the three exits, which included Lannock and Catapult. It led all three seed round investments from its 2013 and 2017 funds.

Three exits in a single year was a “rare occurrence” for the 11-year-old fund which has to date invested in 23 companies.

When the firm first backed Integrated, Mr Chan said he took the view that the start-up was one of the first fintechs to offer advisers a “holistic” view of wealth.

Integrated had initially planned to go public but had rethought its strategy over the past few years, Mr Chan said.

“I think one of the most challenging things for the business, obviously, has been the capital market over the last couple years … they had initially planned to list the business,” he said.

“But just with where the listed market has gone they kind of decided to take a different approach.

“Ultimately in the last sort of 12 to 18 months they kind of decided that there were more opportunities in being part of their peers than sort of on their own.”

Integrated chief executive Darryl Johnson said the firm brought the company out of its infancy.

“Aura Ventures set us on a path to implement structures and business plans in all areas of the business and to move us well and truly out of the start-up phase and grow into a mature, sophisticated business,” he said.

Originally published as Aura Ventures pockets $44m as it exits investment trio