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What AVCAL does

AVCAL represents and promotes the venture capital and private equity industry in Australia. We are a membership body of approximately 250 mostly organisational members.

Primarily we provide a single voice to government and regulators on matters that impact the industry, seek to promote the industry through providing research and statistics, create a forum for our members to get together and to provide training to assist our members to raise standards and set minimum industry benchmarks. See our boilerplate.

AVCAL cannot make any type of direct recommendation or provide direct advice to you on your choices of potential capital raising. We seek to promote our membership by providing you with some guiding industry information and access to our membership database to assist in filtering the appropriate AVCAL member for your potential needs.

Use these pages to prepare yourself for venture capital investment.

Why would I seek venture capital or private equity?

  • Long term capital injection
  • Solid capital base for future growth
  • Additional rounds of funding can also be sought
  • An additional business partner that shares their skill, expertise, risk and rewards
  • A mentor to provide strategic, operational and financial advice
  • Additional alliances through the VC network such as recruitment, tapping into international markets, introductions to strategic partners
  • Facilitation of exit strategy including trade sales and Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Venture capital and private equity - what's the difference?

Firms that invest in early stage companies are known as venture capitalists, while expansion and later stage buyout companies are termed private equity.

Key features of VC & PE

The stages of venture capital are best described in the following table.
Stages 1-3 are typically called early stage or venture capital, while stages 4-5 are late stage or private equity.

Stage Description
1. Seed Stage
  • Very early stage
  • In process of being organised
  • Needs capital for R&D
  • Usually funded by entrepreneur
2. Start-up/Early Stage
  • Current being set up
  • May have been in business for a short time
  • Usually products have not been sold commercially
  • Have little or no track record
3. Expansion/Development Stage
  • Established
  • Requires capital for growth/expansion
  • May or may not have made a profit
  • Rapid growth
  • Usually requires several rounds of capital to meet milestones of business plan
4. Management Buy-Out (MBO)
  • Enables a business to acquire existing product or business from another public or private company
5. Management Buy-In (MBI)
  • Enables a manager or group of managers from outside the company to buy-in to the company

Private Equity and Venture Capital Facts Sheets

AVCAL Member directory