The Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCAL) has welcomed Australian government plans to overhaul the Significant Investor Visa programme to encourage venture capital investment.
“Australian early-stage companies have, for many years now, been increasingly squeezed for capital owing to many traditional institutional investors decreasing their exposures to higher-risk ventures over time,” says Dr Kar Mei Tang, AVCAL’s head of policy and research. “Every year, Australian venture capital and private equity managers see a strong pipeline of startups, research-driven ventures and innovative small businesses that have the potential to be our future economic drivers.
“But many of these promising businesses and entrepreneurs struggle to secure funding because that kind of risk capital is in such short supply here in Australia.”
AVCAL has maintained for some time that the Significant Investor Visa regime should be expanded to facilitate investment into Australian private businesses. In its previous submissions to the government on this matter, it has urged the Australian Government to take every opportunity possible to position itself to effectively compete with other jurisdictions that are adopting immigration policies to direct targeted investment into their domestic venture capital industries.
“The government’s move to reform the Significant Investor Visa rules to channel new investment capital to venture capital and small business is a welcome move. Even if a small proportion of these funds are invested into Australian venture capital to back more commercialisation activity, this will be a good start towards helping to grow the ‘D’ in ‘R&D’,” says Tang.
