The $85 million investment from Hostplus brings funds under management on Artesian’s venture capital (VC) platform to $150 million.
The new funding includes a partnership between Hostplus and Artesian to “identify and invest in remarkable start-ups in China”.
Artesian has partnerships with accelerators, incubators, university programs and angel groups including Sydney Angels, BlueChilli, iAccelerate (University of Wollongong), Slingshot, ilab (University of Queensland), SproutX and Energylab.
The VC fund pre-screens more than 2,000 start-ups each year, selecting the top 5-10 per cent to participate in its accelerator programs.
The fund’s portfolio includes almost 100 investments including later-stage ventures such as Fame & Partners, Swift, HeyYo, Instaclustr, Clarity Pharmaceuticals, CriticalArc, ingogo, Jayride and Gamurs.
Artesian managing partner Jeremy Colless said Hostplus has “almost single-handedly reinvigorated institutional support for Australian start-ups and entrepreneurs”.
“Without the vision and commitment of CEO David Elia, CIO Sam Sicilia, the investment management team and the board of Hostplus, high-growth Australian ventures might struggle to build traction, create new products, jobs, have material exits and go on to motivate, support and inspire a new and even larger number of innovative, risk-taking founders,” Mr Colless said.