UNSW Angel Investors Program builds 100+ investor strong community with over $1.7M invested

For most, investments fall under fairly traditional asset classes: shares, real estate, or personal property such as antiques or collectibles. However, as talk of billion dollar unicorns - and failures - dominate headlines, investors are increasingly curious about how to effectively assess promising and profitable early stage startups. 

Enter the Angel Investors Program, run by UNSW Founders and AGSM. Now in its 4th year, the program helps demystify startup investment, understand the risks and equips angel investors with the acumen and insights needed to identify potential disruptors whilst building a diversified portfolio. Often, this can mean upending assumptions about what makes for good investments.

“I’m proud to see how the program has grown over time,” noted Beste Onay, UNSW Founders Angel Investor Program Manager and angel investor. Beste recruits, assesses and selects high potential teams for the UNSW Founders Fund to invest in, and has 20 startups in her own portfolio.

“The program was established to address the early stage funding gap for startups in Australia, by building a community of angel investors, educating them on best practices and opening unique opportunities for them,” said Beste. “Having supported 85 angels through the program so far, with the help of 50+ leading Australian investors, we are on track to graduate 100 investors this year. And whilst it is difficult to monitor all activity across the group, we know that since the program, at least 16 angels have invested $1.7 million across 106 investments (according to a recent survey). This capital and additional value from the network has aided the growth of so many startups, including UNSW portfolio companies Tiliter and mtime.” 

“High potential startups have the opportunity to pitch in the program, and it is great to see where they are now too, including UNSW alumni HEO robotics, Cherry Recommends and Workflow 86, who have gone on to complete Y Combinator, the most prestigious accelerator in the world.”

Providing ‘coal-face’ exposure to assessing startup deals

“In the past, the angel investment scene has typically been extremely difficult to access,” explained Chris Baxter, angel investor, Patent & Trademark Attorney, and Managing Director of Baxter IP. Chris is a speaker in the Angel Investors Program.

“On top of that, there are challenges around competency in investment selection once one does have access,” observed Chris. “The UNSW Angel Investors programme is uniquely placed to provide both an initial level of investment expertise and access to an angel investment community so learning can be ongoing. I've enjoyed my involvement on the angel investment panel because together with other panelists, we've been able to provide "coal-face" exposure to attendees on how we consider, assess and evaluate start-up deals.”

Ensuring the health of the Australian startup ecosystem

Educating shrewd and sophisticated angel investors also helps Australia’s startup ecosystem.

“The health of the Australian startup ecosystem depends on a high birth rate,” explained Kylie Frazer, Co-Founder and Partner of Flying Fox VC. “We can’t achieve that without a solid base of angels.”

Chris Baxter agrees.

“Supporting early-stage startups enlarges the top-of-funnel of the Australian job market and supports the broader innovation community,” said Chris. “Of equal importance from the investors perspective, angel investment offers access to a different asset class that is not directly correlated to public markets, in addition to which, some startup investments offer strong multiples.”

Joining UNSW’s Angel Investor Program was a simple decision, from Kylie Frazer’s perspective.

“UNSW has one of the best innovation programs for founders in the country,” said Kylie. “Two of Flying Fox's most exciting portfolio companies are graduates of UNSW accelerator programs.  With its programming excellence and killer network, it was only natural that UNSW turned its attention to angel education; being part of it since the start has been a privilege.” 

"Angel investment offers access to a different asset class that is not directly correlated to public markets,” observed Chris. “In addition to this, some startup investments offer strong multiples.”