SA Angels arranges special presentation from Swisscom Ventures and Acumen Ventures

Last month, Piper Alderman hosted angel investment group SA Angels for a special invitation only event featuring Stefan Kuentz of Swisscom Ventures and Shane Cheek from Acumen Ventures.

Kuentz and Cheek gave an update of the venture and investment market from a Swiss/global and the Australian/south-east Asian perspective. The event was well attended by a group of key players in the Adelaide commercialisation and investment community.

Stefan Kuentz’s presentation started with an outline of the reasons why Switzerland had to focus on innovation and looked at Swisscom’s commercial rationale for establishing Swisscom ventures. He touched on the types of industries that Swisscom Ventures will be interested in for 2014: network optimisation, security and identity management, CRM, internet of things and related clusters such as e-health. He also engaged in some lively discussion with the audience of his personal experiences and war stories about the investments that Swisscom Ventures had made.

Drawing on his years in Silicon Valley, Kuentz said that it was very important for companies to have some experience there:

“For companies who truly wish to be global, I would strongly recommend that they have some exposure to the Silicon Valley. For example, all the major telco companies have a presence there, and are all located within a short distance from each other. The VCs are also just around the corner, and all of the ingredients for a vibrant market place are located in one place. It really is like a market place for innovation.”

“We were very lucky to have someone of Stefan’s experience come to share his knowledge and experience with us,” Michael Dilettoso, chair of the SA Angels said of the event.

“It was also great to see the event supported by many members of the Adelaide angel investment community, some of whom have already made a number of investments not just in Adelaide-based companies, but Silicon Valley based investments as well.”

Shane Cheek from Acumen Ventures gave some valuable insights and data from the VC industry in Australia and SE Asia. Cheek is currently aiming to close out his $30m fund focusing on enterprise, B2B and e-commerce ventures in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

“The Australian technology sector has reached an amazing inflection point, driven by a wave of successful companies such as Atlassian, Freelancer and Bigcommerce, and a new generation of startups that take an aggressive approach to regional growth,” Cheek said.

“They recognise they are a part of south-east Asia with a population approaching 650 million, an insatiable appetite for all things digital and annual GDP growth of 8%. The next generation of category defining companies will emerge from this region and Acumen Ventures is excited to be funding them.”

It is the comment on “market place” that resonates strongly for supporters of Adelaide’s startup and innovation ecosystem.

The Adelaide market has been aware that in order for innovation to flourish in the city, all of the various parts of the community need to exist. We already have a vibrant start-up community supported by a number of co-working spaces and accelerator programs. We also have some active angel investors, early stage VCs, as well as experienced advisors, all within close proximity of each other. It will be great to see Adelaide mature into that crucial “market” concept.

Dilettoso said the event was a great success and one that could be repeated again soon.

“The event was a success, as it gave an opportunity for the investment community to engage with each other and swap notes on what has been happening over the last few months. It is certainly something the SA Angels will try to organise again,” Dilettoso said.