News

News Corp, Nova, Ten, Foxtel, Fox Sports and REA Group join Scaleup Mediafund’s second round

Scaleup Mediafund, Australia’s only dedicated media for equity fund, has announced its second three-year fund, providing advertising and marketing inventory to startups.

REA Group will join to offer its digital media network as inventory, along with shareholders News Corp Australia, Nova Entertainment, Network Ten, Foxtel and Fox Sports. Shareholders have committed more than $30m in advertising and marketing inventory to the fund.

“We are proud of the fund in successfully helping to grow the next generation of Australian start-ups. The unrivalled reach of the Scaleup Mediafund partnership means we can deliver niche audiences at scale to start-ups aiming to build their brand,” said Richard Skimin, the fund’s chairperson and general manager of M&A and strategy at News Corp Australia.

Scaleup Mediafund was established in 2017 to give Australian startups access to advertising and marketing inventory and “take their message to Australia’s biggest media audiences”. The arrangement sees the fund working with businesses and venture capital firms to provide discounted advertising and media inventory in exchange for equity.

Skimin

“We have had a massive three years. When we started the fund we had the ambition of being a driver of brand and customer growth for great start-ups that had a clear need for advertising. Today with a portfolio of successful investees we can point to the realisation of that ambition,” said Michael Lamont, fund manager of Scaleup Mediafund.

“With Scaleup Mediafund 2.0 we are looking to grow our portfolio with early stage businesses that have a strong product fit and a clear case for media and marketing support.”

Lament

Scaleup Mediafund assesses startups based on potential to scale through advertising, existing market traction, and the size of the problem being solved. A limited number of deals are completed each year, with seven startups supported so far, including recently-listed online bookmaker Pointsbet (which raised $75m in its June listing).

The other six supported startups include: pet boarding company Mad Paws, ordering app Hey You, real estate agent comparison service Local Agent Finder, self-storage and parking space marketplace Spacer, babysitting and nanny network Juggle Street, and marketplace for aged care and disability support workers Mable.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.