Artesian

Twenty years of building the parts that were missing.

Most investment firms operate inside an ecosystem. Artesian has spent two decades building one. Where a gap kept capital from reaching good companies, whether a missing accelerator, a missing precinct, a missing licence, or a missing back office, we built the thing that closed it.

Some of what follows we own and operate. Some we hold alongside universities and governments. Some is infrastructure that other managers run their funds on. Each entry says what the relationship actually is, because the difference matters, and because the pattern is the point: wherever the market was missing a part, we built it.

Built to close a gap.

Australia has never been short of research or founders. What it has been short of is the layer in between: the programme that scales an AI company, the centre that gets a small business using new technology, the institution that connects a precinct to capital.

Where Artesian could build that layer alone, we built it and staffed it. Where it needed universities, corporates and government at the table, we helped found it and hold equity alongside those partners, taking a seat rather than the whole board. These have their own teams and their own mandates. They are not line items in a portfolio.

Boab AI backs Australian AI companies that are past the research stage and ready to sell abroad. It was established with $1.5 million from the Victorian Government through LaunchVic alongside $8 million of private capital from Artesian, and is run from Melbourne by Andrew Lai. Selected companies take $300,000 at entry and can draw up to $5 million in follow on.

What was missing

Australia produced credible AI research and a steady supply of early companies, but nothing built for the step after that. A company with a working product and its first customers had no domestic programme designed to get it selling abroad, so the ones that were ready to scale went to the United States to do it, and the value went with them.

What we built

Boab AI is the first scaleup programme in Australia built for that step rather than for founding. Artesian put $8 million of private capital alongside $1.5 million from the Victorian Government through LaunchVic, and runs it from Melbourne. Companies take $300,000 at entry and can draw up to $5 million in follow on, with a $100 million fund behind it.

  • $1.5M from LaunchVic with $8M private capital from Artesian
  • $300,000 at entry, up to $5M in follow on
  • 32 AI scaleups supported over four years
  • Complemented by a $100M AI fund powered by Artesian
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SMEC AI helps Australian businesses under 200 staff work out where AI is worth using and where it is not. It is funded by the Australian Government under the AI Adopt programme, with Boab AI as initiative lead and Artesian among the delivery partners alongside the University of Melbourne, RMIT and La Trobe. It costs an eligible business nothing.

What was missing

AI advice was priced for enterprises. A business under 200 staff could not buy an honest assessment of which parts of its work AI would actually improve, so adoption split between firms that bought something expensive they did not need and firms that did nothing at all.

What we built

SMEC AI gives that assessment away. It is funded by the Australian Government under the AI Adopt programme, led by Boab AI, and delivered with the University of Melbourne, RMIT and La Trobe. An eligible business gets a one to one readiness review and a written roadmap, and pays nothing.

  • Funded by the Australian Government under AI Adopt
  • Free to Australian businesses under 200 employees
  • AI Adopt: one to one readiness assessment and a written roadmap
  • AI Studio: an eight week programme for founders building AI products
  • AI Information Line on 1800 517 403
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Cremorne is the densest technology precinct in Australia, and the Hub exists to connect the companies, universities and government inside it rather than leaving them to find each other by accident. It runs a workspace for founders, a landing pad for startups entering the market, corporate innovation programs and a digital skills platform. Artesian is a founding shareholder alongside REA Group, CAR Group, the University of Melbourne, RMIT, La Trobe and Kangan Institute, with the Victorian Government backing the Hub, and co-founder Matt Clunies-Ross sits on the board.

What was missing

Cremorne is the densest technology precinct in the country, but density is not connection. The companies, universities and government agencies inside it had no shared institution through which to reach each other, so university research stayed in the university, corporate problems stayed inside the corporate, and a founder had no route into either.

What we built

Artesian is a founding shareholder of the Hub alongside REA Group, CAR Group, the University of Melbourne, RMIT, La Trobe and Kangan Institute, and co-founder Matt Clunies-Ross sits on the board with the University of Melbourne's professor of artificial intelligence, the chief executive of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce and the founder of VERSA. The Hub runs the workspace, the events program, the startup landing pad and the corporate innovation work, which is what turns a postcode into a platform.

  • Founding shareholder with REA, CAR Group, Melbourne, RMIT, La Trobe and Kangan
  • Artesian co-founder Matt Clunies-Ross on the board
  • 120+ startups in the Hub community
  • 200+ events hosted, $20M of capital catalysed
  • A precinct of 700+ businesses and about 10,000 workers
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Building innovation infrastructure?

We collaborate with government organisations, industry bodies, corporations and universities to establish and grow the specialised parts the market is missing.

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Funds that run on our infrastructure.

Raising a first fund in Australia is hard. The local base of investors willing to back an unproven manager is small, and before a manager can accept a dollar they need a licence, compliance, fund accounting and reporting. That cost lands on the people with the least capital to carry it, and it stops good managers before their first cheque.

Artesian provides that layer as Funds Administration as a Service (FAaaS), so an independent manager can operate at institutional standard from day one. These funds are theirs, not ours: we run the machinery underneath.

Galileo writes the first cheque into companies most funds will not look at yet, taking applications with no introduction required and answering all of them. It invests $200,000 to $500,000 across AI, software, hardware and deep tech from Melbourne, Sydney and San Francisco. Artesian provides the fund administration underneath it, so the team spends its time on founders rather than on licensing and back office.

What was missing

A first-time manager in Australia faces two problems at once. The pool of investors willing to back an unproven track record is small, and before taking a single dollar the manager needs a licence, compliance, fund accounting and investor reporting. The cost of that machinery falls on the people with the least capital to carry it.

What we helped build

Artesian runs that machinery for Galileo, so the team spends its time on founders rather than on licensing and back office. The fund is theirs: they set the strategy, pick the companies and answer to their own investors. Galileo writes $200,000 to $500,000 into pre-seed and seed companies across AI, software, hardware and deep tech, and takes applications from anyone without needing an introduction.

  • $200k to $500k at pre-seed and seed
  • More than 20 companies backed
  • AI, software, hardware and deep tech
  • Melbourne, Sydney and San Francisco
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Five Sigma invests at late-stage growth into companies shaping how people learn and work, from Sydney into a global portfolio that includes Go1, ClassDojo, Crimson and Uolo. It is run by people who have built in the sector: Peter Mobbs, Go1 co-founder Andrew Barnes, and Boris Groysberg of Harvard Business School. Five Sigma operates as an authorised representative of Artesian Venture Partners, AFSL 284492.

What was missing

Education and workforce technology is one of the largest spending categories on earth, and the region had no specialist growth-stage investor in it. Generalist funds lacked the depth to underwrite businesses whose sales cycles and procurement look nothing like standard SaaS, and the operators who did understand the sector had no vehicle to invest through.

What we helped build

Five Sigma is that investor, built by people from inside the sector: a three-time exited education founder, Go1's co-founder, and a Harvard Business School professor. It backs late-stage companies including Go1, ClassDojo and Crimson, pairing capital with executive coaching and an Executive University that takes leadership teams to IPO readiness. It invests as an authorised representative under Artesian's licence, with Artesian providing the fund infrastructure beneath the strategy.

  • Authorised representative of Artesian Venture Partners, AFSL 284492
  • Late-stage growth in education technology and workforce development
  • Portfolio includes Go1, ClassDojo, Crimson, Academia, EDU and Uolo
  • Sydney based, investing globally
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Establishing your own VC fund?

Funds Administration as a Service gives emerging managers the licensing, compliance, fund accounting and reporting to run it, without building the back office first.

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