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KPMG has announced a new and exclusive alliance with an alternative investment manager designed to assist businesses in the start-up ecosystem.
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KPMG announces strategic partnership
18 November 2014
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KPMG has partnered with Artesian Venture Partners to offer services to high-growth start-ups including a new structure of support and capital to expedite the start-ups’ success over the next five years.
According to a joint statement, the partnership between KPMG and Artesian will:
• offer Australian corporates, superannuation funds and industry bodies a unique opportunity to be exposed to, and engaged with the Australian start-up ecosystem and innovation
• enhance KPMG’s own innovation, integration and advisory services
• increase M&A activity with Australian entrepreneurs
• actively engage with a large pipeline of scalable, high-growth businesses, as well as leading accelerators, incubators and universities
• offer bespoke services to the startups with KPMG as the exclusive professional services provider to Artesian
• host regular events to foster and promote the local start-up industry
• analyse data and develop research models to better understand the growing sector and its future direction
• take advantage of existing networks to put Australian entrepreneurs on the map globally
Martin Sheppard, head of innovation at KPMG, said the alliance represents an important milestone for the firm in doing business with the rapidly rising entrepreneur set within the start-up ecosystem.
“Proactively engaging with Australia’s start-up ecosystem is critical to our innovation strategy. It will expose us and our clients to new growth opportunities; provide early insights into emerging and disruptive technologies, and help us and our clients stay ahead of the curve. Combined with our Fintech work and other initiatives to be announced over coming months, it will position KPMG as an authority in this dynamic sector,” he said.
The partners will jointly commercialise the accumulated data of the venture, expected to encompass up to 1,000 investee companies over the next five years.
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“Although there is a lot of buzz around start-ups, including strong corporate interest, little actual research has been done on the sector. Our data has the potential to play an important role in unlocking entrepreneurial potential in Australia. This alliance is an incredibly exciting opportunity,” Mr Sheppard said.
Artesian partner and chief operating officer, Tim Heasley said the alliance with KPMG will allow the engagement of corporates in the start-up ecosystem as customers, partners or potential acquirers, “and will help start-ups and technology become a substantial industry, as we move away from a reliance on mining and resources”.
Artesian currently utilises a unique co-investment model allowing it to scale up its investment portfolio by outsourcing the selection, mentoring and due diligence of start-ups to specialist partners – such as accelerators, incubators, university programs, angel groups, research institutes and even digital agencies. Artesian currently manages co-investment funds for Sydney Angels, BlueChilli, ilab (University of Queensland), iAccelerate (University of Wollongong) and Slingshot (Newcastle).
“And now our alliance with KPMG, who was selected as a result of a competitive process, will help us to identify and introduce corporate and other partners to these opportunities,” said Mr Heasley.
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