AfterWork Ventures

A rare opportunity to join of our most talented founding teams and build healthcare experiences for the 21st century - see below for details 👇

What a year it’s been for the AfterWork portfolio! 🪅 We’re deeply impressed by the incredible founders and teams we’ve backed - and the milestones they’ve achieved. As early-stage investors, we often meet founders and their ideas in seedling form. We see firsthand the tenacity, creativity, dedication and determination it takes to move them into real things, making real impact - and we're inspired! 🪩 We're thrilled to share some 2024 highlights and are excited for what's to come in 2025 Samphire Neuroscience Emilė R. Alex Cook Wagetap Mitchell Stevens Turnto Jessica Dove London Sam Naparstek Alyse Borkan PropHero Mickael Roger Pablo Gil Brusola OwnHome James Bowe Tim Harley Imogen Baxter Everlab Sam Kothari Marc Hermann Dr Steven Lu Anshul J. klikit Chris Withers Furthr Brian O'Farrell Nathalie Mann Primary Ben Buckingham Will Freeborn Finn Blake 👏 Hats off to you and thanks for having us on the journey.... #startups #founders #milestones #VC #earlystage

In our spotlight series, we loved getting to know the dynamic duo Jo Thomas and Yvette Quinby, founders of the impressive edtech Enrola. Enrola is an online education comparison platform that helps students navigate the complexity of finding and enrolling in Vocational Education and Training courses - it's a refreshing solution to a complex and common problem brought to you by two passionate and powerful founders. In this interview, we get to know the brains behind the business. We hear the story of how they got the idea for enrola and their first steps to getting it off the ground... and most importantly, how they still make time for Ultimate Frisbee and horses! https://lnkd.in/gdAdz5Tj

Investment Announcement!! We're delighted to officially welcome Primary to our portfolio. Here's why we're excited... 👓 Startups and scale-ups are woefully overlooked by the big banks – and it hurts. They earn an average 70% less interest on their deposits compared to institutional clients. 🤑 Primary is here to revolutionize financial efficiency - their innovative treasury management solution helps startups maximize idle cash through high-yield savings accounts and term deposits, while keeping funds easy to access. 🤝Primary's approach not only provides immediate benefits—like turning idle cash into revenue—but also fosters strong relationships with clients at critical growth stages. This positions them well to become a comprehensive financial command centre in the future. 🧠 The founding team, led by founder Ben Buckingham and CPO Will Freeborn, brings extensive fintech experience and a commitment to truly putting customer needs front and centre. In a short amount of time, they have gained 40 customers, managing more than $200 million in funds. 📰 AfterWork has proudly backed Primary through both their pre-seed and recent seed rounds - like the team, we see the immense potential in offering tailored treasury services to next gen companies. In our investment notes, we unpack why we're riding shotgun on their journey to level the financial playing field for upstarts! https://lnkd.in/gKaUZpCt #fintech #foundernews #venturecapital #venturenews

Exciting News! We are chuffed to announce our investment in Matilda's pre-seed round - the migration tech startup on a mission to digitise, destress and simplify the visa application process. The two founders Damian Png and Niamh Mooney are AfterWork community members and proven powerhouses, with critical expertise in product, commercial and digital marketing. We're proud to back their tech-forward solution that takes the headache out of the immensely stressful process of applying for a visa. 🎆 WHY WE'RE EXCITED 🎆 🛂 Australia processes a lot of visas (almost 3m a year) - the process is confusing, complicated and stressful 😕 Migration agents leave a lot to be desired! NPS is low and complaints are high 👌 Conditions are ripe for a new entrant - the market is fragmented, distribution is localised and there's no real love for existing solutions 🔑 Matilda offer a simple solution that harnesses AI to automate and accelerate the administrative parts of the process, while reserving human touch for the moments that matter (strategic use of AI means better margins, without shortchanging the customer experience). ☀ Their vision to improve the migration experience is timely and a personal passion point for the founders We're delighted at the chance to lead Matilda's pre-seed round, alongside Wollemi Capital Group, Everywhere Ventures, Co Ventures and Startmate Read our full investment notes here https://lnkd.in/gbR2rHTR

Congratulations to one of our first community members Duncan Allan on the launch of his new business Fourteen10. At a time when advertising has never been harder and more complex, they are entering the market with a pointed proposition that shakes up the tired media agency landscape. “Designing an agency from scratch to solve important advertising challenges for its clients, means the new business model must look nothing like the status quo." Co-founder Cameron Roberts Part of their approach centres on strategically super-charging top talent with AI. We recently wrote about the new wave of AI-powered service businesses that are using AI in the right ways, and the right times, to uplift the end-to-end experience - Fourteen10 are bringing this playbook to life in a new category and we're here for it! https://lnkd.in/gPcB3gXQ

We're thrilled to announce our investment in Enrola, an online education comparison platform eliminating decision paralysis for prospective students. With two formidable founders at the helm, Jo Thomas and Yvette Quinby, Enrola has the credibility and expertise to transform the student experience, at a pivotal moment in time. 🎆 WHY WE'RE EXCITED 🎆 💥 - Vocational Education Training is booming - there's over 4.5 million students enrolling annually in Australia 📕 With over 2,133 course options from a growing number of providers, it's a struggle for students to find the right course, from a quality provider 🔎 Enrola simplifies this process, helping students find the course that's right for them; based on their desired goals, learning outcomes, lifestyle and study preferences and budget requirements 😁 To top it off, they give students confident-boosting support throughout this high stakes decision; from initial discovery to enrolment 📈 With more competition than ever, Enrola is a welcome reprieve for Registered Training Organisations, who are looking for effective marketing solutions that drive enrolments. We're delighted at the chance to lead Enrola's pre-seed round, alongside Skalata, Antler and a host of strategic angels. Check out our full investment notes here https://lnkd.in/gfTgq-2r #edtech #vocationaltraining #startup #founders

Services are a mammoth industry; accounting for a whopping 63% of Australia's GDP. Yet as venture investors, we tend to skirt service businesses as traditional wisdom dictates they can't be scaled. With the advent of AI - things might be changing. We took a long, hard look at the evolving AI landscape and explored whether the AI-powered service model could fit the mould of venture capital returns. In this article, we outline eight key conditions that can help AI-powered service businesses thrive. Through startups like Hnry, PropHero and Matilda, we learn how they leverage AI to transform their industries while maintaining a focus on delivering exceptional outcomes for their customers. This is a nascent, exciting field, changing rapidly. All thoughts very welcome. https://lnkd.in/gPcB3gXQ #AI #CustomerExperience #ServiceBusiness #VentureCapital #Innovation #TechEnabledServices

Today we celebrate the news of Switchboard's $1.5m Seed round! Captained by the formidable Hugh Dixson, Switchboard are on a mission to demystify the worlds of supply chains and freight management, as they automate processes, remove manual handling, reduce costs and errors, and improve data quality through their digital supply chain solution. In a sector that is millennia older than the invention of the computer (let alone the internet), it’s little wonder that digitisation of supply chains has been historically siloed, where communication between systems both within the same organisation and to external partners has relied heavily on outdated, often manual processes – causing much frustration and complication for all involved. Thanks to Switchboard, businesses of all sizes and industries need only integrate once with Switchboard and are ready to exchange data with any supply chain system across suppliers, customers, and logistics providers. AfterWork are proud to now be 2x time backers of Switchboard across their pre-seed and most recent seed round; joining our friends at TEN13, Investible, Archangel Ventures, Skalata, and Startmate. You can ready more in our investment notes here!

One of our favourite things to do is interrogate how nascent trends and technologies may evolve. This time, we've fallen down the spatial computing rabbit hole to investigate both the fantastical and foundational; and see if we can identify the line between hype, reality... and dystopia. https://lnkd.in/gs_aArmF #spatialcomputing #VR #AR #computervision #applevisionpro