Tempus Partners team

Folklore Ventures team

Founded in 2013, Folklore Ventures is a leading Australian venture capital firm investing in early stage software and advanced technology start-ups. The Folklore Ventures management team oversees two ESVCLPs: Folklore Ventures Fund 2 and Folklore Ventures Fund 3.

Investors in the two Folklore funds are predominantly institutions, high net-worth family offices, and sophisticated private investors seeking exposure into high-growth Australian technology businesses and investments managed by an experienced funds manager.

The Folklore team brings deep founding and operational experience to the firm, having built and scaled contemporary technology businesses across the United States, Europe and Australia. Leveraging this experience, the team provides founders with capital, strategic support and practical operating insights based on nearly 80 years of collective first-hand experience

Across all our portfolio companies there is an open-door policy…we have genuine empathy for how challenging the journey is – the best thing we can do for our founders is to provide high quality decision-making support as they navigate their biggest tactical and strategic challenges.
— Hannah Field, Partner at Folklore Ventures

Folklore take an industry-agnostic approach to selecting investee companies, and their choices are underscored by their investment philosophy – backing frontier-minded founders who want to make a difference on a global scale. Hannah Field explains, “we are in search of the true story makers, not storytellers, who are building companies in valuable categories that appear conventionally ‘impossible’, but we believe are profoundly probable, when combined with technology’s rapid advancement.”

In 2019, Folklore invested in Swoop Aero, an Australian aeromedical logistics company that is spearheading a future where lifesaving medical supplies can be rapidly deployed to anyone, anywhere in the world, whether a remote community in Mozambique or in urban centres across Australia. This technology heralds an industry shift to on-demand and universal access to healthcare.

The founders are ideally positioned to solve this problem, and have demonstrated that the best ideas do not necessarily need to be fostered in established institutions. Eric Peck is a former Royal Australian Air Force Hercules Pilot and Josh Tepper is a mechatronics engineer and world-class competitive drone racer.

Features

  • Folklore Ventures is a leading Australian venture capital firm that backs the next generation of Australia and New Zealand’s ‘impossible’ companies.
  • Swoop Aero is transforming medical-supply chains with their proprietary long-distance autonomous drones.
  • Since Folklore’s initial investment, Swoop’s drones are reaching communities across five countries and enabling services for over two million people.

In 2018, Swoop’s 3D-printed aircraft began deploying vital supplies in Vanuatu, including a world-first commercial drone delivery of vaccines.

Since Folklore’s seed investment, Swoop has expanded networks to Malawi, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo in partnership with the United Nations, USAID, UKAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In light of the unprecedented challenges COVID-19 has presented, Folklore believes that Swoop’s technology will play a critical role as governments and health organisations around the world collaborate to build more resilient healthcare systems for developing and developed economies.

How the Government has helped

The ESVCLP program ensures that venture capital fund managers like Folklore Ventures can invest in entrepreneurial start-ups like Swoop Aero. Investing in start-ups boosts Australia’s investment in its own technology ideas with massive benefits for the broader economy.

If you look at the last ten years, more than 75 billion dollars of shareholder value has been created by Aussie start-ups. Our tech ecosystem is brimming with experienced talent and we believe Australia has a real opportunity to become a leader on the global technology stage. The ESVCLP program will play an important role in facilitating capital flow into start-ups and ensure that we are building the next great business success stories of our time.
— Hannah Field, Partner at Folklore Ventures
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