INVESTMENT TEAM
Neil Stanford, Managing Director
Brighid Pappin, Investment Manager
The investment team consists of Brighid Pappin and Neil Stanford, who have demonstrated that outsized returns that can flow from a well-constructed and diversified venture program. Under their leadership the Hostplus private equity and venture capital asset class had returns for the 2021 calendar year in the fifties and returns per annum over the last five years in the low twenties. The direct co-investment program, a subset of the asset class, did even better, despite still being very early in its investment life.
Neil and Brighid are passionate about innovation and technology. Neil introduced venture investing to the Hostplus portfolio in 2014 and the team have backed most of the well-known Venture Managers in Australia – Artesian, Blackbird, Brandon Capital, Carthona, IP Group, Main Sequence, Square Peg, and Telstra Ventures. This has afforded the team tremendous insights into the Australian venture ecosystem, which they are leveraging for the benefit of the VSCF.
OUR APPROACH
Neil and Brighid both have complementary technical backgrounds and as a result have always approached investments from a bottom-up, fundamental perspective. They like to understand ‘the DNA’ of founders and fund managers and what drives them. They like to see clear connections between the area of focus, the team’s skill set, and the industry environment, so that there is a coherent and compelling investment case. This approach has allowed the team to have conviction to cornerstone new funds and back many new venture managers with little or no hard track record data. It is fair to say that much of the Australian venture ecosystem would not be as developed today, without their catalysing efforts.
We know what works and what doesn’t and how ‘ponying up’ long term patient capital with new innovative companies can create tremendous value.
We are providing investors a much lower risk pathway to access early stage venture investments. Due to the high levels of investment transparency that the team are committed to, investors are effectively expanding the breadth and depth of their own investment team, without bearing the additional overhead.
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE
BRIGHID PAPPIN
Melbourne
IM, V-Ignite
(Hostplus, UniSeed, Glycomics)
ARIANE BARKER
Melbourne
Member
(Scale Investors, JB Were, HSBC,
Goldman Sachs)
NEIL STANFORD
Melbourne
MD, V-Ignite
(Hostplus, JANA Investment Advisers, Russell Investments
BRONTE ADAMS
Melbourne
Member,
(Rhodes Scholar, McKinsey)
STEPHEN THOMPSON
Sydney
MD Brandon
(Terra Rossa, Apax Partners, Cantab Pharmaceuticals
MELISSA MCBURNIE
Adelaide
IV Brandon
(Terra Rossa, Bio Innovation SA)
OPERATIONS TEAM
AMY PERKIN
Melbourne
Chief Financial Officer
ANNABELLE DICK
Melbourne
Communications & Engagement
KATE GROOMBRIDGE
Melbourne
Legal Council
SEAN CREEDON
Melbourne
Senior Fund Accountant
DIANNE CLIMENT
Melbourne
Office Manager
Nikki Williams
Melbourne
Team Assistant
DEEPALI DHAWAN
Melbourne
Corporate Accountant
FOR VC FUNDS
The VSCF is looking for early stage focused venture funds, targeting seed and series A rounds. The Fund is industry and technology agnostic. We are looking for both mature and new fund managers. Funds need to be highly differentiated, with a focus on a particular niche which aligns with the teams’ skill set and strategy.