Main Sequence closes $450m third fund

The CSIRO’s deep tech investment fund Main Sequence has surpassed $1 billion in funds under management following the closure of a $450 million fund.

The new fund, the third to close for the investment fund, will help build and back more deep tech innovations from Australian R&D capabilities.

With the new fund, Main Sequence has secured high-profile new investors including large institutional funds, wealth groups and top tier climate investors.

Investors in Main Sequence include Hostplus, LGT Crestone, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Temasek, NGS Super, Australian Ethical Investment, Daiwa Securities Group and The Grantham Foundation.

The fund also includes the first half of the committed $150 million CSIRO investment announced as stage three of the federal government’s Australia’s Economic Accelerator program.

Since its foundation in 2017, Main Sequence has backed 53 deep tech companies including Regrow, Advanced Navigation and Q-CTRL. The combined market value of these companies has grown to over $6.8 billion.

The first $240 million original fund closed in 2018 while the $330 million second fund closed in 2021, according to Main Sequence partner Gabrielle Munzer.

“Our last fund saw the launch of five Venture Science startups — Endua, Eden Brew, Quasar Sat, Cauldron and Samsara Eco. We are keeping up this momentum with Fund 3, pioneering new frontiers in biotechnology, and plan to continue co-founding new companies at the bleeding edge of exciting advances in food and fibres with Fund 3,” she said.

“We are continuing to harness the forces of entrepreneurship and research to address the ‘Valley of Death’. We see incredible promise in pre-seed investments and our involvement with Australia’s Economic Accelerator, CSIRO’s ON Accelerator and University accelerator programs like UNSW Founders’ SynBio 10x program means we can deepen our focus on unearthing cutting-edge idea.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Andrii Yalanskyi