Mitchell Hughes and Jerry X’Lingson launched NextGen Ventures in late 2024 to invest in student founders. Backed by Blackbird’s Niki Scevak and dozens more LPs, NextGen is on a mission to make Australia the best place to build.
This article featured in Forbes Australia’s 30 Under 30 Issue. The full list is out now.
In 2023, while Mitchell Hughes was studying at Monash University, he noticed a gap: he was surrounded by friends building start-ups, but many of them struggled to find meaningful support. Sure, many universities like Monash had their own investment vehicles and incubators, but the number of students building had outgrown the support these vehicles could provide. The result? A growing disconnect between student founders and the broader venture ecosystem – one that traditional VCs were often too far removed to bridge.
Hughes’ travels to London, Amsterdam and California – specifically a study stint at UC Berkeley – revealed that some of the best start-up ecosystems in the world had student-focused venture funds, which served as a pipeline between young founders and established investors.
“It had been done in about 20 countries,” Hughes says. “We know that some of the country’s most successful start-ups – Canva, Atlassian, Immutable – were founded by young graduates, so we thought, ‘Why not Australia?’” And so began a year-long investigation into why the gap existed and what the appropriate solution was.
X’Lingson connected with Hughes over a coffee in 2023 after hearing about Hughes’ mission via a mutual friend. From there, the pair kept in touch, and X’Lingson helped propel Hughes’ mission into a full-blown venture capital fund.
“Jerry’s continued to raise the bar in terms of how we operate internally and how serious we are, and continued to push for a greater outcome for what we’re doing. We just grew so much trust in each other over the journey,” Hughes says.
After emailing Blackbird partner Niki Scevak in early 2024, Scevak agreed to be an advisor to NextGen Ventures, and, once Hughes and X’Lingson proved there were enough student founders in Australia – and that they could source them before anyone else – he offered to invest.
“That kicked off our fundraiser and essentially kicked us into gear. He gave us our first cheque in December last year. We set out to raise a $2.5 million fund, and in June this year, we had closed $2 million from about 34 LPs [limited partners].”
There’s much more than just raising funds and investing to be able to make Australia a great place to build. You shouldn’t need a network, a safety net, or a decade of experience to be taken seriously.
– Mitchell Hughes, co-founder, NextGen Ventures
The pair say they’ll land anywhere between $3 and $4 million from about 50 LPs at the end of their second close, and aim to dish out $70,000 cheques to 12 companies each year for the next three years – 36 in total. NextGen has so far made eight investments this year.
“We started off looking at everything from the products to the market, but as we made more investments, we realised that at the core of it all is the founder,” X’Lingson says.
“Mitch and I spend a lot of our first meetings interrogating and really understanding with genuine curiosity the founder’s background, what motivates them intrinsically and what lived experiences they have. The best founders have strong intrinsic motivations and a very unique insight into their space.”
As two recent graduates managing millions in venture capital, Hughes and X’Lingson knew there would be scepticism. But the pair say conviction carried them through.
“We always believed in what we were building,” says Hughes. “The challenge was just proving that belief to others.” That meant hundreds of cold emails, countless rejections and endless coffees before the first yes. “We’ve got about 50 LPs in the fund now,” he says, “but when I checked the other day, there were roughly 260 people who either said no or never replied. There’s plenty of people to prove wrong next time.”
Their willingness to bet on themselves mirrors the founders they back. “At the core of NextGen, our job is to be the first believer,” says X’Lingson. “We want to be that first cheque into every founder we meet, the one who takes a wild bet because we believe in the human behind the idea.”
This human-first lens shapes how they assess early-stage teams. While most investors look for traction or market validation, NextGen Ventures looks for people with drive and passion. “A young founder might lack network or experience,” Hughes explains, “but if they’ve got extreme customer obsession, charisma, speed, and openness to learn, those traits can override everything else.”
This philosophy has quickly earned them a reputation on campuses from Melbourne to Sydney. Many of NextGen’s portfolio founders are still completing degrees, some juggling lectures between investor meetings. Yet, as Hughes points out, that’s where Australia’s next great companies often start.
Looking ahead, the pair say their aim is to make Australia one of the best places in the world to be a young, ambitious founder. In about 18 months, or sometime in 2027, the pair say they have plans to open another fund.
“Our maturity will come through growing a bigger fund size, so we aren’t just that first cheque, but we can also follow on all the way through a founder’s journey. I don’t want to put a cap on our ambition, but I would hope to get at least $20 million, if not more. Progressively, we’ll aim to have bigger funds,” Hughes says.
However, their ultimate ambition is much larger. The co-founders also see NextGen as more than a venture fund – think: a platform for cultivating talent and community. Plans are already in motion for nationwide events, student fellowships and eventually a physical headquarters that doubles as a collaborative space for young builders.
That ambition, they say, is grounded in purpose, not ego. Both founders are acutely aware of how difficult it is for young Australians to get a foot in the door of entrepreneurship. “There’s much more than just raising funds and investing to be able to make Australia a great place to build,” says Hughes. “You shouldn’t need a network, a safety net, or a decade of experience to be taken seriously.”
For now, their focus remains on execution: finding exceptional founders, building
a lasting community, and proving that Australia’s next generation of innovators just need a sprinkle of opportunity.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
