The Australian VC finalised two funds, one for early-stage investments and another for bigger bets, totalling over $1 billion. It’s Square Peg’s biggest raise yet, above the $860 million it secured in 2024.
Square Peg’s Ben Hensman, Leila Lee, Dan Krasnostein and Paul Bassat. Credit: Square Peg.
Square Peg has raised over $1 billion across two funds as it looks to back a new generation of early-stage startups while simultaneously doubling down on existing bets.
Co-founder Paul Bassat previously wrote in a letter to investors, published on its site in July, that it had completed a final close for the funds without disclosing the amount raised. Two people familiar with the matter told Forbes Australia it exceeded $1 billion.
Square Peg confirmed it had raised over $1 billion but did not disclose the exact figure. Roughly 40 per cent of that is for Fund 6, Square Peg’s vehicle for early-stage investment, while around 60 per cent went to its Opportunities Fund 3 that backs bigger companies in and out of its existing portfolio.
It makes Square Peg the second Australian VC to finalise a 10-figure raise this year. Blackbird in August announced a record $1.05 billion for its sixth fund from investors including Morgan Stanley, Schroders and Adams Street Partners. It is also a meaningful increase on the $860 million Square Peg raised in 2022.
Square Peg says it has returned over $1.4 billion via exits in 19 companies since 2012, a gross IRR of 41 per cent. In 2024 the VC sold its stake in Bugcrowd, a cybersecurity startup it backed at seed stage and which was valued that year around $1 billion, and sold down holdings in Canva and Rokt. It also saw windfalls from Israeli startup Deci.ai being bought by Nvidia and PropertyGuru’s acquisition by Swedish private equity group EQT.
The mega fundraises show Australia’s venture scene is bouncing back after enduring a painful post-pandemic hangover. The COVID years saw tech and capital markets boom, but that growth U-turned as interest rates began ticking up. Though interest rates remain high, the startup sector is returning to levels of activity last seen in 2022. A total of $1.7 billion was invested in the second quarter of 2026, a 60 per cent year-on-year increase.
While Blackbird and Airtree have expanded their scope to Australian founders in the US, Square Peg has instead focused on Israel and Southeast Asia. The firm has invested in Israel since its inception and has had an office in Tel Aviv since 2014. Meanwhile in 2020 it set up shop in Singapore and 2022 was describing Southeast Asia as a core market for its future.
In addition to Canva, which it backed in 2013, Square Peg is most known for its relatively early bet on US$11 billion startup Airwallex – it invested in the fintech’s 2017 Series A at a time when Blackbird and Airtree famously passed. Other unicorns in its portfolio include fintech Zeller, energy tech platform Neara and HR company Deputy.
The VC also somewhat mysteriously has holdings in two Silicon Valley giants: payment platform Stripe and frontier AI lab Thinking Machines Lab. The latter company raised a record-breaking US$2 billion seed round last year, and counts former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati as co-founder.
Bassat established Square Peg in 2012 alongside Tony Holt a year after stepping down as CEO of Seek, the online job board company he founded in 1997 with his brother Andrew Bassat and Matt Rockman. Holt for is part was a former investment banker, having worked stints at Merrill Lynch, Citi and Macquarie.
Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed? Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.
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.
