Venture capital in Australia

Venture capital is an important vehicle for financing new and innovative high-risk ventures. While its size relative to the economy is typical for an OECD country, Australia’s total venture capital investment is relatively smaller than that of the United States. The US, however, has a number of regions or ‘clusters’ with very high levels of venture capital activity, such as Silicon Valley and Boston, which benefit from a combination of hard-to-define favourable circumstances and historical developments. While a range of economic and geographic precursors are necessary for the development of successful clusters, they do not appear to be sufficient in themselves. There appears to be no right way to develop a cluster and no magic formula.