A large majority of Australian start-ups are confident about their prospects in 2025, despite a challenging fundraising climate.
A new survey from Angel Investment Network (AIN) found 80 percent of local startups were optimistic about next year.
Co-founder of the online investment platform Mike Lebus said 48 percent of survey respondents in Australia were very optimistic and 31 percent quite optimistic.
“This compares with just two thirds of UK startups (68 percent) in a separate survey,” Mr Lebus said.
He said the survey gauged the outlook for startups in the present climate and revealed that securing investment was the biggest challenge for 71 percent of founders.
“This was followed by hiring the right talent (35 percent), product innovation and development (31 percent) and work/life balance (24 percent).
Mr Lebus said for those raising capital, the areas of focus for the forthcoming funding round included focusing on core product development (50 percent), expanding internationally (41 percent), growing the team by hiring the right talent (34 percent), and scaling marketing with ROI in mind (33 percent).
He said the research also indicated there was a need for more support in understanding an increasingly complex early-stage funding process.
“Only just over half (55 percent) said they had a good understanding of what process to follow when dealing with investors and structuring a deal.”
Mr Lebus said the survey highlighted a big gap in fundraising expectations versus the current reality of the process against a backdrop of more challenging market conditions.
He said nearly half (49 percent) said it had taken longer than they thought and 41 percent said the funds ran out sooner than they had expected.
“Among those who had successfully raised funding, profitability was the top factor that led investors to back them (30 percent), followed by scalability (26 percent), the team (14 percent), and then revenues (8 percent).”
