The Innovation Investment Follow-on Fund will be offered in follow-on funding to 20 venture capital fund managers already licensed by the Commonwealth under existing innovation programs (see list below).
Minister Carr expects the new contribution to help create 1000 high-skill, high-wage jobs in Australia.
"It is essential that we help these fledgling companies ride out the crisis," Carr told the National Press Club in Canberra.
"They are doing ground-breaking work in fields like biotechnology, ICT, and clean energy."
"These firms are the next Cochlear, Gekko Systems and ResMed. If we lose these innovative companies we will never get them back."
Carr believes the funding is desperately needed as the credit crunch would otherwise make access to capital near impossible for start-ups.
"The supply of funds for early-stage venture capital investment has dried up since the crisis broke last year," he said.
Innovative companies, he said, are being starved of critical capital "through no fault of their own."
"Without access to capital now, good prospects will fail, and venture capital funds will have no capacity to support companies with great ideas and technologies," he said.
The Government intends to fund the scheme via a reinvestment of money returned to the Innovation Investment Fund when firms the fund supported were floated or sold.
"Making this money available for reinvestment will boost confidence and help shake loose additional private sector capital," Carr said.
The registered venture capital funds include:
- Allen & Buckeridge Investment Management Pty Ltd
- AMWIN Management Pty Ltd
- CM Capital Investments
- GBS Venture Partners Limited
- Momentum Funds Management Pty Ltd
- Stone Ridge Ventures
- Four Hats Capital Pty Ltd
- Neo Technology Ventures
- Start Up Ventures
- GBS Venture Partners Limited
- Starfish Ventures Pty Ltd
- Sciventures Investment Pty Ltd
- Allen & Buckeridge Asset Management Pty Ltd
- CVC REEF
- Australian Distributed Incubator Pty Ltd
- Divergent Capital Pty Ltd
- Entrepreneurs in Residence Pty Ltd
- Epicorp Ltd
- Information City Australia Pty Ltd
- InQbator
- In-Tellinc Pty Ltd
- Playford Capital Pty Ltd
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