A brand new $40 million enterprise capital fund has recruited former Salesforce Ventures boss Mike Ferrari as managing director because it appears to be like to again early-stage startups growing sovereign capabilities.

Salus Ventures is the primary devoted early-stage Australian fund to spend money on founders growing cutting-edge tech for industrial and authorities markets.

It can again from Seed to Collection A, tipping as much as $1.5 million into preliminary rounds.

The VC fund has been constructed by Safewill cofounder Dan Bennett, who has spent practically a decade as OurCrowd’s managing partner, and funding government and marketing consultant Marten Peck, with Ferrari becoming a member of the founding crew as MD.

Collectively their expertise spans a long time in defence, nationwide safety, operations, early- and growth-stage investing.

Ferrari’s CV makes him ideally suited to the brand new function, having beforehand established and co-led the Sydney workplace of In-Q-Tel,  the CIA VC arm, the place he established himself as an early stage deep-tech investor targeted on industrial applied sciences that might have a “dual-use” in nationwide  safety. Ferrari parted methods with Salesforce final month when the corporate lower hundreds of jobs globally and shut down the Sydney workplace of its VC fund. He was already in discussions with Salus forward of being made redundant. 

Peck and Bennett launched the fund and lift in late 2022, scooping up the primary $25 million for the fund in simply eight weeks, additionally closing its first funding earlier than the yr ended.

Bennett mentioned dual-use applied sciences have seen accelerated investor curiosity, notably within the US  and Ferrari’s expertise within the US and Australia has given him a novel grasp of each the wants of the nationwide safety group and the challenges and alternatives that include  growing applied sciences for demanding use circumstances.

“In as we speak’s dynamic geo-strategic setting, it’s turning into more and more clear there’s a rising want for nations to create sovereign capabilities to safeguard their impartial strategic autonomy,” he mentioned.

“Rooted in our distinctive mixture of expertise, our energy at Salus Ventures is figuring out and  supporting Australian founders who aspire to resolve critically vital nationwide challenges by  novel improvements within the areas of synthetic intelligence and machine studying, cybersecurity and  enterprise software program, automation and superior manufacturing, defence and aerospace, public  wellness, and different rising applied sciences.” 

Peck says Salus Ventures has already established itself because the ‘go to’ VC for founders constructing know-how for each industrial and authorities use.

“Our deep networks and understanding of trade and authorities will help and direct our portfolio  corporations to alternatives each in Australia and all over the world. Particularly, we’ll be backing  founders and demanding applied sciences with the potential for dual-use utility,” he mentioned. 

Ferrari mentioned that alongside capital, Salus provides “an unmatched vary of experience” to assist portfolio corporations.

“Whereas our main job at Salus is to generate enticing returns for the buyers who’ve entrusted us with their capital, for me personally it’s actually thrilling to have the ability to try this whereas additionally returning to  the mission of serving to one of the best applied sciences to make their method into the fingers of end-users in crucial  roles,” he mentioned.