UNIVERSITY research projects and jobs are being given a vital boost with prominent early-stage venture capital fund Stoic Venture Capital increasing its investment in start-ups that are commercialising university inventions.

Stoic is bucking the trend of other venture capital funds that are backing away from university research and start-up companies because of heightened volatility and risk.

Stoic Venture Capital managing partner for investments, Geoff Waring said the impact of COVID-19 was exacerbating the short supply of early stage venture capital in Australia leaving universities unable to commercialise their innovations.

“Stoic presents universities with a critical source of seed stage capital to help transform their research into emerging companies,” Dr Waring said.

“This will ensure that many high potential university research projects can move out of the lab and into development or trials despite the impact of COVID-19.”

Stoic is an Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership (ESVCLP) which gives investors rare access to disruptive companies not available elsewhere with added tax benefits.

Stoic’s team includes executive chairman of Atlas Advisors Australia and former chief executive officer of award-winning private bank Macquarie Private Bank Guy Hedley, executive director of Atlas Advisors Australia Fiona Zhuang and Dr Waring. 

“Our close partnership with university-backed investment fund Uniseed gives Stoic investors access to returns commensurate with the rich opportunities coming out of Australia’s top universities,” Dr Waring said.

“These leading universities produce some of the country’s highest potential technology addressing global unmet needs.

“Investing in unlisted start-ups via top performing venture capital funds presents higher long term returns than top fund managers in more established asset classes such as property, public equities or bonds. 

“It also offers diversification benefits with less exposure to market volatility and risk because of their lower correlation with traditional asset classes.”

Stoic’s portfolio of investments includes some of Australia’s most game-changing products in robotics, computer hardware, medicine, science, agritech and biotech.

These include Agerris (robotics), Aurtra (power management), Cardihab (telehealth), Certa (biotech), Ena Therapeutics (immunity enhancer), Exonate (eyedrops for macular degeneration), Ferronova (cancer diagnostic) Forcite Helmet Systems (motorcycle tech), Kinoxis (treating addiction), Nexgen Plants (genetics), PERKii (probiotic armour), Que Oncology (drug) and Wildlife Drones (tracking).

“These companies are potentially Australia’s future exporters that will help grow our economy, jobs and reward investors,” Dr Waring said.

About Stoic Venture Capital

Stoic Venture Capital provides financing for early-stage companies, particularly those arising from university research. Stoic is unconditionally registered as an ESVCLP and it takes a collaborative approach to investing in the highest potential companies.

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SLATER AND GORDON has filed a class action against Commonwealth Bank, alleging the Big Four bank sold its customers junk credit card and personal loan insurance.

The class action, filed in the Federal Court, is the fourth in the #GetYourInsuranceBack campaign.

The Commonwealth Bank has admitted that these products were worthless, even though they were sold to hundreds of thousands of their customers, Slater and Gordon claimed.

During the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, it was revealed the bank’s CEO Matt Comyn, had pushed for the bank to stop selling the junk insurance in 2015. Mr Comyn was, however, told by the then CEO to “temper [his] sense of justice”, and the products continued to be sold until March 2018.

Existing policies, however, have simply been rolled over and many customers are continuing to be charged thousands of dollars in fees for the worthless products to this day.

Slater and Gordon practice group leader Andrew Paull said the class action gave a voice to those who were vulnerable and duped into buying worthless insurance. It would allow those customers to hold the bank to account for its wrongdoing.

Mr Paull said he hoped the class action would help the customers get their money back, while keeping corporate giants honest.

“A 2018 review of the Commonwealth Bank’s sale of consumer credit insurance products revealed that more than 200,000 people who were unemployed or not working full time had been sold this type of policy, meaning it was very unlikely they would have been able to claim against the insurance,” Mr Paull said.

“This is reprehensible behaviour by the bank, which has chosen to compensate only a negligible portion of its customers, despite their admission that they knew the insurance was worthless.

“This move to return only a small portion of its customers premiums seems to have been a tokenistic effort to protect the bank’s brand, rather than a genuine attempt to make good its past wrongdoing.

“Slater and Gordon is still being contacted by large numbers of Commonwealth Bank customers who should never have been sold the products, yet have never been remediated.”

Mr Paull called on the Commonwealth Bank to do the right thing and properly address the claims brought in this class action by ensuring that all aggrieved customers are compensated.

Slater and Gordon recently settled a class action against NAB for $49.5 million and is preparing to start distributing compensation in the coming month. The firm filed similar class actions against ANZ and Westpac earlier this year.

Consumers who purchased either Credit Card Plus, or Personal Loan Insurance and have paid a premium since 2010 may be included in the class action.

The class action is being run no-win, no-fee.

www.slatergordon.com.au

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THE CARAVAN Industry Association of Australia has identified a strong, sustainable surge in caravan park visits and occupancy.

Caravan Industry Association of Australia CEO Stuart Lamont said over the weekend many Australians were once again able to explore "our great country".  For many residents, this was the first taste of overnight freedom in months and fell over the Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend in some states.  

Weekly accommodation data for the Caravan Industry indicates a strong resurgence is already taking place, highlighting the rapid uptake and potential to lead the path to recovery for the regional Australia visitor economy.

Cabin occupancy around Australia increased by 61 percent last week, compared with the week previous. This was on the back of a lifting of restrictions in many states with NSW seeing the largest week-to-week increase of 185 percent. Victoria also saw a more than doubling of cabin occupancy, up 105 percent. These two states were assisted with a long weekend.

South Australia was the national leader in terms of cabin occupancy, a 42 percent increase from the previous week – noting that intrastate travel restrictions had eased earlier in South Australia.

Powered site occupancy around Australian caravan parks increased by 109 percent  last week, compared with the week previous. NSW saw a quadrupling in occupancy which led all states, with Victoria seeing a 150 percent increase. In a similar fashion to cabins, South Australia topped the states with occupancy for powered sites (31%) exceeding for the week beginning June 1.

Mr Lamont said, “As anticipated, movement of Australians getting back out on the road has begun and is gaining quick momentum again.

“Whilst many Australians still care to dream and are desiring a local getaway our caravan parks and amazing camping ground options are plentiful and are attracting many of us to hit the road. Coming from ground zero, this early data shows real green-shoots are occurring in caravanning which is now driving our tourism industry forward,” Mr Lamont said

“Travel intention remains high, with 80 percent of Caravan Industry Association of Australia’s consumer audience indicating they would like to take a trip in the next two months.”

"Caravan and camping holidays are a fun and safe way to reconnect with friends and family, nature, and the wonderful country we live in.  They also act as the lifeblood for many regional communities throughout the country."

www.caravanindustry.com.au

The Caravan Industry Association of Australia is the peak body for caravanning and camping industry, a $23.3 billion industry that manufactures 23,000 vehicles per annum, services over 700,000 vehicles on the road, generates 12 million trips and creates 60 million visitor nights across the country.

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THE Indigenous Affairs Committee will hear from the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) and the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) at the first public hearing for its inquiry into food prices and food security in remote communities.

Committee chair Julian Leeser MP said that the Committee looked forward to discussing the current policy frameworks with these key agencies.

“As the national Indigenous policy agency, NIAA will play a central role in formulating the government’s approach to dealing with this issue,” Mr Leeser said. “The ANAO has conducted detailed audits of government activities and initiatives in remote food security. Both of these witnesses have valuable insights and expertise to bring to the inquiry.”

Public hearing details

Date: Thursday 11 June 2020
Time: 11.35am to 12.55pm

A full program will be available at the inquiry website.

Due to social distancing requirements at Parliament House, members of the public will not be permitted to attend the hearing. An audio broadcast will be accessible at https://www.aph.gov.au/Watch_Read_Listen.  

For more information about this inquiry, including its terms of reference, details of upcoming public hearings, and instructions on making a submission, please visit the Committee’s webpage.

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