Victoria Doubles Its Alice Anderson Fund to $20M: What Women-Led Startups Actually Get

The Victorian Government has put another $10 million behind the Alice Anderson Fund, doubling its total commitment to $20 million. The announcement, first reported by Startup Daily and confirmed in a government statement, lands while Australian venture capital remains heavily tilted toward male-founded teams. Here is what the fund does, who can tap it, and why Victoria is doubling down.

The Announcement in Brief

The Alice Anderson Fund launched in 2021 with an original $10 million allocation from the Victorian Government. The October 2026 top-up brings the state’s total commitment to $20 million. LaunchVic, Victoria’s startup agency, administers the scheme, which co-invests in startups founded or led by women.

Since 2021, the fund has backed 46 companies, and that first $10 million of public money has pulled in more than $64 million in private co-investment. Every government dollar has attracted roughly six dollars of outside capital, well above the fund’s 3:1 target on individual deals. That leverage ratio is the headline argument for keeping the program funded.

The top-up also arrives after the fund’s future was reportedly in question. An opinion piece in SmartCompany argued the scheme was “under threat,” noting it had backed women founders at the pre-seed stage, when investors often want more proof and more time. The new $10 million answers, at least for now, the question of whether Victoria would keep funding the program.

How a Sidecar Fund Actually Works

The Alice Anderson Fund is not a grant program, and it does not work like a typical venture fund. LaunchVic runs it as a sidecar fund. The agency does not lead investment rounds or pick startups on its own. Instead, private investors, including venture capital funds and angel groups, bring deals to LaunchVic, and the fund matches a portion of that private capital.

According to LaunchVic’s published program details, the fund typically co-invests between $50,000 and $300,000 per deal, on roughly a 3:1 ratio: for every dollar the fund puts in, private investors contribute about three. LaunchVic also splits its contribution between equity and a non-dilutive grant component, a blend designed to soften the dilution hit for early-stage founders while still giving taxpayers a stake in the upside.

One detail founders often miss: you cannot apply to the fund directly. An eligible private investor has to apply on the startup’s behalf, which pushes LaunchVic’s capital toward deals that already carry professional investor backing. The fund is industry-agnostic, though its track record so far leans toward health technology and consumer products and services.

Who Qualifies: The Rules and the Two Pathways

Eligibility is specific. A startup must be registered in Victoria, with at least half of its assets and employees based in the state, and it must already have raised at least $150,000 in private capital. That last rule cuts out the earliest idea-stage companies.

On the gender side, LaunchVic offers two different ways to qualify:

Pathway A: women hold at least 50% of the company’s equity. No separate leadership or board requirement applies.

Pathway B: women hold at least 30% of equity, plus the company has a woman in the CEO, COO, CTO, or equivalent role, plus at least 30% of the board, where a board exists, is female.

The two-pathway design is deliberate. It catches both founding teams where women hold majority ownership and teams where ownership is mixed but women still hold the senior operating roles that shape strategy and product decisions. LaunchVic’s guidelines treat those two patterns as equally important to closing the funding gap.

The Track Record: 46 Companies and $64 Million

By LaunchVic’s own count, the fund has co-invested in 46 companies founded by Victorian women since 2021. The government’s announcement highlights a couple of outcomes to show the fund’s reach: a health-tech company later acquired by the NYSE-listed Teladoc, and a virtual reality company focused on reducing pain and anxiety during medical procedures. Those are the proof points LaunchVic needs, since a sidecar fund only works if enough of its portfolio eventually returns capital to both the state and the private co-investors who came in alongside it.

What the public record does not show is a named recipient building developer tools or AI products. The criteria are industry-agnostic, but any claim that the scheme is bankrolling Australia’s next generation of women-led software companies would be getting ahead of what has actually been confirmed.

Why Victoria Felt It Had to Act

The case for the top-up rests on a funding gap that is persistent and well documented. The government’s announcement states that all-women founding teams received just 2% of Australian venture capital. LaunchVic’s own research found that between 2018 and 2021, only 4% of Australian VC funding went to women-founded startups at all.

The deal-size gap is starker still. Cut Through Venture data from 2025, cited by LaunchVic, puts the median deal size at $4.5 million for all-male founding teams and $500,000 for all-women teams. Victoria also notes that 45% of its startups have at least one female founder, yet only 16% of startups that received investment had a woman on the founding team. Women are starting companies at a healthy rate; a much smaller share are getting funded. That gap is what the fund is meant to address.

The Namesake: Australia’s First All-Woman Motor Garage

The fund’s name is not incidental. Alice Anderson founded Australia’s first all-woman motor garage in the 1920s, training women as mechanics and chauffeurs when the car trade was almost entirely male. LaunchVic chose her as the namesake to signal that women backing other women in business has a century of Victorian precedent behind it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a startup apply to the Alice Anderson Fund directly?

No. LaunchVic does not accept applications from founders. An eligible private investor, such as a venture fund or angel group, must apply to the fund on the startup’s behalf as part of a round it is already backing.

How much can a single startup receive?

The fund typically co-invests between $50,000 and $300,000 per deal, with private investors expected to put in roughly three dollars for every dollar the fund contributes. LaunchVic splits its contribution between equity and a non-dilutive grant component.

What are the eligibility requirements?

The startup must be registered in Victoria with at least half of its assets and employees in the state, and it must have already raised at least $150,000 in private capital. On gender leadership, it must meet one of two pathways: at least 50% female ownership, or at least 30% female ownership combined with a woman CEO, COO, CTO, or equivalent and at least 30% female board representation.