Growth Equity for Passionate Companies
Shearwater Growth Equity invests in founders who we like and trust and who are passionate about building great companies.
We have three founders as partners. We’ve all sat on your side of the table and built our own businesses.
With Shearwater, we’re investing our own capital and experience to help you build a generationally great business.
WE focus ON B2B SAAS
…but we’re infinitely inquisitive
Our experience lends itself to technology start-ups who are building impressive businesses and need our experience and venture capital to grow. We look for growth equity positions [+], where we’re all on the same side of the table. We’re interested in founder-friendly terms and simple capital tables with aligned, participating shareholders. Because we don’t have limited partners (i.e. external funding sources), we don’t have a fund horizon. This lets us play the long-game for the truly outstanding companies.
Fundamentally, what matters to us is that we back great founders to build world-class businesses.
What you’LL get with Shearwater
We promise you three founding partners who will engage deeply with you as the founder and CEO of your business. Amongst the three partners, we have launched over five companies. We have IPO’d two companies, been involved in trade sales of our companies, one for over $100m. Mike and Charles have sat on the board of WiseTech for 14+ years and as early investors have helped the business grow from early-seed stage to a $7 billion + valuation today.
With Shearwater, you won’t get passive investors, but equally we won’t tell you how to run your business. We won’t try to engineer an outcome with your business. We won’t stop funding at a particular round. We won’t screw you or your business. And we won’t need to sell after a certain period of time; in fact we’re looking for long-term participants in our fund. We’re open to funding your business at any stage in your journey.
We expect that our founders will act with high integrity and talk-straight with us without exception. We believe in founders who value their own equity highly and we look for relationships that are based on shared respect and trust.
Our Investment Focus
Great People
Passionate entrepreneurs that we like and want to work with.
Complex Domains
Companies that are solving significant problems.
Business Software
Software that has the capacity to be a mission critical app in time.
Recurring Revenue
Business models which are – or look like – recurring revenue.
Growing Markets
Markets which are rapidly growing (though we often find the best SaaS businesses start with small TAMs).
Companies we can help
Companies and founders who have a deep ability to scale and learn and where we understand their domains.
The things above are what we value and look for in our investments.
But we’re infinitely inquisitive.
So if your business doesn’t necessarily tick all these boxes and you are raising venture / growth capital or might in the future, please drop us a line.
Shearwater
OUR Portfolio Companies
In 2018, Playground was third in the Deloitte Fast 50 Australia Rising Star businesses and named B&T‘s Marketing Technology Company of the Year. Playground has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, London, LA and New York.
Earlytrade is a platform that enables corporates, and their suppliers to collaborate transparently to negotiate invoice terms in return for early payment.
Our Partners
Zac Zavos
Zac studied an Arts degree in Psychology and Sociology. He joined IBM Global Services shortly after graduating. While at IBM, he completed a Master of Commerce in information systems and management.
Zac Zavos
Managing Partner & Founding Partner
Charles Gibbon
Charles trained as an econometrician prior to becoming an analyst in London with stockbroker, Kitcat & Aitken. Returning to Australian he managed institutional money with Schroders and Morgan, Grenfell & Co.
Charles Gibbon
Founding Partner
Mike Gregg
Mike started his career in retail, managing Nock & Kirby stores before completing his MBA. He was the GM of the paging business, before leading Health Communication Network (HCN) in 1995.
Mike Gregg
Founding Partner
We focus on Australia & NZ
Our primary market is for Australian and New Zealand businesses with global ambitions.
