VC Playford raises near record funds

James Riley
Monday, 24 August 2009 10:50

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Despite tight financial markets, Adelaide-based Playford Capital generated more than $12 million in investment capital last financial year, with 70 per cent of it coming from private investors.

While the global financial crisis had taken the wind out of funding markets – especially in Q4 2008 and Q1 this year – Playford chief executive Amanda Heyworth said the company had continued to build momentum through the difficult period.

Using its own investment stake of $1.39 million, the company had attracted co-investment of $10.8 million for placement in innovative South Australian ventures.

The $12 million raised last financial year does not include the $7.45 million the company was awarded through the Federal Government’s Innovation Investment Follow-on Fund (IIFF). Playford won a 12 per cent share of the total fund on offer through the Department of Innovations, Industry, Science and Research.

“We have managed to raise as much co-investment in 2008-09 as in any other year,” Heyworth said . “One of the reasons for the high level of co-investment is that Playford Capital has a reputation for detailed due diligence that lowers the risk for its co-investors.”

The money raised my Playford brings to more than $90 million the company has raised since it was founded, with the rate of co-investment in Playford projects growing despite the difficulties.

The company’s investment portfolio include a variety of innovators in sectors ranging from wine and food processing and online marketing to power management and health technology.

Investments include e-channel, a search engine marketing specialist, whose Dynamic Creative software enables large, database-rich websites to automate keyword lists and optimise the performance of advertising campaigns, and Embertec, which is developing intelligent, power efficient solutions that target power reduction and the ultimate elimination of standby power for consumer electronics.

The company is also an early investor in Signostics, which is pioneering affordable, portable ultrasound devices. The company recently announced it had secured US Food and Drug Administration approval for its palm-sized ultrasound product.