Telstra Ventures, Australia-based telecommunications firm Telstra’s corporate venturing unit, has raised $50m for a sidecar fund, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday.
The fund, dubbed Telstra Ventures Fund II Sidecar, has three investors including a commitment from a general partner that would be Telstra itself. The corporate has not dislcosed details of the vehicle but it will likely provide follow-on funding to existing investments from the unit’s second fund.
Formed in 2011, Telstra Ventures claims to be the largest venture capital fund in Australia and has invested a total of over $350m in more than 60 portfolio companies. Its exits include file managemtn platform developer Box, e-signature platform DocuSign and app development software provider Nginx.
The unit began raising its Fund II in April 2018 according to a separate regulatory filing. It also formed a $500m vehicle with private equity firm HarbourVest in July 2018 that was set to take over management of the Telstra Ventures portfolio.
