Victoria took the biggest share of enterprise capital funding raised nationally for the primary time in 2025, in accordance with the most recent Victoria Enterprise Capital report.
In line with the report, launched by Lower By Enterprise and sponsored by LaunchVic, Victorian startups raised $2.2 billion throughout 134 offers in 2025. This represents a 2.9x year-on-year enhance and it’s the second-highest 12 months on document for the state.
Nevertheless, it’s value noting that regardless of the massive greenback worth, Victoria recorded the second-highest deal depend, trailing NSW for the highest spot.
Larger cheques, fewer small rounds
Victoria’s outcome seems to have been pushed by a rebound on the high finish of the market. Rounds between $20 million and $49.9 million elevated from 4 in 2024 to 17 in 2025. In the meantime, $50 million-plus rounds rose from three to 6.
On the similar time, early-stage exercise softened. Sub-$5 million rounds fell from 87 in 2024 to 66 in 2025, and $5 million to $19.9 million rounds declined from 29 to 17.
Median deal sizes rose throughout each stage, with pre-seed median rounds rising to $925,000, up from $675,000 in 2024. Seed medians lifted to $3.2 million, whereas Sequence A median deal dimension climbed to $15 million from $6 million the 12 months prior.
Sequence B+ medians rose to $40 million from $17 million, pointing to stronger pricing for corporations that cleared the next funding bar.
The entire determine was bolstered by Airwallex, which raised $498 million in a Series G earlier than Christmas. The Melbourne-founded fintech relocated its headquarters to Hong Kong in 2018, after simply 3 years in Victoria, and is now primarily based in Singapore with a twin HQ within the US whereas being domiciled within the Cayman Islands.
Sector combine diverges from nationwide development
One other fascinating tidbit was Victoria’s sector composition, which differed from the nationwide image. Capital was concentrated in fintech ($759 million) and biotech and medTech ($526 million), adopted by local weather tech/cleantech ($208 million) and healthtech ($165 million).
However as we reported earlier in the month, the highest sector for VC funding in 2025 throughout Australia was AI, which was comparatively small as a standalone class in Victoria.
Nevertheless, Lower By Enterprise’s analysis discovered that 75% of startups that raised capital in 2025 had an AI product on the shelf.
As we famous on the time, this urged that AI is more and more embedded throughout classes moderately than working as a definite vertical. And that oftentimes, a startup needed to embody an AI angle to draw funding in 2025.
Combined outcomes for ladies founders
The report additionally revealed that Victoria led the states within the share of capital flowing to startups with at the very least one lady founder, with 37% of enterprise capital funding going to groups that included a girl.
That determine stands in distinction to the nationwide common from early February, the place startups with at the very least one lady founder captured 24% of complete capital in 2025, up from 15% the 12 months earlier than.
Nevertheless, as we have now seen earlier than with the nationwide statistics, the Victorian knowledge reveals a well-known pressure beneath the headline positive factors.
The share of capital going to all-women founding groups in Victoria fell sharply to simply 1% in 2025, down from 17% in 2024 and marking the bottom stage in additional than 5 years.
Nationally, all-women groups captured simply 2% of complete capital in 2025, which is just about unchanged from earlier years. In the meantime, the share of complete offers involving girls founders fell from 27% to 23%.
In Victoria, mixed-gender and all-women groups additionally recorded decrease total deal participation year-on-year, significantly at pre-seed and seed levels. Later-stage participation was stronger, contributing to a rebound in median deal dimension for women-only groups to $500,000 in 2025.
As with the nationwide knowledge, the Victorian outcomes recommend capital on the high finish could also be enhancing for some girls founders. Nevertheless, participation for earlier-stage startups tells the identical previous story.
