# 3 Chiefs 3 Chiefs is a Venture Capital based in Adelaide, Australia. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Venture Capital - **Headquarters:** Adelaide, Australia - **Region:** Oceania - **Address:** Adelaide, South Australia, Australia - **Founded:** 2021 - **Assets under management:** <$50M (Altss estimate) - **Website:** 3chiefs.vc - **LinkedIn:** linkedin.com/company/3-chiefs ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About 3 Chiefs is a private equity firm based in Adelaide, Australia. It focuses on venture capital investments. The firm has a team of three staff, including three investment professionals. ## Sectors - Enterprise Software - AI/ML - ClimateTech - Industrial Tech - AgriTech & FoodTech ## People - Aaron Birkby — Co-Founder & Partner - Charlie Gearside — Co-Founder & Partner - Mathew Xerri — Co-Founder & Partner ## Questions ### Who runs investment decisions at 3 Chiefs? Aaron Birkby, Charlie Gearside, and Mathew Xerri share equal responsibility for investment decisions. The three co-founders operate without a managing partner hierarchy, with each partner taking board seats on portfolio companies within their domain expertise. No single partner holds veto power over the other two; decisions are made by consensus. ### How does 3 Chiefs source deal flow? The firm sources through a combination of the partners' personal networks built across Australian accelerator programs, corporate venture, and operator communities. Birkby's tenure running Startup Catalyst gives the firm a pipeline into technical founder circles, while Gearside's corporate venturing background surfaces enterprise-focused companies. The Adelaide base also provides preferential access to spinouts from South Australia's defence and space technology clusters. ### Is 3 Chiefs a traditional venture fund or a syndicate? 3 Chiefs operates primarily as a deal-by-deal syndicate rather than a blind-pool venture fund. The firm raises capital for each investment individually from a curated network of angel investors, family offices, and operators. This structure allows flexible cheque sizes and co-investment terms but means the firm does not manage a committed fund with a fixed AUM. ### What cheque size does 3 Chiefs typically write? The firm writes first cheques in the range of approximately AUD 250,000 to AUD 750,000 into pre-seed and seed rounds. Because 3 Chiefs syndicates each deal, the effective round size co-ordinated by the firm can be larger when including co-investors from its network. Specific round sizes vary deal by deal. ### Which sectors does 3 Chiefs explicitly avoid? 3 Chiefs does not invest in consumer-facing mobile apps, pure-play e-commerce, or hardware-intensive businesses requiring significant capital expenditure before revenue. The firm focuses on capital-efficient business-to-business software, industrial and climate technology, and applied AI, where founders can reach early revenue milestones without large-scale manufacturing or consumer marketing spend. ### Why is the firm headquartered in Adelaide rather than Sydney or Melbourne? The three co-founders were all based in Adelaide when they formed the partnership in 2021. Operating from South Australia gives the firm differentiated access to defence and space technology spinouts, regional agtech companies, and university research commercialisation that is less heavily competed for by Sydney and Melbourne venture firms. The lower cost base also allows the firm to operate with a lean structure. ## Related profiles - [2enable Partners](https://altss.com/profile/2enable-partners) - [3.0 Fund](https://altss.com/profile/30-fund) --- Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/3-chiefs Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology