Invest Victoria

Invest Victoria

Invest Victoria operates as the State of Victoria's dedicated investment attraction agency, housed within the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions (DJSIR). CEO Danni Jarrett oversees a mandate that fuses traditional FDI facilitation with direct capital deployment. The agency runs two dedicated investment vehicles: the Victorian Equity Investment Attraction Fund (VEIAF) and the Venture Growth Fund (VGF), alongside its central partnership with Breakthrough Victoria, a A$2 billion innovation fund. This structure is uncommon — few Australian state agencies blend trade-office diplomacy with a checkbook. The agency's investment scope spans advanced manufacturing, digital health, clean energy, agri-food tech, and enterprise software. Deployment flows through multiple channels: direct co-investments alongside Breakthrough Victoria, the Venture Growth Fund's debt and equity instruments, and the Equity Attraction Fund, which underwrites anchor capital to draw external VCs into Victorian startups. The agency's global footprint extends across 15 international trade offices — from San Francisco and New York to Shanghai and Seoul — through the Victorian Government Trade and Investment (VGTI) network. Physical assets under Invest Victoria's investment facilitation remit include major urban precincts: Arden Precinct, Fishermans Bend, the Melbourne Connect Innovation Precinct, and Docklands. In a structural consolidation, Victoria's startup agency LaunchVic was integrated with Breakthrough Victoria and folded into Invest Victoria's 'Investment Front Door' strategy, centralizing the state's entire innovation-capital funnel under Jarrett's umbrella. The agency maintains deep institutional ties through the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the World Chambers Federation. The DJSIR, as the parent department, ensures capital deployment remains aligned with state-level employment and economic-development targets. Invest Victoria's structural differentiator is its dual character: it acts as both a government investment authority and a venture-growth facilitator. The agency does not simply issue grants — it takes equity stakes and provides growth debt, then measures success by jobs created, precincts developed, and external capital attracted to Victorian companies. This model makes Invest Victoria a non-discretionary co-investment partner for any GP seeking an Australian operational anchor with government-aligned incentives.