# Starfish Ventures

Starfish Ventures is a Venture Capital based in Melbourne, Australia.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Venture Capital
- **Headquarters:** Melbourne, Australia
- **Region:** Oceania
- **Address:** Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- **Founded:** 2001
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** starfishvc.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/starfish-ventures

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Starfish Ventures manages over $385 million in investment funds. Their focus areas include life sciences, cleantech, and information technology. Investments have been made in 73 companies, with the latest being Dial4242 in September 2023.

## Sectors

- Enterprise Software
- Digital Health
- AgriTech & FoodTech
- FinTech
- AI/ML

## People

- Michael Panaccio — Co-Founder and Investment Director
- Tony Glenning — Investment Director

## Questions

### Who makes investment decisions at Starfish Ventures?

Investment decisions are led by Co-Founder and Investment Director Michael Panaccio, alongside Investment Director Tony Glenning. Panaccio has anchored the firm's investment committee since its founding in 2001. The partnership has historically remained small, with decision-making concentrated among its senior directors.

### How does Starfish Ventures source its deals?

The firm draws proprietary deal flow from Australia's university research-commercialization ecosystem, CSIRO spinouts, and affiliated medical-research institutes. This contrasts with broker-intermediated sourcing and gives Starfish early visibility into scientific founder teams commercializing IP from Australian academic labs.

### Does Starfish Ventures invest outside Australia?

The firm's primary geographic mandate is Australia and New Zealand. It has made selective investments in US-based companies with Australian founding teams, maintaining a nexus to its domestic sourcing network even when backing offshore-incorporated entities.

### What is Starfish Ventures' relationship with Australian institutional investors?

Australian superannuation funds and government innovation programs have been recurring limited partners across the firm's fund families. These relationships provided a stable institutional capital base that supported Starfish's long-duration deep-tech strategy through venture-market cycles.

## Related profiles

- [Starfish Growth Partners](https://altss.com/profile/starfish-growth-partners)
- [Stargazer Ventures](https://altss.com/profile/stargazer-ventures)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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