Signal Ventures co-founder Atlanta Daniel has joined forces with Australia’s only accelerator and investment fund for creative tech startups to help the “niche” sector grow and develop.
As an official startup advocate for Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA), Daniel says she will work to brighten the spotlight on the creative startup sector.
“Right now in Australia there is such an opportunity in seed stage startups and CEA is specialising in creative tech which I think is a real niche that is not being serviced,” she tells StartupSmart.
Through this partnership, Daniel’s key responsibilities will be to drive up exposure to CEA’s investment fund and programs, as well as bringing “a bit of deal flow” through the rest of Australia outside Queensland.
Working with CEA, Daniel will be helping to bring influential speakers from Australia and around the world to the upcoming Creative 3 Pitch event, one that’s aimed at connecting creative industry ventures with investors.
Daniel says there is definitely interest from the investor market to back startups and new tech emerging out of creative industries like film and TV, fashion, music and game development.
“Fashion tech is really exciting in Australia right now, it’s an area we can have a lot of ownership,” she says.
“We’ve got quite a long history of amazing indie tech in game development here.”
Despite the interest, the challenge has been having the expertise to make the right call about investing in these types of ventures, she says.
“The CEA fund helps other investors co-invest with someone who has that expertise,” Daniel says.
Daniel coming on board is a vote of confidence for the creative startup sector, CEA CEO Anna Rooke says.
“Atlanta is a huge champion of startups in Australia and we are confident that our initiatives to support and grow Australia’s creative tech startup ecosystem will benefit greatly from her expertise,” Rooke says.
“Atlanta’s excellent network and insider expertise of the startup space is well aligned with the work we do at CEA, and having such a well-integrated tech investor actively support our work is testament to the viability of Australia’s creative industries.”
Earlier this year, Signal Ventures launched a $10 million fund to help high-growth startups with seed funding.
Daniel has also made a dedicated effort in recent times to appear more frequently at live events and panels, furthering her support of more inclusive and higher quality startup communities across Australia.
“I’ve got a real passion for seed stage tech startups, it’s something that I care a lot about,” Daniel says.
“We have so much talent, there are a lot of resources and I’d like to connect the two.”
Follow StartupSmart on Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn and SoundCloud.
