15  September, 2022

Australian Investment Council announces 2022 Investing for Growth Award winners

GOLD COAST: The Australian Investment Council has tonight announced the winners of its 2022 Investing for Growth Awards.

The awards, judged by a panel of industry peers, were presented across nine categories at the Council’s two-day annual Australian Investment Conference on the Gold Coast. They are for outstanding contribution by Australian private capital firms in growing and scaling companies, achieving excellent financial performance in their portfolio company investments, and accomplishing positive non-financial outcomes, including social impact in the broader community.

Held at the JW Marriott, the event was attended by more than 480 private equity, venture capital, private credit professionals, family offices, superannuation funds, institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, financial, legal and industry advisers.

Investing for Growth Award winners 2022

More about the Investing for Growth Awards

Venture Capital Investment – OneVentures, Employment Hero

OneVentures worked extensively with the founders of Employment Hero prior to formation of the business. The firm developed significant operational synergies with the founders to create a company that has become a fast-growing business with a strong value proposition providing HR and payroll services to a global customer base.

Corporate Venture Capital Investment – NAB Ventures, ActivePipe

Founded in 2015, Melbourne-based ActivePipe is an SaaS-based automated marketing platform for the residential real estate industry. It allows mortgage brokers to leverage insights on the buyer behaviours of potential clients which inform automatically generated lending leads and emails to their contact base. NAB Ventures supported ActivePipe through a number of funding rounds, negotiated deals with major end-users and other industry participants, and increased sales and output levels during the investment period.

Small-Cap Investment Under $100MN – Quadrant Private Equity, Arq Group

Arq Group was originally Melbourne IT – one of the first technology companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Over its corporate history, Arq Group acquired several service offerings to create two distinct divisions of Enterprise IT services, and SME IT services. Through a Management Buy-In, Quadrant acquired Arq Group's Enterprise IT services division – a collection of the old Melbourne IT business, offering cloud services; along with Outware providing digital services, and InfoReady, providing data services. With management, Arq Group was transformed into an integrated Enterprise IT services business with capabilities across Digital, Data, Cloud, and Managed Services, working with some of the largest companies and Government enterprises in Australia and is growing its footprint in New Zealand.

Mid-Cap Investment $100-$250MN – Next Capital, NZ Bus

Next Capital was introduced to NZ Bus during the peak of the pandemic. The firm saw an opportunity to transition the business to the new operating regime, consolidating, modernising an old-fashioned transport industry, and driving the electrification / decarbonisation of the fleet while achieving fantastic return for investors.

Upper Mid-Cap Investment $250- $500MN – Quadrant Private Equity, Probe CX

Quadrant partnered with the management of Probe CX to significantly expand the businesses’ cloud-based service offering to meet customer needs both onshore and offshore. Probe CX is now the largest provider of outsourced CX and BPO services in Australia and New Zealand, employs over 15,000-plus staff and services more than 600 clients in 33 offices across the globe.

Large Cap >$500MN Large Cap >$500MN – Pacific Equity Partners, Intellihub

Pacific Equity Partners acquired Intellihub and Acumen in June 2018, and Metrix in March 2019 and merged these businesses to create an industry leading provider of smart metering services across Australia and New Zealand. Intellihub completed the world-first A$1.45 billion Green Loan financing under the Climate Bond Initiative’s Electrical Grids and Storage criteria in 2021. The five-year facility, which had received various global accolades, will fund the rapid rollout of smart meters to homes across Australia and New Zealand.

Leadership in Diversity & Inclusion – Adamantem and OneVentures

Adamantem incorporates diversity and inclusion across every aspect of its operations from encouraging an environment where everyone has a voice, to a comprehensive Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, an Inclusion and Diversity Action Plan, cultural leave, and flexible working arrangements. As a minimum, the firm has no single gender deal teams and requests the same gender diversity requirements of its advisers.

OneVentures has a 50% gender balance and women comprise 70% of the firm’s investment team. At a portfolio level, diversity is always considered during the due diligence process and is discussed at all stages of the company’s lifecycle.

For further information, please contact:

Robyn Tolhurst
Public Affairs Manager
Australian Investment Council
E: [email protected] | M: +61 436 388 919 

About the Australian Investment Council

The Australian Investment Council is the voice of private capital in Australia. Private capital investment has played a central role in the growth and expansion of thousands of businesses, which when combined represents a multi-billion dollar contribution to the Australian economy. Our members are the standard-bearers of professional investment and include: private equity, venture capital and private credit funds, alongside institutional investors such as superannuation and sovereign wealth funds, as well as leading financial, legal and operational advisers. The Australian Investment Council requests its name always appear in full and not abbreviated or as an acronym.