Mapping Australia’s Funding Landscape: What Investors Actually Want in 2025/26

Key themes: what can attendees expect to learn

▶ The liquidity mirage – how ZIRP inflated your valuation: Webinar attendees will gain insights into the shifting macroeconomic forces that shape startup valuations and in turn impact on fundraising timing and the available sources of capital. They’ll also gain an understanding of why investor expectations have moved from pure excitement to disciplined execution, driven by the AI experience to date, the reality that interest rates stayed high for longer than markets were anticipating, as well as tighter liquidity, changing geopolitics and the re-regionalisation of critical material supply chains.

▶ The AI Distortion and lessons from the Dot-Com bubble: Mainstream media assertions that the AI-driven opportunity landscape might be “rhyming” with the dot-com era will also be explored to help anticipate investor mindset and behaviour in this new frontier.

▶ Mapping Australia’s funding landscape, and what investors actually want in 2025: A broad overview of the Australian innovation funding landscape, the key categories of capital providers that founders should be aware of, and what they will be looking for in 2025 and 2026 will also be covered.

▶ pitchhawk launch: Last but not least, the webinar introduces pitchhawk—a tech-enabled services platform created by Mike Ganon and powered by three decades of know-how across hundreds of transactions. pitchhawk helps founders and innovators uncover the true investability of their business, then fortify what’s strong and rebuild what’s missing before stepping in front of investors. Unlike traditional fundraising prep which tends to paper over gaps, pitchhawk focuses on the underlying business and investment thesis, delivering genuine business fortification and investor readiness, at a fraction of the cost and time.Whether you’re pre-seed, raising Series A or later, or preparing for IPO, or exit, pitchhawk ensures you’re truly investor-ready before entering the capital markets.

About the speakers

• Mike Ganon is an on-the-tools expert in corporate development, financing, mergers and acquisitions, investing and capital markets. Starting in the post-crash environment of 1990, he’s built a diverse career as a project financier, equity underwriter, investment banker, responsible manager, key person for a private equity fund manager and founder of two corporate advisory firms. He’s advised on and arranged hundreds of transactions across Industry 2, 3, and 4, on six continents and with deal credits in the double figure billions. Mike backs startups and scaleups directly and also invests indirectly as a limited partner. Leading NextLevelCorporate which he founded in 2001, he continues to work across the full advisory and transactional spectrum—private and public fundraising, M&A, exits, and professional investing—and has authored over 430 articles on key macro and financial factors that impact on Western Australian business. Mike is passionate about bringing unique and accessible investor readiness “superpowers” to founders and intrapreneurs—and through pitchhawk, he is helping them transform their innovations into compelling and dependable investment opportunities.
• Stephen Carroll is a leading R&D and innovation advisor who is passionate about the growth and development of businesses on their journey towards innovation. He brings over 25′ years of expertise in navigating the complexities of R&D Tax incentives, having held positions as R&D Tax Partner and Director in some of the largest Accounting firms in Australia working with businesses from a wide range of industries. Stephen serves as the President of the R&D Tax Advisors Association (RDTAA) and actively supports Western Australia’s innovation ecosystem through leadership roles, mentoring, and community engagement. Known for his proactive, tailored and well-informed client service approach, he is motivated by the opportunity to help businesses throughout their innovation journey. He is founder of Evolv3 as well as the WA Innovation Calendar which continues to benefit WA’s innovation and entrepreneurship community.