Square Peg Capital

Square Peg was founded in Melbourne by Paul Bassat, Tony Holt, Barry Brott and Justin Liberman. Bassat co-founded employment website SEEK; Holt had an investment banking background; Brott had been an MYOB executive; Liberman was a Jagen family-office principal. All four remain listed as co-founders on the current team page, with Bassat and Holt also designated partners.⁠[4][5]

In a 2021 retrospective, Tony Holt explained that Square Peg used company-specific SPVs before 2016, calling the 2012–2016 pool Fund 0. During the 2015 PropertyGuru and Fiverr investments, simultaneous diligence and fundraising created pressure and required personal underwriting to give founders certainty, helping drive the shift to funds. The retrospective also said roughly half of each fund’s capital was reserved for follow-on investments.⁠[6]

Square Peg’s 2020 review recorded a $450 million fourth fund vintage, $116 million invested during the year, eight new portfolio companies, follow-ons in 13 companies and $400 million returned to investors. It opened its Singapore office in the third quarter with Tushar Roy and Ed Barker relocating there. Piruze Sabuncu, previously Stripe’s head of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, joined as partner in the fourth quarter.⁠[7]

Square Peg launched its Global Tech Fund in 2021, extending early-stage technology research into global listed markets. A 2024 strategy explanation described an absolute-return approach with a concentrated portfolio of roughly 10–20 businesses, favouring founder-led technology companies early in their listed journeys with sustained growth potential. Core venture funds support early development, Opportunities Funds support scaling, and Global Tech Fund covers the public-market stage.⁠[3]

The firm’s fifth fundraising vintage comprised Square Peg Fund 4 and Opportunities Fund 2, bringing cumulative commitments since inception above $1.6 billion. Fund 4 typically invested from seed to Series B; Opportunities Fund 2 supported later rounds in emerging portfolio winners after available venture-fund capital was used. Hostplus backed the firm for a fourth time, with AustralianSuper and Roc Partners returning. Early deployments included Kula, Supabase and further AirwallexAirwallexAirwallex is a financial technology company founded in Melbourne in 2015, with dual headquarters in Singapore and San Francisco. It provides cross-border payments, multicurrency accounts, spend management, billing and embedded finance for businesses.Open the full entry support.⁠[8]

The half-year letter published July 21, 2026 confirmed final closes of Square Peg Fund 6 and Opportunities Fund 3 during the first half, without disclosing their exact sizes. The firm reported 30% aggregate portfolio growth over 12 months, three exits returning $138 million during the half and cumulative realisations above $1 billion, including Talon.One’s acquisition by Adyen. The 30% figure measures reported portfolio growth rather than investors’ net returns.⁠[9]

The same letter described assessing existing businesses through AI’s effect on competitive advantages and the company’s response. Recent early-stage themes included Byron’s business-tax agents, Lorikeet’s customer support, Sumble’s sales intelligence and Cuttable’s advertising automation. It identified Supabase as the largest position in the 2022 vintage and a holding across multiple Opportunities Funds.⁠[9]

On November 10, 2026, Square Peg published Ed Barker’s investment note on Alta (financial infrastructure)Alta (financial infrastructure)A blockchain payments and settlement infrastructure company for financial institutions, co-founded by Loong Wang, Catherine Porter and Jack Zhang.Open the full entry’s $47.5 million Series A. Alta confirmed Index VenturesIndex VenturesIndex Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in Geneva in 1996. It invests from seed through growth and operates across London, San Francisco and New York, supporting technology companies through a transatlantic network.Open the full entry led, with GV, Blackbird VenturesBlackbird VenturesBlackbird Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2012, primarily backing Australian and New Zealand founders through early-stage and growth funds and operating startup community programs.Open the full entry, Square Peg and Capital 49Capital 49Capital 49 is a venture capital firm established in 2021 by Airwallex founders to invest in early-stage technology companies, focusing on AI infrastructure and applications, enterprise platforms, fintech and payments.Open the full entry participating. Square Peg described an institutional layer-1 blockchain with Airwallex as its first design partner. The note identified taking the network live with initial partners, shipping the first product and expanding the team as next steps still to be completed.⁠[10][11]

The website identifies seed to Series A as its preferred entry stage, selecting a small number of new founders annually and investing three times per company on average. Ownership commonly ranges from 10% to 20%, with flexibility to lead or participate at other levels. Its process includes initial conversations, team and market research, customer interviews and a global investment-team meeting; approval requires three affirmative votes. Support includes talent and global-network assistance.⁠[2]

The website lists venture partners Paul Bassat, Tony Holt, Dan Krasnostein, Tushar Roy, Piruze Sabuncu, Philippe Schwartz and Yonatan Sela across Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore and Tel Aviv, with Sam Eden in San Francisco. Leila Lee is partner and head of distribution, Amanda Hjorring partner and COO, and Luke Stevens CFO. Investors include pension funds, university endowments, family offices, wealth advisers, founders and staff. New funds are typically raised every two to three years.⁠[5][12]

The official website is https://www.squarepeg.vc/ (opens in a new window). The website identifies Square Peg Capital Pty Ltd as an authorised representative of Victoria Capital Pty Ltd, Australian Financial Services Licence 428989. Connections include SEEK, Jagen, Canva, Airwallex, Rokt, Supabase and Alta, alongside fund backers Hostplus, AustralianSuper and Roc Partners.⁠[1][4][8][10]