About LaunchVic

LaunchVic is Victoria’s startup agency. We were established by the Victorian Government in March 2016 as an independent agency responsible for growing the State’s startup ecosystem.

LaunchVic’s role is to drive the long-term success of Victoria’s startup ecosystem recognising the valuable contribution startups have on the economy through the creation of high value jobs and gross revenue for the State.

With world-class educational institutions, research facilities, Australia’s largest biotech company, CSL and biotech unicorns Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals; Mesoblast; Polynovo; and Telix Pharmaceuticals – the sector has many parts that make it whole.

Unsurprisingly, HealthTech is also Victoria’s largest startup sector, with one in five startups focused on health.

The healthtech sector is also a major driver of startup jobs. In 2020, Victorian Healthtech companies added new jobs 55% faster than the already-over performing healthcare sector (+9.7% growth) and were one of three key sectors responsible for more than half of new startup jobs being created in the State of Victoria, Australia.

Melbourne also attracts approximately 40% of the nation’s Life Sciences funding annually.

Recognising this, LaunchVic has in the past few years invested in a number of founder and investor programs to further support its growing healthtech sector.

These investments include the MedTech Actuator, a seed-to-Series A accelerator for MedTech, HealthTech and BioTech startups; SBE by Springboard Enterprises Life Sciences Program and most recently a new sector-specific angel network dedicated to the support of early-stage healthtech startups, Australian Medical Angels.