CP Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
CP Ventures is a Sydney-based early-stage venture firm, investing globally since 2018. Its core belief is that power-law returns come from "great ideas before they are obvious": contrarian opportunities that are good but overlooked, hard to identify, slow to explain and attract little investor attention. The firm buys before the market re-prices the idea to consensus. A contrarian idea is only half the test; the founder must have the clarity of vision and tenacity to build an unobvious business, and the firm says no if it does not believe the founder is one of those rare people.
Sector Focus
CP is explicitly generalist technology and says it does not pick sectors. It does not invest outside technology (no resources, property or consumer brands). By capital deployed, the portfolio is 31.6% deep tech, 19.4% artificial intelligence, 10.6% financial services, 9.7% content and publishing, 8.7% software, 8.6% sales and marketing, 5.1% education and 3.3% data and analytics. Examples range from room-temperature quantum computing (Quantum Brilliance) and thermal energy storage (MGA Thermal) to continuous molecular diagnostics (Nutromics) and wireless positioning (ZaiNar).
Stage Focus
First cheques at pre-seed and seed, with follow-on support through Series A and beyond. Fund III reserves the majority of investable capital for follow-ons into companies that are working. The firm wants capital working from the first round because the earliest money earns the largest multiple.
Check Size
No check size is published. Funds I and II each hold about 20 companies. Fund III is planned at around 12 companies with most capital reserved for follow-on, which implies concentrated, heavy positions, but no dollar range is stated.
Lead Tendency
Not stated. The firm says it invests heavily and follows on to signal confidence and hold its position, and it prefers observer seats over board seats and straight equity over preferred shares. Lead tendency is recorded as unknown.
Recent Activity
Fund III is in formation: a proposed ESVCLP (not yet registered), around 12 companies, at least 80% Australian and up to 20% offshore, no management fee, 20% performance fee rising to 25% above 5x, ten-year term extendable to 15. Funds I and II are fully deployed. Recent portfolio news includes Nutromics presenting real-time creatinine data at Kidney Week (October 2026), TemperPack acquiring Cruz Foam's IP (October 2026), and Skylark Labs research on continuously learning robots (September 2026).
Portfolio Highlights
63 investments across two funds in 7 countries, with 36 companies listed on the portfolio page. Fund I (2018 vintage ESVCLP) reports 5.4x MOIC and 28% IRR; Fund II (2020 vintage global unit trust) reports 5.4x and 35% IRR, as at 30 June 2026, audited, gross of carry. Both are described as top decile on TVPI against Carta and Preqin cohorts. Total value is A$111m. Marks: ZaiNar 92x, Skylark Labs 70x, Nutromics 32x, LeadStory 31x, Kami 19x realised. Kami was acquired in 2024 for NZ$300m and returned half of Fund I.
Team
- Emlyn Scott, Managing Partner (Markets and Finance): 30+ years in finance and technology; founder of OpenMarkets Group, former CEO of the National Stock Exchange of Australia, nine years at LCH.Clearnet; 70+ venture investments and a similar number of angel investments (DataRobot, Calm, Cerebras).
- Chris Sang, Managing Partner (Technology): 30+ years building systems for banks, insurers and car makers; angel portfolio of about 100 startups including seven unicorns; board member and former CTO of I'm In The Right.
Decision Process
Two managing partners who have invested together since 2018. Every company goes through in-house AI-assisted screening across 18 core areas, quantitative and qualitative. The firm treats the process as a partnership.
Founder Preferences
Founders with a rare ability to build an unobvious business and take a market apart, with clarity of vision and tenacity. Technical and deep-tech founders feature heavily, but the firm is sector-agnostic.
Geographic Focus
Australia is 52.3% of capital deployed, the United States 31.7%, Singapore 8.3%, India 3.4%, New Zealand 2.7% and Colombia 1.6%. Fund I is Australian-weighted; Fund II is internationally weighted; Fund III must be at least 80% Australian under ESVCLP rules.
Gaps
Check size range, lead tendency and investment dates beyond month of first investment are not published. Stage per company is not stated, so none is recorded.