Square Peg Research
Investment Thesis
Square Peg Capital is a generalist technology investor built around the belief that "founders from our corner of the world" — Australia and New Zealand, Israel, and Southeast Asia — will shape the future of global technology. Founded in Melbourne in 2012 by Paul Bassat, Tony Holt, Barry Brott, and Justin Liberman, the firm was built on the observation that when it launched, roughly 90% of tech unicorns came out of the US and China; today that share has fallen to closer to 50%, and Square Peg has positioned itself to back the founders driving that shift from outside Silicon Valley. The firm backs "a select number of new founders each year," prioritizing people above all else: entrepreneurs with compelling visions who can assemble talented, mission-driven teams to tackle large, important problems.
Sector Focus
Square Peg organizes its site and public messaging around three core themes: AI, Fintech, and SaaS. Historically the firm has concentrated on AI infrastructure and applications, B2B SaaS, and fintech, with growing interest in healthcare AI, cybersecurity, sales/marketing intelligence, and climate tech, while remaining open to exceptional opportunities outside its core themes. The portfolio spans healthcare AI (Aidoc, NexusMD, HealthMatch, Doctor Anywhere), security (Bugcrowd, Puresec, UpGuard, Sternum), sales and marketing intelligence (Sumble, Rokt), manufacturing AI (Limitless Labs), and climate/weather intelligence (Tomorrow.io), in addition to core fintech and SaaS.
Stage Focus
Square Peg's "sweet spot for new investments is Seed through Series A," and the firm has invested in founders "just weeks after they founded the company." It also runs a dedicated Opportunities Fund to double down on later-stage rounds (Series B and beyond) in its strongest portfolio companies, giving it a barbell strategy: very early conviction bets from the core venture fund, and concentrated follow-on capital from the Opportunities Fund as winners emerge.
Check Size
Square Peg does not publish a fixed check-size band, but its standard target ownership is roughly 10-20% per company, with flexibility depending on round dynamics and founder alignment. Recent disclosed rounds range from small pre-seed checks (e.g., a US$1.4M pre-seed in Source) up to US$30M Series A leads (Sumble), consistent with a firm that writes both small early bets and larger, ownership-preserving follow-ons.
Lead Tendency
Square Peg actively leads rounds and has a stated practice of investing an average of three times in each portfolio company over its life, reflecting a "repeated backing" philosophy rather than a single-check approach. Recent notes (Limitless Labs, Byron, Octen, Sumble, Pintarnya) show the firm leading rounds alongside smaller co-investors.
Recent Activity
The firm closed a US$650M first close across its sixth core venture fund (Fund 6) and a third Opportunities Fund in early 2026, continuing a five-fund, US$1.6B+ history since founding. It is actively deploying: leading a US$20M Series A in Limitless Labs (AI for CNC manufacturing, June 2026), a US$6.5M seed in Byron (AI tax-prep agent for CPA firms, May 2026), a US$10M seed in Octen (real-time LLM-native search infrastructure, March 2026), a US$30M Series A in Sumble (AI-native sales intelligence, October 2025), a US$16.7M Series A in Pintarnya (Indonesian financial-inclusion platform, August 2025), and an A$6.3M investment in NexusMD (clinical AI scribe, June 2025).
Portfolio Highlights
Square Peg has backed Australia's three highest-valued private tech companies at various points — Canva, Airwallex, and Rokt — and has returned more than US$500M to investors to date. Other notable names include Supabase, Stripe, Deputy, Fiverr (IPO), PropertyGuru (IPO), Kredivo, StashAway, Zeller, Prospa, and Athena Home Loans. Exits include Deci (AI inference optimization, acquired by NVIDIA), Excelero, Talon.One-adjacent security asset Puresec (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), Vend (acquired by Lightspeed), and, most recently, Desty, an Indonesian omnichannel commerce platform acquired by Mekari in August 2025.
Team
Square Peg operates as a partnership across four hubs — Melbourne, Sydney, Tel Aviv, and Singapore — with investment decisions requiring three affirmative votes from its global investment team.
- Paul Bassat — Co-Founder & Partner, Melbourne
- Tony Holt — Co-Founder & Partner, Sydney
- Barry Brott — Co-Founder, Melbourne
- Justin Liberman — Co-Founder, Melbourne
- Dan Krasnostein — Partner, Melbourne
- Tushar Roy — Partner, Singapore
- Piruze Sabuncu — Partner, Singapore
- Philippe Schwartz — Partner, Tel Aviv
- Yonatan Sela — Partner, Tel Aviv
- Leila Lee — Partner & Head of Distribution, Melbourne
- Amanda Hjorring — Partner & COO, Sydney
- Ed Barker — Principal, Sydney
- Jethro Cohen — Principal, Sydney
- Jun Wei Tan — Principal, Singapore
- Ben Hensman — Portfolio Manager (Global Tech Fund), Melbourne
Decision Process
Investment decisions run through a global partnership process requiring three affirmative votes from the investment team. Timelines vary by relationship: early-stage deals with founders the firm already knows can close in a few meetings, while larger rounds with unfamiliar founders typically take three to four weeks and involve an initial conversation, deeper team discussions, and customer/market diligence.
Founder Preferences
Square Peg looks for world-class teams with ambitious visions tackling important problems in large markets, with a strong preference for backing founders very early — sometimes within weeks of incorporation — and building a long-term, multi-check relationship rather than a single transaction.
Geographic Focus
Core geographies are Australia/New Zealand, Israel, and Southeast Asia, with a Global Tech Fund that extends selective exposure into other geographies (including a San Francisco-based investor on the team). The firm is headquartered in Sydney with a major hub in Melbourne, plus offices in Tel Aviv and Singapore.