Giant Leap is a Melbourne-based venture capital fund founded in 2016 that claims a distinctive first: it was Australia's first venture capital fund 100% dedicated to impact startups. Its test is demanding: impact must be locked into the revenue model, so every dollar of revenue generates a measurable unit of positive outcome, and it targets returns like a conventional fund, aiming for more than 20% internal rate of return.
The thesis is organised around three original themes: health and wellbeing, sustainable living, and empowering people, now described more broadly as climate, health, empowerment and education. Giant Leap invests from pre-seed, including pre-revenue companies with a compelling value proposition, through to Series A, where a company shows consistent, growing revenue. Within health it backs digital therapeutics, telehealth, wearables and diagnostics; within climate it backs waste, clean energy and agriculture; within empowerment it backs education and workplace equality.
Fund size is unusually well documented for an impact fund. Giant Leap raised A$15 million for its first fund, a process its managing partner has said took two years, and then closed its second fund at about A$45 million, or roughly US$30 million, more than tripling the first fund. Across its funds it has secured more than A$65 million to invest in Australian impact startups, according to the Australian Government's business portal. It reports receiving more than 20 pitches a week, and in later updates more than 40 a week.
The portfolio, now more than 30 companies strong, shows what “impact lock” looks like in practice. Goterra breeds black soldier flies to divert organic waste from landfill and turn it into livestock feed, so revenue and waste diverted rise together. Amber Electric gives customers access to wholesale electricity prices, encouraging use when the grid is powered by renewables. Sendle offers lower-carbon delivery for small businesses, WORK180 pre-screens employers on how well they support women's careers, and Mindset Health, Perx Health and MoreGoodDays work on digital therapeutics and health behaviour. Other names include Coviu, Seer Medical, Trace, Hex and Great Wrap. Its digital-health portfolio alone is reported to have saved the healthcare system more than A$164 million.
Key partners include NRMA Insurance, the cornerstone investor in the second fund, alongside foundations, family offices and individual investors such as Kate Morris and Roger Allen. The fund grew out of Melbourne's Impact Investment Group; its founders include Will Richardson, Rachel Yang and Adam Milgrom. Its programmes are founder-facing: a detailed pitch cheat sheet, the Small Steps newsletter, an impact calculator, and an open-source database of impact venture funds. No published credits or perks programme, such as cloud credits, was found.
How to apply for funding
Founders can submit a pitch deck through the link published on Giant Leap's official website, giantleap.com.au, and the firm says founders will hear back within a fortnight. The pitch should prove the impact lock in one line: for each dollar of revenue, what measurable outcome is produced, and why it cannot be stripped out without breaking the business model.
Why it matters for founders
Giant Leap is the right first call for an Australian founder whose business model makes money precisely by solving a social or environmental problem, especially in health, climate or education. If the impact is a donation, a side project or a marketing claim rather than the revenue engine, this is the wrong fund, and the firm's own pitch guide will tell a founder so quickly.