GUV Powerlist 2018: #23 Nick McNaughton

Nick McNaughton became chief executive of ANU Connect Ventures, the investment arm of Australian National University, in January 2014 after spending seven months as one of its investment directors.

He previously spent 16 years helping US software companies, such as Claris, Allaire and Wily Technology, expand into the Pacific region, co-founded blog marketing service Zookoda and in 2007 established investment fund Blue Cove Ventures. He was its CEO until 2012.

He has also held countless board positions, including founding director of co-working space provider Entry 29 from 2012 until 2017.

He joined ANU Connect Ventures because he wanted “to make a societal impact by taking unique intellectual property from a leading university and helping it to achieve its full potential” and is hoping “to help smart individuals take their inventions that solve some of societies biggest challenges to the world in a commercially viable way”.

One of the biggest challenges in his current position, McNaughton said, was “recruiting the C-suite for global growth and helping the team transition from a university environment and culture to one driven by financial metrics and objectives”.

With an intimate knowledge of the angel investor scene in Australia – McNaughton was a director of the Australian Association of Angel Investors from late 2010 to September 2011 – he told GUV that universities in general ought to develop closer relationships with angel investors and venture capital firms, on top of providing more translational funding and offering more accelerator programs and incubators.

McNaughton celebrated a range of personal investment successes even before joining ANU, such as the public listings of telecoms provider Vocus Communications and energy development company Windlab Systems. Another three startups were acquired.

ANU Connect Ventures manages two funds – the A$27m ($20m) Seed Investment Fund and the Discovery Translation Fund, a proof-of-concept vehicle that invests in research with commercial potential from Australian National University, University of Canberra and Charles Sturt University.

The Seed Investment Fund currently lists four portfolio companies, including Instaclustr, an open source-as-a-service big data platform that raised A$20.8m in a series C round led by investment firm Level Equity in August. Instaclustr is using the cash to drive a global expansion.

Other portfolio companies include Beta Therapeutics, which is developing treatments for type 1 and 2 diabetes plus conditions driven by local inflammation, and Canberra spinout EpiAxis Therapeutics, which is focusing initially on preventing metastatic breast cancer but has plans to broaden its approach to covering metastasis in ovarian, pancreatic, colon, melanoma, lung and liver cancers.

Finally, Liquid Instruments has created Moku:Lab, a product that combines 11 pieces of lab equipment, such as an oscilloscope and a spectrum analyser, into a single cost-efficient device.

All four companies can look forward to considerable growth with McNaughton and his team on their side.