According to new data from Pause Fest, 53 per cent of Australian start-ups feel the government is not listening to their concerns or perspectives, while 43 per cent said Australia does not have the regulatory advantages of Asia, the US or Europe.
“I wish I could say that exciting times lie ahead of us but unfortunately, decades of playing safe with our country’s riches, the recent bushfires and now COVID-19, have set us back, much further back,” said Pause Fest CEO George Hedon.
More than a third of companies also feel that capital raisings are harder today than in 2019, despite huge raises from Judo Bank (a combined $900 million) and Airwallex ($254 million), while half said they were not intending to raise capital in the year ahead – suggesting their plan might be to “stay afloat rather than pursue growth”.
“There were some significant raises in Australia last year, but we continue to see not much happening in the early-stage investment space, which is impacting the vibrancy of our ecosystem and the formation of new start-ups,” Mr Hedon said. “It will, in fact, be even harder to start, build and maintain a small business in the very near future.”
A third of businesses also warned that Australia’s communications and privacy laws make it harder to start a business in the country, while 44 per cent said data privacy and management require “urgent attention”.
“As Australia looks toward economic recovery following COVID-19, the technology sector will play a pivotal role in job and wealth creation,” Mr Hedon said. “Clearly we need to examine the barriers start-ups face and listen to their concerns if we want to maximise the benefits the industry has to the nation.”
