Australian VC Square Peg Capital has raised US$550m (A$860m) for its fifth fund, which it plans to use to continue supporting its existing portfolio companies in later phases.

The new fund brings the total capital Square Peg has raised over a decade to more than $1.6 billion ($2.5 billion) and uses the funds to fund companies such as fintech unicorns Airwallex, Athena and Stripe, Canva, Deputy , Prospa and Zero Co.

Square Peg has invested in more than 60 startups and has already returned more than US$580 million (A$905 million) to investors through 11 exits.

The latest fund — split into two, named Fund 4 and Opportunities Fund 2 — emerged from a combination of returning and new investors, with the pension fund Hostplus, Square Peg’s first institutional investor, contributing for the fourth time, alongside existing Fund 5 financiers AustralianSuper and Roc Partners, as well as several new institutional investors.

“The capital raised will be used in two strategies, (1) our core risk fund Square Peg Fund 4, which typically invests in early stage companies from Seed to Series B, and (2) our follow-up fund Opportunities Fund 2, which typically invests in subsequent rounds of our emerging winners, once we’ve used available venture capital funds,” Square Peg said in a blog post announcing the success of his new fund.

“We’ve already made a handful of exciting new and follow-up investments with our new funds, including welcoming Kula and Supabase to the Square Peg family, and continuing to support the team at Airwallex, one of Australia’s top-rated private technology companies. ”

The VC said the raising of the fifth-generation fund came at a time of “significant global economic uncertainty”, but they remain “as excited as we have ever been about our opportunities and believe the coming years will be an incredibly attractive time.” to bet privately.” technical markets”.

While there have been concerns about the drying up of access to capital for start-up founders, it has been a big year for Australia’s leading VCs, with Airtree Ventures raising A$700 million after securing investment commitments in just three months. to invest through three funds: for seed rounds, Web3 and subsequent rounds on growth startups.

Blackbird has also been working to build a fifth $1 billion fund, but nearly 12 months after the plan was first unveiled, it has yet to announce its completion.