Laura joins x15 from global early-stage VC firm, Antler, where as Associate Partner she led the Portfolio function, as well as HealthTech and DeepTech investments.

x15 was established in 2020 to build, acquire and invest in scaling the next generation of digital businesses. As Portfolio Director, Laura will identify and scout for new ventures, provide strategic support to help scale existing ventures, and continue to build relationships with leading venture capital firms. x15 already has a strategic relationship with SquarePeg, with the two co-investing in rent-to-own startup and winner of x15’s Xccelerate20 program, OwnHome, earlier this year. This followed an investment in property management company, :Different, alongside AirTree Ventures and Antler, late last year.

While at Antler, Laura scaled the portfolio support function as the portfolio size doubled, shepherding one of Australia’s highest velocity early-stage investment vehicles to achieve above benchmark graduation rates, with over 80 percent of Antler companies securing external funding within one year of initial investment.

Laura was previously Investment Manager at New Zealand’s DeepTech VC fund, WNT Ventures; cofounded The Actuator, Australia's first national MedTech accelerator; and designed and launched The Generator, the flagship entrepreneurship program at Melbourne’s Monash University, where she was also an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science. She holds a PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of North Carolina.

Laura Faulconer, Portfolio Director at x15ventures, commented:

“I’m a builder at heart. Over the years, I’ve built houses, companies, and I knew this would be an opportunity to not only help create some incredible, purposeful ventures, but also stand up the type of support structures that makes x15 the best strategic partner a venture could possibly have. We want x15 to be a source of advantage for startups, helping them to build toward solving real and important problems, scale quickly but safely, and ultimately access CBA’s customer base and distribution networks.”

Toby Norton-Smith, Managing Director at x15ventures, commented:

“As an experienced investor who has not only led investments and support for a diverse range of companies – including in regulated industries – but also established and scaled the systems for making and supporting these types of investments, Laura is uniquely equipped to take our portfolio to its next phase of growth. She has a proven track record of taking IP-rich technologies to market, and is already bringing that experience to bear in support of our ventures. We couldn’t be happier to have her join the x15 team.”

Laura is the latest addition to x15’s senior team, which includes Managing Director, Toby Norton-Smith; Chief Product Officer, Supun King-Jayawardana; Chief Risk and Operations Officer, Kimbra Nielson; and Chief Technology Officer, Kelvin Lim.

Other recent hires to the x15 team and ventures include Cormac O'Mahony, the former CTO of 86 400, who joined as General Manager & Distinguished Engineer in January; Ram Bhat, former Head of Marketing for DSpark (Singtel), now Head of Marketing at Home-in; Bronwyn Galvin, former Integrated Group Strategy Director at Essence, now Chief Marketing Officer at Unloan; and Claire McIntyre, former Marketing Lead at IBM Research, now Chief Brand & Marketing Officer at Kit.