NAB Ventures

NAB Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of National Australia Bank (NAB), founded in 2015 and based in Melbourne, with a representative office in Sydney. The fund operates as a global initiative supporting entrepreneurs in Australia and internationally, with a core mandate to back innovative technologies addressing themes central to NAB's strategic priorities — trust, security, identity management, data analytics, payments, and mobile platforms. NAB initially committed $50 million to the fund before doubling the allocation, bringing total committed capital to approximately $100 million. The fund is led by Managing Director Todd Forest and General Partner Melissa Widner, a team with two decades of combined technology company experience across Australia and the United States. NAB Ventures invests across seed, Series A, and Series B rounds, writing checks typically between $1 million and $10 million, with a focus on fintech, data and analytics, SaaS, and security. The fund has made 48 investments and achieved 12 portfolio exits. Notable portfolio companies include Basiq, an open-banking and financial-data aggregation API platform whose Series A was co-led with Salesforce Ventures and Westpac's Reinventure fund; Data Republic, which raised a $10.5 million corporate round with NAB as a participant; Spriggy, a kids financial management app; Zodia Custody, a crypto-custody platform; and DataMesh Group. The fund is also known for executing one of the fastest investment processes in Australian venture, taking companies from signed term sheet to close in as little as four weeks. NAB Ventures functions as a strategic partner as well as a financial investor, drawing on the parent bank's capabilities in customer insights, security infrastructure, and SME relationships to accelerate portfolio companies. The fund's geographic focus spans Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, positioning it at the intersection of the Australian fintech ecosystem and global capital markets.