Tarnagulla Ventures

Tarnagulla Ventures is a life-science-focused venture capital firm founded in 2015 and headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, providing seed and venture capital to promising companies in the healthcare and life-science space. Although Melbourne-based, the firm is global in scope with a particular focus on bringing promising medical technologies to the Australian and US markets, and it backs companies primarily at the seed and Series A stages, willing to lead rounds. Its expertise spans small-molecule, protein and cell-based therapeutics, and it positions itself as a strategic partner that contributes intellectual as well as financial capital. The firm is named after Tarnagulla, an old Australian gold-mining town with family ties to its founders, where the 26.6kg 'Poseidon' gold nugget was found in 1906. Tarnagulla is managed by William and Natalie McNamee: Natalie has been a director since 2015 and leads investment diligence across most portfolio companies, while William, a director since 2016, co-founded and led the development of three life-science companies, Holman Pharmaceuticals, Dalmoral Pharmaceuticals and LimRad. Across roughly eight portfolio companies the firm has notched two NASDAQ IPOs: LB Pharmaceuticals, developer of LB-102 for schizophrenia, listed in September 2025 at a roughly $302M market cap, and Jupiter Neurosciences, whose resveratrol-platform JOTROL targets CNS diseases, exited via IPO in December 2024 at a roughly $132M market cap and whose $2M seed round Tarnagulla led. Other holdings include Azora Therapeutics in autoimmune and inflammatory small molecules and Prevatex in maternal-microbiome probiotics. The firm reported no new investments in 2025.