Beyond Procurement: A Turning Point for First Nations Entrepreneurship
The 2025 State of Australian Startup Funding Report, released by Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures, provides important insights into Australia’s broader innovation landscape. In contributing to this report, Ochre Ventures — alongside members of our First Nations Leaders Group, Adele Peek and Cara Peek — highlighted key issues and opportunities shaping the future of First Nations entrepreneurship.
For many years, support for Indigenous founders has been delivered through short-term funding cycles, disconnected initiatives and pilot projects that end as soon as grants conclude. This approach creates instability and prevents the kind of momentum, continuity and scale that help businesses grow.
Despite this, First Nations entrepreneurs continue to show strong commercial ambition, creativity and long-term vision.
Talent Exists in Abundance — Stability Remains the Missing Piece
First Nations people have always had the ideas, capability and drive to build outstanding businesses. The limiting factor has not been talent — it has been the absence of long-term, dependable support that allows founders to grow beyond early-stage survival.
Policies like the Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP) have played an important role in creating demand for Indigenous suppliers. But demand alone does not create founders. It does not provide the strategic guidance, capability-building or confidence required to step into entrepreneurship or to scale an early-stage business.
If Australia wants to enable genuine economic participation for First Nations people, it must look beyond procurement targets and commit to stable, long-term approaches that support founder development and business growth.
Why Short-Term Approaches Create Barriers
Many existing First Nations business initiatives continue to operate on 12–24 month funding cycles. When funding ends, programs end — taking with them the staff, the relationships and the progress made.
This stop–start structure prevents:
continuity
long-term planning
strong national networks
shared knowledge and best practice
clear, supported pathways to capital
No part of Australia’s mainstream startup sector is expected to build in this way.
What First Nations Founders Demonstrate Every Day
Where high-quality support exists, First Nations entrepreneurs move quickly, think boldly and pursue growth with confidence. Their businesses often blend commercial ambition with deeply held values — an approach that strengthens their long‑term impact.
This values-driven approach is visible in:
hiring and workforce development
ownership and governance choices
profit distribution
responsibility to community
how success is shared
These characteristics reinforce why long-term support and investment matter.
A Moment to Shift the Narrative
The 2025 Funding Report confirms what many in the sector have long understood: Australia has an opportunity to move beyond fragmented, short-term thinking and build a more stable environment where First Nations founders can grow, scale and succeed.
Ochre Ventures’ contribution calls for this shift — a move toward long-term thinking, stronger coordination, genuine partnership and more reliable pathways to capital.
For us, the vision is clear: a future where any First Nations founder with ambition, capability and a strong idea has the opportunity to become an investable, scalable business — and, where appropriate, a future portfolio company of Ochre Ventures, Australia’s first venture capital fund dedicated to First Nations-led businesses.
Let’s Talk — Founders and Investors Alike
Ochre Ventures is committed to supporting the next generation of First Nations‑led businesses. If you’re a First Nations founder exploring growth, scale or investment, we’d love to yarn about your journey.
And if you’re an investor who wants to help accelerate this mission — backing exceptional First Nations entrepreneurs and contributing to long-term economic transformation — we would welcome a conversation.
Reach out. Together, we can back the growth of strong, scalable and investable First Nations businesses.