Melbourne has more than 180 life science organisations equating to approximately US $12 billion in economic activity. Home to at least two locally bred life science success stories; Mesoblast, Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals, it is only one of three cities in the world to have two top 20 universities in the global biomedical rankings. Successes like these highlight the role of the BioMelbourne Network in fostering the Life Sciences sector, as well as the national Biomedical Translation Fund (BTF), which, in 2017, awarded a $5.7 million grant to SummatiX, a medical informatics startup.

While Fintech startups account for just 7% of Victorian startups, they have emerged as some of Australia’s best startup success stories. Unicorn Airwallex ($160 million Series D in 2020), as well as scaleups Moula ($20 million in Series D in 2019) and Afterpay all originated here. In the last financial year, Victorian fintech companies dominated key funding rounds, accounting for almost 80 per cent of the $2 billion allocated to Australian startups.