AirTree Ventures

Australian VC Daniel Petre ran a major Microsoft product group reporting to Bill Gates, founded three firms, launched StartGiving, and has donated over A$25 million via the Petre Foundation.

Elicia McDonald joined AirTree Ventures in 2016 and works with founders across the ANZ startup ecosystem, supporting companies as they scale. She began her career in tech investment banking before moving to a B2B SaaS startup and later LinkedIn.

Jackie Vullinghs studied History at Cambridge before working in equity derivatives sales at Citi and Merrill Lynch. She later joined the early-stage B2B SaaS startup Kalo in London as Chief of Staff, working on product strategy, operations and go-to-market, then moved to Sydney and joined AirTree in 2018.

James Cameron is a Partner on the investment team at AirTree, focusing on early-stage companies in enterprise software, developer tools, AI, infrastructure and fintech. He grew up in Canberra, studied computer science, and spent 15 years working in tech in Beijing, Silicon Valley and London. He previously invested at Accel and earlier founded a venture-backed fintech startup, Bipsync, in Palo Alto.

John Henderson is a Partner on the investments team at Airtree, where he works with Australian and New Zealand founders. He focuses on supporting innovation and Australia's transition toward a more technology-driven economy.

Kell Reilly is a Partner at AirTree. Prior to joining the firm, he spent most of his career in Silicon Valley investing in consumer and enterprise technology companies. He grew up in Sydney.

Helen Norton is Partner, Finance & Operations at AirTree Ventures, where she oversees the firm's finance, legal, compliance, HR, data, IT and executive support functions. With over 15 years of experience in global and Australian venture capital, she has worked on building institutional-grade investment platforms across multiple fund vintages and teams. Previously, she spent 8 years at Accel in London developing expertise in fund finance and venture operations.

Dave Parfett is Operating Principal at AirTree Ventures, where he acts as investment lead, board representative and operating advisor to mid and growth stage software businesses with roughly $10M to $400M ARR. He works with founders and management teams on growth, unit economics, fundraising, M&A and exits. He is based in Sydney.

Anil Sabharwal spent 17 years at Google, where he was Vice President of Product Management and the company's most senior Product and Engineering leader in Asia Pacific. He founded and led the team behind Google Photos and worked across Chrome, ChromeOS, Chromium, RCS Messaging, the founding team for Google Drive, Docs and Keep, and later a Health and Wearables division (formerly Fitbit). He holds a Bachelor of Mathematics in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and an Executive MBA from the Haas School of Business.

Kate Mason is the founder of Hedgehog + Fox, a strategic communications firm focused on storytelling, narrative strategy, and helping leaders and founders communicate with their stakeholders. She previously worked in communications and public affairs at Medium, Khan Academy, YouTube, and Google. She holds a Ph.D. and has a world ranking in debate.

Sam Kroonenburg is CEO and Co-Founder of Cuttable, an automated content creation platform that uses AI and automation to enable marketers to develop full campaigns efficiently. He previously co-founded A Cloud Guru, an online learning platform that has served over 4 million individual users and more than 4,000 organizations in cloud computing education. Kroonenburg also serves as a Venture Partner at AirTree and SecondQuarter Ventures, advising early-stage technology companies.

Gillian Findlay is the founder of Third Room, a platform focused on supporting operators through the scaling process. She has held operating and venture partnership roles at AirTree and Immutable, served as CEO of Vamp (a branded content platform connecting brands with digital creators), and previously worked as COO at SafetyCulture, where she led sales, customer success, finance, and operations functions. Findlay is a chartered accountant and graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Anna Tyndale is the Portfolio Success Manager at AirTree, where she supports portfolio companies with onboarding, executive forums, and founder and executive events. She previously lived in Toronto for four years before returning to Sydney.

Antonia Mijatovic is an Investment Manager at AirTree. She studied Software Engineering at university after initially starting in Aeronautical Engineering & Medical Science, and worked in investment banking before moving into venture capital. At AirTree she works with founders across Australia and New Zealand.

Bree Fedele works at AirTree Ventures, where she leads marketing, content, brand, and communications. She has spent about a decade helping large technology companies and early-stage startups with storytelling and turning ideas into outcomes.

Caitlin Evans is the Platform Operations Manager at AirTree, where she runs the firm's community programs and works to grow its reach across the ANZ startup ecosystem. Before joining AirTree she worked at a sustainable finance startup in Sydney, and prior to that spent several years at an investment bank in London.

Cloë Stanbridge is the Talent Lead at AirTree Ventures, where she works with portfolio companies to connect them with talent, build hiring processes, and develop scaling playbooks. She started her career in talent in 2013 and has focused on working with startups. She has a particular interest in companies in sustainability and health tech.

Dan Coughlan is a Principal at AirTree Ventures, where he invests across all stages through the firm's Seed Fund and Growth Fund. He previously worked at an investment bank in Sydney covering publicly-listed software companies. He grew up in Perth before moving to Sydney.

Daphne Shen is Chief of Staff to the Partners at AirTree, working on leadership operations, strategic planning, and operational cadences. She entered the tech ecosystem in 2016 and has since run community events, founded a VR language learning startup, and worked at two high-growth startups. She has an interest in AI and productivity tools.

Ed Gregory is Legal Counsel at AirTree Ventures, where he handles the firm's legal work across investment transactions, exits, fundraising and fund maintenance, portfolio management, and general commercial matters. He first encountered the tech and venture world while working in the legal team at an engineering firm before moving into startups and VC, joining AirTree after about 18 months and two roles.

Eliza Davies is an Executive Assistant at AirTree, having first joined the firm in 2018 before returning after five years at Index Ventures. Her career has spanned office management, people operations, and EA roles at growth and early-stage companies.

Jai Sheridan is Client Services Manager at AirTree, acting as the link between the fund and its investors. He joined the firm after working in crypto venture and hedge funds, and focuses on building relationships with LPs.

Jess Blomfield is Head of People & Culture at AirTree Ventures, where she focuses on building the firm's team, culture and employee experience. She began her career as a chemical engineer, later completed a PhD in organisational behaviour, and worked in high-growth startups before joining AirTree.

Josh Condous is AirTree Ventures' IT & Security Manager, responsible for keeping the firm's IT systems running. He has over 20 years of experience in IT across the education, defence, health, and media sectors.

Kate Coffey is an Investment Manager at AirTree. She previously worked in management consulting before moving into her role at the firm, where she focuses on how broad trends and specific business dynamics shape company outcomes.

Katie Chan is Head of Fund Finance at AirTree, where she handles reconciliation, reporting, and fund setup and management. She has more than a decade of experience leading finance operations for private equity and venture capital firms across Asia before joining the firm.

Katie Seo is the Finance Manager at AirTree, overseeing GP and fund accounting. She has worked in accounting for 19 years across Korea and Australia, spanning industries including finance, F&B, research and insurance.

Lauren Chapman is an Executive Assistant and Office Manager at AirTree Ventures. Before joining the firm, she worked in the not-for-profit sector supporting founders and spent two years building her own startup.

Leo Pinto leads the capital formation team at AirTree Ventures, connecting institutional capital providers with the ANZ technology ecosystem. Before joining AirTree, he spent about a decade in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, UBS and Citi, covering technology companies. His role involves meeting with institutions, sovereign wealth funds and family offices across the US, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Raaj Rayat is a Principal at Airtree, focusing on early-stage venture investments. He has investment experience across more than 40 countries, with particular emphasis on emerging markets in Africa and Asia.

Kevin Lu is co-founder of Liquid Ledger and LayerSocial Labs. He previously led the growth team at Band Protocol, a cross-chain data oracle network backed by Binance and Sequoia, and co-founded Helis Network, a recurring payments protocol on Ethereum. He also founded DeFi Weekly, a newsletter and podcast covering decentralized finance topics.

John O'Hara is President of TracPlus Global Limited, an enterprise software platform that delivers operational intelligence and mission management capabilities to emergency response, wildfire, and aviation agencies across more than 40 countries. With over 30 years of experience building technology businesses for governments and critical infrastructure operators, O'Hara has led TracPlus's expansion from a telemetry specialist into a system-of-record platform supporting complex operational workflows. His background encompasses enterprise software, public safety technology, aviation operations, and international business development.

Laxmi Pun is the founder and director at Illume Ventures. Her work focuses on entrepreneurship, startups, and venture capital, with an emphasis on impact investing and sustainable, human-centered solutions.

Lee Hawksley has over 20 years of experience in SaaS revenue operations across Asia Pacific, spanning founder, scale-up, and enterprise leadership roles. He previously held positions at Salesforce and led regional business turnarounds and scaling initiatives across multiple markets. Hawksley is currently an investor and limited partner at AirTree.

Liza Boston is co-founder of ITSPORTS GLOBAL, a platform focused on women's sports media and fan engagement. She previously led investment activities at Boston Impact, directing capital toward ventures in entertainment, culture, music, sports, and environmental sectors. Her background spans venture capital, digital strategy, and media, with experience launching and scaling technology-driven companies.