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Join us for an evening with our Aussie mates from OIF Ventures as well as leading Australian founders. The in-person ‘beachside’ panel conversation will discuss all things Australian tech, including the challenges and opportunities of Australian technology companies making the jump from Australia to the US. Australia has produced some incredible technology founders and companies – Atlassian, AfterPay, Canva, amongst many others – and this is an event not to be missed. Tim Tams may or may not be included.
Sara Rona is a Managing Director of Global Gateway for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and is the market lead for UK/Europe, Middle East North Africa (Turkey, Egypt, UAE, and Jordan) and Australia/New Zealand (ANZ). Sara manages an expansive global portfolio of tech startups and venture capital firms who are expanding stateside and need cross-border banking services as they scale. Additionally, Sara brings 15 years of global experience and strives to provide value beyond banking by helping clients with their international strategy and being a bridge into the US.
Sara joined SVB in 2018 and has been in finance for the last 15 years at a variety of different financial institutions including HSBC, IFC-World Bank and Deutsche Bank.Â
Laurence Schwartz is a General Partner at OIF Ventures, one of Australia’s leading venture capital firms. Previously, Laurence co-founded and successfully exited a fintech company called Earnd and co-founded edtech platform InsideSherpa. Laurence has also spent some time living in New York City and has a strong US market understanding and network. OIF Ventures is an Australian based venture capital firm investing in exceptional founders of technology businesses. OIF Ventures has invested in some of the leading software businesses in Australia and focusses on investing in Software as a Service (SaaS), FinTech and digital marketplace businesses.
Sean is CEO and Co-Founder of Assignar. He is a technologist at heart
and he is passionate about helping construction contractors implement
& leverage technology.
Sean started his career in tech in the late 90s. After starting a cyber
security firm with some colleagues and then successfully exiting that
business in 2005, Sean took a break from tech and went on to co-found a
specialty civil & rail sub-contracting business.
After an exhaustive search for a platform that would tackle common
operational challenges he saw in his business, Sean began developing
Assignar for in-house use in 2013. Having raised over $50MM of venture
capital, Assignar has team members and customers in Australia, New
Zealand, Canada, USA & the UK
Attendees will be issued a QR code in advance, which will be sent to the email address provided during registration. This QR Code will serve as a digital pass and grant access through the turnstile located in the lobby of the building.
Upon entering the turnstile, attendees should proceed to the 13th floor Learning Studio event space. A dedicated team member will be available to assist and guide them through the check in process.
All non-SVB named companies listed are independent third parties and are not affiliated with Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company.
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