About

Australia’s brains, not just its resources

Seedchange began in 2017, when its co-founders saw good ideas stalling for want of standardised compliance and confident investors.

Our story

Peter and Eric saw that the Australian start-up ecosystem was not delivering. Expensive compliance and tentative investors were stopping founders’ good ideas before they started. Money, time and talent were going to waste.

Peter brought decades of streamlined company administration; Eric brought structured finance. Together they built a way for start-ups to set up quickly, qualify for the ESIC incentive and raise money — and for ordinary taxpayers to back them without staking more than they could afford to lose.

Since then, 28 start-ups have launched and raised $53.7m through Seedchange — from biomedical research to engineered timber, tiny homes and modular van kits. Not every idea worked; that was the point. The companies still operating are now worth $372.9m.

Co-founders

The people behind Seedchange

Peter Topperwien

Co-founder · Lawyer

Peter is a solicitor and barrister who began his career in tax and commercial law and has published books on tax. When ASIC was slow to register new companies, he built Australia’s largest shelf-company business, setting up tens of thousands of companies. He pioneered the life settlement market in Australia and the United States, founding Life Policies of Australia and Life Policies of America, and has funded ventures from farms to films. He believes advancement comes less from big-company R&D than from individuals with great ideas.

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Eric Ranson

Co-founder · Actuary

Eric grew up on a farm picking apples and fixing fences before studying actuarial science. He traded derivatives at Bankers Trust, was an early player in Australian securitisation with RAMS, and became Treasurer of Australian Mortgage Securities, managing a portfolio of more than $20 billion. He later worked in the life settlement market in Australia and the United States — where he met Peter — and as a fund manager. Structured finance is his specialty.

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Get in touch

Founders, former investors and anyone interested in the Seedchange story are welcome to contact us.

info@seedchange.com.au

Seedchange is a trading name of Cootheservices Pty Ltd, ABN 44 616 928 897.