Michael Batko
Head of Operations @ Startmate
Sydney, Australia
Michael Batko is a seed investor at Startmate in Sydney focused on Health Care and Software. 2x founder (both acquired). Former CEO of Startmate (2019-2025), Australia and New Zealand's largest community-driven seed fund and accelerator.Led Startmate from $200k to $3m+ in annual revenue as a profitable business. Backed 228+ companies across 16 Accelerator cohorts with first cheques, raised $50M+ in VC funds, and built a portfolioworth $4.5B+. Fund returns include 9x DPI (2012 fund), 6x DPI (2013 fund) - Top 5% of global VC funds.Previously grew Expert360 from a team of 10 to 50+ including a $13M AUD Series B from AirTree Ventures. Early team at Mad Paws (now ASX-listed).Founded Startup Striders (1,300+ members across 10+ cities, acquired by Currents in Nov 2025) and Puddle Pod (500+ customers, acquired by Founder Foundry in Dec 2024).Currently an executive coach for startup CEOs and a committee member on the Australian Government's Industry Growth Program, approving $392M in startup grants.Originally from Poland, grew up in Austria, now based in Sydney, Australia. First Class Honours in Economics and Management (Aston University, UK), CEMS Master's in International Management (WU Vienna / Stockholm School of Economics).
- Total investments:
- 18
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 6%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Michael Batko invests in
Stages Michael Batko invests in
Countries Michael Batko invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Round size
- Seed
- $1.1M–$1.5M
- Pre-Seed
- $81k–$1.1M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Health Care 5 (28%)
- Software 4 (22%)
- Artificial Intelligence 4 (22%)
- B2B 3 (17%)
- Manufacturing 3 (17%)
Stage
- Seed 8 (44%)
- Pre-Seed 7 (39%)
- Venture - Series Unknown 2 (11%)
- Funding Round 1 (6%)
Country
- Australia 12 (67%)
- New Zealand 3 (17%)
- United States 3 (17%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vexev is on a mission to introduce innovative imaging diagnostic tools. | $6M / Venture - Series Unknown / Aug 06, 2026 | ||
| VXT is a telecommunications and software firm that provides telephone systems and contact management solutions. Customers utilize VXT applications for making phone calls, conducting video conferences, and facilitating internal communication with their teams. Additionally, VXT enhances these services with industry-specific automation through the useof integrations and artificial intelligence tools. | $1.1M / Seed / Apr 12, 2024 | ||
| Critical is a social enterprise that provides recycled furniture and homewares made from plastic waste. | $1.5M / Seed / Apr 01, 2023 | ||
| Andromeda Robotics is a Melbourne-based startup that designs and builds AI-powered companion robots, with the goal of improving well-being and reducing loneliness, particularly among the elderly and children in hospitals and care centers. | Pre-Seed / Jan 01, 2021 | ||
| ZeroJet is an electric jet propulsion systems developing company for boats. They develop jet propulsion for the marine industry's transition to sustainable energy with electric jet propulsion systems. | Seed / Sep 10, 2020 | ||
| SmartrMail is an email marketing app designed to get more sales and make email easier for e-commerce stores. They offer automated product recommendation e-mails, quicker e-mail newsletters, and advanced abandoned cart recovery. | Venture - Series Unknown / Jul 31, 2020 | ||
| JigSpace develops an AI-powered 3D visualization and augmented reality platform that enables businesses to create and share interactive “Jigs” for explaining complex products and processes. The company provides tools for spatial presentations, product demonstrations, training, and sales enablement, helping organizations improve understanding,engagement, and communication. | Seed / Dec 11, 2019 | ||
| Surreal is an entertainment for helping professionals focus on the growth of their business | $1.5M / Seed / Oct 29, 2019 | ||
| Mindset Health is a digital therapeutics company that helps people manage chronic health issues like irritable bowel syndrome and anxiety with app-based hypnotherapy. | $1.1M / Pre-Seed / Oct 19, 2019 | ||
| Amber Electric is an energy retailer and technology-driven electricity provider that supplies households with access to real-time wholesale electricity pricing. The company operates by passing through wholesale market prices directly to customers rather than using traditional fixed retail tariffs, allowing electricity costs to fluctuate based onsupply and demand conditions in the energy market. The business provides a digital platform that enables customers to monitor electricity prices in real time and adjust their usage patterns to periods when energy is cheaper and more abundant. It also integrates with home solar systems, batteries, and electric vehicles, allowing users to automate energy consumption, storage, and export decisions to optimize cost outcomes and energy efficiency.Amber develops software tools and automation systems that support dynamic energy management, including smart scheduling features and integration with connected home energy devices. These tools are designed to help customers shift energy-intensive activities and battery charging to periods of lower wholesale prices and higher renewable energy availability. The company also supports distributed energy resources by enabling households with solar panels and batteries to participate more actively in the electricity market. Through this model, excess stored energy can be exported back to the grid during higher price periods, aligning household energy use with grid conditions and renewable generation levels. | Pre-Seed / Jan 01, 2019 | ||
| See all 18 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Startmate
We support the most exceptional founders, operators and investors with best-in-class programs, propelled by a highly trusted mentor-driven community, and backed by the best angels, venture funds and tech startups in the region.Startmate helps technically-focused founders create world-class companies that solve customer problems. It invests AUD$120,000 for a 7.5% equity stake.Startmate’s three-month program offers a $75,000 investment, mentorship from more than 40 successful founders, sage legal counsel, and a one week trip to Silicon Valley. At the conclusion of the program, there are two demo days, one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne, where the chosen startups present in front of early-stage investors.Startmate was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
Startmate Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Alex de Aboitiz
Mentor
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Anubhav Ghosh
Launch Operations
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Bardia Housman
Mentor
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Ben Armstrong
Mentor
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Brendan Brummer
Mentor
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FAQ
What does Michael Batko invest in?
Michael Batko invests primarily in Health Care, Software and Artificial Intelligence startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 18 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Australia. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What is Michael Batko's check size?
Michael Batko typically joins rounds of $1.1M–$1.5M at Seed and $81k–$1.1M at Pre-Seed. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Michael Batko participates in.
How do I contact Michael Batko?
Public channels for Michael Batko include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Michael Batko last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Michael Batko closed in Aug 2026. Shizune tracks 18 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Sep 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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