Key Takeaways
- • Will Scully-Power, founder of investment firm Pine Gap, is raising a US$100–150 million venture capital fund targeting Australian space and national security startups, with deal closure expected in early 2027.
- • Scully-Power has already invested across Australia's largest space tech companies—Gilmour Space Technologies, Fleet Space Technologies, and Skykraft—writing individual checks between $25,000 and $500,000 through his family office since 2024.
- • The fund will partner with an unnamed US venture capital firm and represents a significant capital scale-up from Pine Gap's current family office operations, enabling Scully-Power to maintain positions in later-stage funding rounds.
- • The move reflects growing institutional appetite for Australian defence and space tech, a sector gaining momentum globally alongside companies like US-based Palantir and Anduril.
Summary
Will Scully-Power is transitioning his early-stage investment activity in Australian space startups into a formal venture capital vehicle. Through his firm Pine Gap, established after leaving OSF Digital in 2024, Scully-Power has quietly accumulated positions in three major Australian space technology companies: Gilmour Space Technologies, Fleet Space Technologies, and Skykraft. These portfolio companies have collectively raised hundreds of millions of dollars, reflecting a maturing ecosystem for domestic space and defence innovation.
Pine Gap has operated as a family office for the past two years, deploying capital in relatively small increments—between $25,000 and $500,000 per investment. However, Scully-Power told Forbes Australia that maintaining meaningful ownership stakes in these companies' subsequent funding rounds requires substantially larger capital pools. To address this constraint, Scully-Power is partnering with a US-based venture capital firm to establish a dedicated fund with a target capitalization between US$100 million and US$150 million. According to Scully-Power, "We can make early stage bets and pick some winners, that's all good and well, but you want to be able to maintain your position, and that requires much larger pools of capital." He anticipates closing the partnership agreement in early 2027.
The fund launch reflects broader momentum in the Australian defence and space tech sector, which has gained institutional traction alongside global precedents like Palantir and Anduril in the United States. The timing also coincides with increased venture activity in defence technology more broadly—Beaten Zone Partners, a defence tech fund led by former Shark Tank judge Steve Baxter, recently closed a $26 million fund. Scully-Power's background as the son of Challenger astronaut Paul Scully-Power, combined with his track record building and exiting businesses—most recently selling Salesforce marketing agency Datarati to OSF Digital in 2022—positions him as a credible operator in the intersection of space innovation and national security investment.
Pine Gap has operated as a family office for the past two years, deploying capital in relatively small increments—between $25,000 and $500,000 per investment. However, Scully-Power told Forbes Australia that maintaining meaningful ownership stakes in these companies' subsequent funding rounds requires substantially larger capital pools. To address this constraint, Scully-Power is partnering with a US-based venture capital firm to establish a dedicated fund with a target capitalization between US$100 million and US$150 million. According to Scully-Power, "We can make early stage bets and pick some winners, that's all good and well, but you want to be able to maintain your position, and that requires much larger pools of capital." He anticipates closing the partnership agreement in early 2027.
The fund launch reflects broader momentum in the Australian defence and space tech sector, which has gained institutional traction alongside global precedents like Palantir and Anduril in the United States. The timing also coincides with increased venture activity in defence technology more broadly—Beaten Zone Partners, a defence tech fund led by former Shark Tank judge Steve Baxter, recently closed a $26 million fund. Scully-Power's background as the son of Challenger astronaut Paul Scully-Power, combined with his track record building and exiting businesses—most recently selling Salesforce marketing agency Datarati to OSF Digital in 2022—positions him as a credible operator in the intersection of space innovation and national security investment.
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