Rich Lister Paul Little and entrepreneur Rohan Workman’s Skalata Ventures is ready for round two

The seed stage venture capital fund, which also runs a six-month program teaching founders how to build their businesses, is raising up to $50 million for its second fund.

Rohan Workman and Paul Little are behind start-up fund and training program called Skalata Ventures.

The start-up development company and VC, which counts Little as chairman and Intrepid Group co-founder Darrell Wade as a board member, is simultaneously raising upwards of $8.5 million to support Skalata Ventures’ growth. This raise is conditional on its second fund receiving upwards of $35 million in commitments.

For both raises, Bell Potter is understood to have been enlisted to help raise the funds.

As of June 30, Skalata had invested in 30 companies, backing companies such Hearables, financial literacy platform Flux and digital freight forwarder software company Explorate.

The fund has partnerships with a range of universities including Melbourne University, Monash University, Swinburne University and RMIT and works collaboratively with them to support early-stage companies.

It also has a range of corporate partners, including Norton Rose Fulbright, PwC, Bell Potter, Little Group and the Victorian government’s LaunchVic.

It is tracking at an internal rate of return of 44 per cent after fees, which is ahead of its longer-term goal of about a 27 per cent IRR in less than six years.

Tonic Systems founder Anthony Glenning, who sits on the board of Pro Medicus and Azure Healthcare, is Skalata’s fund manager.