NSW budget tips $703 million into ‘Future Economy Fund’ to back high-growth tech companies

 The NSW government is establishing a new $703 million investment fund to back fast-growing local companies in the medtech, digital tech and clean economy spaces.

Treasurer Matt Kean announced the Future Economy Fund in Tuesday’s state budget as “a once-in-a-generation chance” aimed at the full life cycle of innovative, high-growth business in priority sectors and drive productivity in emerging high-value industries.

“We have a golden opportunity to leverage our world-leading COVID-19 response and recovery, leapfrogging our competitors to drive globally competitive industries that set up our State for the next generation,” he said.

“Large sectors of the global economy are rapidly changing due to technological advances, supply chain pressures, climate change impacts and geopolitical tensions. With this commitment, New South Wales can lead the country and region in proactively creating better jobs and industries.”

Enterprise, Investment and Trade minister Stuart Ayres said the Future Economy Fund would consolidate prior funding routes to make strategic interventions across the life cycle of a business and its products.

“Starting right from research and development, and commercialisation through to business growth, upskilling and export opportunities, the Future Economy Fund will mean NSW is the home of world-leading industries including quantum computing and biotech that deliver meaningful career opportunities for future generations,” he said.

“Whether it’s a home-grown Australian success story, a global player looking for an Asia Pacific headquarters or a business or product entering a new market, this fund will give New South Wales 2 the ability to act quickly to secure new opportunities across a wide range of sectors and industries.”

The $703.4 million Future Economy Fund includes the following key program themes:

• $142 million for dedicated funding to drive R&D and innovation growth in sectors where NSW has a natural competitive advantage, such as quantum computing, and advancing collaboration with universities, CSIRO and the private sector
• $342.4 million to boost support for the commercialisation of products, services and emerging digital technologies in fields that will grow the economy and providing targeted support to research institutions, start-ups, scale-ups and small-to-medium enterprise sectors in NSW
• $219 million to accelerate growth and investment in priority industry sectors, such as modern manufacturing, medtech and defence and aerospace, to deliver significant benefits to the economy, including by building local capability, securing high-value jobs and generating productivity gain