Australia’s client financial system is booming however traders are nonetheless wanting the opposite manner. Whereas capital chases SaaS and tech, a brand new technology of brand-led, margin-rich, culturally related companies are scaling quick with billions flowing by way of magnificence, wellness, style, meals, and way of life.
This isn’t hypothesis. It’s already taking place.
From blockbuster exits like Zimmermann and MCo Magnificence to the rise of Showpo and extra, Australia’s client sector is producing among the most dynamic and worthwhile manufacturers.
And but, the capital stack hasn’t caught up – particularly for ladies.
Regardless of constructing within the very sectors driving demand, women-owned companies stay systemically underfunded, underserved, and missed. That’s not only a funding hole. It’s a market failure.
At F5, we see it in another way.
We consider client is the place the subsequent decade of development will come from and ladies are finest positioned to steer it.
The market potential: Huge numbers, greater upside
Australia’s client financial system isn’t rising – it’s exploding.
The buyer items retailing sector is forecast to hit A$252.7 billion in 2025, with constant year-on-year development. However that’s just the start.
E-commerce alone is now a A$45 billion market (US$30B) and projected to soar to over A$76 billion (US$51B) by 2034 – a gradual 5 -6% CAGR over the subsequent decade.
In 2023, over 80% of Australian households (9.5 million houses) shopped on-line, a dramatic acceleration from pre-COVID behaviours. In 2024, Australians spent A$63.6 billion on-line, making up 16.8% of whole retail spend, up from simply 10% a number of years in the past.
Showpo founder Jane Lu
And the momentum isn’t slowing.
On-line retail turnover climbed to A$69 billion in 2024, marking a 12 % year-on-year enhance with double-digit development persevering with throughout key client classes.
Trying forward, the overall Australian retail sector is predicted to achieve A$725 billion by 2034.
This isn’t a distinct segment development, client is the place the subsequent decade of wealth, model energy, and funding returns can be created.
Personal fairness (PE) is paying consideration nevertheless it’s a late participant
Companies like L Catterton, TPG Development, Introduction Worldwide, and Bain Capital have constructed total world portfolios round high-growth client manufacturers producing outsized returns by way of sensible working leverage, class dominance, and cultural warmth.
L Catterton, backed by LVMH, has invested in names like Birkenstock, The Trustworthy Firm, and Savage x Fenty, with a number of $1B+ outcomes.
Introduction acquired Zimmermann in one of many largest style model offers in Australian historical past – reportedly valuing the enterprise at over A$1 billion.
In Australia, mid-market PE is already conscious of the facility of client:
Pacific Fairness Companions (PEP) manages over A$10 billion, with strategic client investments of their portfolio.
Quadrant Personal Fairness, Crescent Capital, Archer Capital, and BBRC Personal Fairness (based by retail mogul Brett Blundy) have backed family names like Adore Magnificence, Barbeques Galore, and Craveable Manufacturers.
DBG Group’s proprietor, billionaire Dennis Bastas, accomplished a full acquisition of MCoBeauty in a deal reportedly valuing the corporate at AU$1 billion
However right here is the catch: personal fairness intentionally arrives late to the get together.
MCoBeauty founder Shelley Sullivan
Most PE funds solely step in as soon as a enterprise is already hitting A$10-20 million in income or EBITDA and lengthy after the model has nailed product–market match, scaled its operations, and constructed a fiercely loyal buyer base.
The early scale stage, the place most Australian women-owned manufacturers are proper now remains to be largely ignored.
And but, that is the richest floor for returns: low competitors, greater margins, quicker development velocity, and the flexibility to maintain founders answerable for their fairness.
The following technology of breakout manufacturers is already in movement. They simply haven’t crossed PE’s conventional thresholds but and we consider that hole is the largest alternative.
The actual alternative: $500K – $20M
Most ladies-owned manufacturers can hustle their technique to A$500K in income by way of bootstrapping, grit, and DTC momentum.
However breaking by way of from there to A$20M+, the place personal fairness lastly takes discover? That’s the place the system fails.
Between A$500K and A$20M lies the capital useless zone – a funding hole for ladies that nobody needs to speak about.
These manufacturers are:
Too huge for microfinance.
Too consumer-driven for conventional VC.
Too early for personal fairness.
Too “risky” for outdated credit score fashions constructed for factories, not fashionable client manufacturers.
And but, that is the make-or-break runway, the crucial stage the place manufacturers both scale into class leaders or stall out completely. It’s additionally the place the upside is the very best: market share remains to be up for grabs, development velocity is at its peak, and founder fairness can nonetheless be preserved.
That is precisely why we constructed F5, to fund the subsequent wave of breakout women-owned manufacturers and capitalise on a possibility the market doesn’t see coming.
F5’s reply: a complete new capital system for ladies
We didn’t guess. We did the work.
From creating our Principle of Change to working hands-on with a whole bunch of girls founders, we’ve frolicked listening and mapping how girls really construct and develop client manufacturers and pressure-testing what capital merchandise speed up development and which of them quietly maintain girls again.
Now, we’re launching our first-of-its-kind proprietary credit score mannequin designed solely for contemporary client manufacturers. This isn’t retrofitted from industrial-era lending. It isn’t tailored from microfinance. It isn’t a pinkwashed model of conventional VC.
It’s constructed from scratch, by girls, for ladies.
Our mannequin is constructed for the truth of scaling a women-owned model right now the place model fairness, product velocity, and margin matter greater than ARR.
And we’ve constructed the infrastructure to match: a commerce, media, and operational stack that takes a model from market visibility to logistics, and provide chain execution.
This pilot is simply step one in our multi-tier capital roadmap – funding merchandise designed particularly for ladies and the companies they construct, with a system engineered to unlock the size stage the place right now’s largest alternatives reside.
We aren’t fixing the previous system. We constructed a greater one.
Why it issues for Australia and F5
Girls globally dominate client, retail, wellness, magnificence, meals, and parenting sectors. But capital has persistently skewed towards tech classes that underrepresent them.
F5 is right here to rebuild the monetary infrastructure round their development curve.
With the Australian client market within the a whole bunch of billions, and billions now shifting on-line yearly, the chance is not speculative, it’s actual, pressing, and scalable.
F5 isn’t simply investing in women-owned companies – we’ve constructed the complete engine behind their development, and we’re able to launch.
Tracey Warren is CEO & Bree Kirkham, COO, of enterprise capital agency F5 Collective.
