OUR NAB VENTURES INVESTMENT TEAM

Meet Todd

"I've spent the past 20 years being part of the disruption of media. But over the next 10 years, I believe the opportunity will be in the financial services sector and I want to be part of that."

Todd Forest is the Managing Director of NAB Ventures. Through his experience as a start-up CEO and in senior leadership positions at large media and technology companies, Todd knows how a large company can be instrumental in the success of early stage businesses.

Todd was previously the CEO of Clipp Pty Ltd, a mobile payments and data business with a focus on hospitality. At Microsoft, he was the Head of MSN Asia Pacific, based out of Singapore and the Head of Digital at 9 MSN. Todd also held senior management positions in Nike and AOL in the US.

Todd has been a successful angel investor over the past 12 years via Tasman Ventures Fund where he invested in over a dozen companies in the US and Australia. He has served on the board of several venture backed start-ups. Todd relocated to Australia from the US in 2007 with his wife and two children. Todd has a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Kellogg.

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Meet Melissa

"It’s an enormous privilege to work with great founders and teams who are determined to change the world."

Melissa Widner is a Managing Partner at NAB Ventures. Through direct experience, she has a deep understanding of both the entrepreneur’s journey and the role of a venture capitalist. As CEO she led two companies to successful acquisitions that provided over a 10X return to investors. She co-founded and was the CEO of Silicon Valley based software company, 7Software (acquired by Concur Technologies NASDAQ: CNQR, acquired by SAP). Melissa was a general partner at SeaPoint ventures, a US-based venture capital firm focused on mobile technologies and SaaS enterprise software solutions. She has served as a director on several US and Australian based venture-backed technology companies.

In 2009, Melissa relocated to Sydney with her Australian husband. She co-founded Heads Over Heels, an organisation that works with female entrepreneurs leading companies with high growth potential. She served on the Federal Government’s Venture Capital Committee and currently serves on the VCC of AVCAL, the Australian Venture Capital Association.

Melissa holds a BA from the University of Washington and an MA from Stanford University. She is the proud mother of four boys.

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Meet Hermia

Hermia Leung is an Associate Director at NAB Ventures.

Hermia started her career in investment banking at UBS, based in Hong Kong, where she focused on Financial Institutions advisory across Asia. Hermia was also part of the corporate finance advisory team at Grant Samuel, successfully completing mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions across Australia.

Prior to NAB Ventures, Hermia led business operations and strategy at Kokoon Technologies, and corporate strategy at ZEAL Network SE. Hermia relocated back to Sydney to join NAB Ventures.

Hermia holds a BCom and LLB from the University of Sydney.

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Meet James

James Johnston is an Associate Director at NAB Ventures.

James began his career as a lawyer at Ashurst, a global commercial law firm. James transitioned into consulting and joined Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting arm. In this role, James gained broad experience in growth strategy, technology enhancement and operational transformation, with a focus on banking, insurance and other financial services.

Most recently, James worked as Strategy Manager at InnoWell, a healthtech start-up providing a B2B SaaS platform to enhance treatment of mental health.

James holds Bachelors in Economics and Law (Hons) from the University of Sydney.

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Meet Jessy

Jessy Wu is a Senior Analyst at NAB Ventures.

Jessy began her career as a strategy consultant at Strategy& (formerly Booz&Co, now part of the PwC network) where she gained sector experience in healthcare, financial services, higher education, and government.

Additionally, Jessy led Strategy&’s Diversity and Inclusion agenda, chairing the internal D&I Committee and driving the design and launch of a market-leading D&I Scholarship. Outside of work, Jessy volunteers as a Telephone Crisis Supporter for Lifeline and as an ethics teacher for Primary Ethics.

Jessy holds a Bachelor of Philosophy (Hons I) from the Australian National University, where she double-majored in Philosophy and English Literature.

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Reasons to partner with NAB Ventures

A dedicated investment fund icon

A dedicated investment fund

The fund will further accelerate our focus on customer-led innovation to make banking easier, better and simpler.

Innovating for our customers icon

Innovating for our customers

We want to work with the best minds and cutting-edge ideas to find new capability, technology, and intellectual property and to improve our customer experience.

Emerging business models icon

Emerging business models

Our key areas of focus are mobile platforms, payments, data analytics and technology solutions for SMEs, as well as the broader fintech market.

Leverage into NAB icon

Leverage into NAB

NAB Ventures will help its portfolio companies leverage their solutions into NAB and its vast network of customers and partners.

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Need to get in touch with us?

We’re here to help. You can contact us at nab.ventures@nab.com.au, remember to include the following details in your email to us:

  • Your name
  • Contact information (email address and phone number)
  • Website address
  • A description of your venture

If you have a pitch deck or other information that outlines your venture, please attach it as well.

Let's talk

We're ready to help you