Melbourne tech sector grows to $52 billion as city challenges Sydney for startup capital

Melbourne's technology sector has grown to an estimated $52 billion in annual economic contribution, cementing the city's position as Australia's second technology hub and, in several specialist domains including gaming, agritech, and climate technology, its most significant. The sector employs approximately 140,000 people in technology roles, the largest concentration of technology workers in any Australian city outside Sydney.

The sector's growth has been anchored by the maturation of Melbourne's startup ecosystem into a platform that has produced global-scale companies. Seek, REA Group, and MYOB emerged from Melbourne in earlier cycles; the current generation includes Envato, Aconex (acquired by Oracle), Culture Amp, and a cluster of climate technology and deep technology companies whose research foundations are in Melbourne's universities and whose commercial development has been financed by a maturing local and international venture capital market.

State government investment in technology sector development through LaunchVic has been significant, with the agency having deployed more than $100 million into early-stage venture funds and direct startup support programs that together have contributed to the record deal count and deal value that Melbourne venture capital has achieved in recent years. LaunchVic's data shows Melbourne startups raised $3.8 billion in venture capital in the past year — a new annual record.

Melbourne's technology sector has also benefited from substantial international investment as global technology companies have expanded their Australian operations. Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, and Microsoft have all made significant Melbourne campus investments in recent years, and the engineering teams they have assembled are increasingly leading product development for Asia-Pacific markets from Melbourne rather than from Silicon Valley or London.

This article was compiled by AI from the sources linked above and screened before publishing. See our editorial standards.