Jelix values excellence and our team of experienced angel investors and entrepreneurs are highly respected in the Australian startup sector. We have been immersed in the sector since the turn of the century as entrepreneurs, investors, board members and mentors. We love the excitement of investing in potentially world changing and high return startups and we temper this by bringing the rigour of investment banking to our due diligence, investment processes and management. Our work benefits from our deep expertise in technology and early stage investing together with extensive connections and networks in the sector.
The Jelix Team
Andrea Gardiner is the founder and CEO of Jelix Ventures. Andrea is passionate about providing more investors, including women, with access to the exciting, high return asset class of startups, and is equally keen to encourage confidence through education about good investment and risk mitigation strategies. She wants angel investors to have great investing experiences so they will invest again and encourage their friends to invest in this economically important sector.
Andrea learned the importance of mitigating risk first as a world class climber, then as a capital markets lawyer and later an investment banker at Lehman Brothers.
She sits on the boards of Sinorbis, an Australian company that makes it easy for Western companies to have a digital presence in China; tagSpace, an innovative AR/VR platform powering social media; and Old Hundred, a US property management company. Previously she sat on the boards of Stone & Chalk, home to 100+ financial technology startups, and Viostream, a video streaming software company.
Andrea is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).
A natural entrepreneur, Andrea initiated and built a profitable cross border gearing loan business for HBOS, and earlier supported her World Telemark Ski Championship bid with a ski accessory business and her climbing career by taking to market an innovative new climbing tool.
Andrea has climbed all the big rock walls featured on the Apple screen saver.
Ian is a technology entrepreneur working to grow the technology startup ecosystem in Australia and New Zealand until recently as head of startups in Australia and New Zealand for Amazon Web Services. He co-founded and helps run Innovation Bay, a networking and angel investment group for technology startups. He is an active mentor and investor in startups. Previously Ian was the CEO and founder of Viocorp, a software company supplying a video publishing platform for corporates and government. Viocorp raised almost $10m in venture capital. In 2009 Ian won the NSW Pearcey award for Technology Entrepreneur of the Year. Ian has an Engineering degree from the University of Oxford where he also won two rowing blues in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.
Alon helps manage our investment and compliance processes. He has 4 years experience in corporate and banking law with extensive legal experience working with startups and on startup investment transactions with Arnold Bloch Leibler and prior to that, with Herzog Fox Neeman, Israel's leading Law firm.
An avid basketball fan and a fierce trivia competitor, Alon is passionate about unleashing the potential of the Australian start-up eco system.
Alon holds a Bachelor of Law and Accounting from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he was on the Deans list for academic excellence.
Kym Hooper joined Jelix in 2018 as Chief Financial Officer and has over 25 years of finance and operational experience in financial services with extensive knowledge of financial management, governance, investment, product development and client services across funds management, superannuation, platform, dealer group and risk insurance businesses.
Her previous roles have included Chief Operating Officer at New Forests Asset Management and EGM - CFO and Fund and Support Services at Suncorp.
Kym has extensive experience across directorship, committee and chair positions on subsidiary boards, portfolio boards and sub-committees including risk and compliance committee and remuneration committee in Australia, NZ and USA and currently sits as an independent director and investment committee member on a corporate superannuation trustee board.
Kym has a Bachelor of Business in Accounting from Charles Sturt University in Australia and is a Chartered Accountant (Australia and New Zealand). She is also a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
An avid water polo fan, Kym sits on the committee of the Drummoyne Water Polo Club as Treasurer.
Rebecca Payne joined Jelix in 2018 as Marketing Manager and has over 20 years of experience directing the online and marketing functions across industries including law and finance. Over the years, she has managed marketing strategies and diverse teams and projects both in-house and agency side.
Rebecca has a passion for UX and has designed and prototyped everything from standard websites to games, quote tools, databases, and mobile apps.
With a background in journalism, she established the publications function of a major law firm and has significant editorial experience.
Rebecca holds an honours law degree from University College London and an MA in Journalism from the University of Technology Sydney.
Rebecca is a keen rock climber and mountain biker with a track record of wins in the 100km XC discipline.
Ian has long been immersed in tech startups, as mentor/advisor at Muru D and an active angel investor. He is currently Chairman of edu-tech startup, Inkerz. He is a former MD of Telstra Television, Nine Network, AT Kearney and Boston Consulting Group. A senior executive with over 25 years’ experience, Ian has an outstanding track record as a change agent in media, education and telecommunications in both strategy and operations across Australasia and the US.
Ian is a valued advisor and active investor with Jelix.
Simran’s deep technology expertise is the cornerstone of Jelix’s technology due diligence. Simran has extensive experience accelerating the growth of startups. He is a director of Ganemo a mobile and web development company and a Mentor in Residence and Technology Lead for the H2 Accelerator. He was formerly the Accelerator Manager at the AWI Ventures and ANZ Innovyz START accelerators.
Prior to that Simran was the CTO at Loyalty Pacific (Flybuys) and News Interactive (News Corp). Simran has been a board Director, advisor, investor and mentor to dozens of startups.
