Hunting Unicorns: The AI opportunity in Asia-Pacific | Eric Chan

In today’s ROCast, Murdoch Gatti is joined by Eric Chan, co-founder and Group MD of Aura Ventures & Aura Group. Eric shares what it takes to build a funds management business and their pursuit of backing Asia-Pacific’s next AI unicorn — through a disciplined process that blends private credit stability with high-conviction venture capital.

We break down Aura’s two flagship strategies:

• Aura Venture Fund — a seed-stage vehicle conditionally registered as an ESVCLP (Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership), where investors commit capital via staged calls, gain tax benefits once fully registered, and back founders across Australia and Southeast Asia. A standout holding is Haast, an AI compliance platform already used by Telstra and Zurich. As Eric points out, the best measure of AI success is cost savings — and Haast has reduced compliance costs by ~60%, cut review times by 80%, and scaled rapidly from a $1.2m pre-seed in 2023 to a $6m raise in 2025 to drive international growth.
• Aura Private Credit Income Fund — an evergreen wholesale fund that has delivered ~9% p.a. since 2017 by financing SME-focused non-bank lenders. With short-duration loans, first-loss protection, and monthly liquidity, it offers stable income and strong risk controls.

Eric also explains why venture capital must be run as a portfolio, how to balance write-offs against fund-returners, the cyclical nature of venture markets, and where AI is already creating measurable business value — and where Aura is looking to invest next.

So, before we get into the conversation, please remember this ROCast is made for entertainment purposes only. I encourage you to listen to the disclaimer at the end of this ROCast and to keep your feedback coming. You can reach me at mgatti@ywm.com.au.

With that being said, I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, so sit back, relax, and enjoy.

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