Venture capital firm Artesian Venture Partners (AVP) announced today that it has created a new USD100 million fund of funds to invest in 1000 startups. The fund would be invested by individuals and institutional investors interested to invest in established early stage venture capital limited partnership (ESVCLP) funds.

Telling Australian information and news for startups site StartupSmart about the fund of funds' purpose, Fund manager Jeremy Colless said, "Our view of early stage venture capital is it's extremely difficult to pick winners at the stage where it's a few people and an idea. There is a very asymmetric risk in investing in early stage start-ups, with a few big winners and lots of failures." 

Colless also stressed the need to create the new fund of funds. "By backing 10 underlying ESVCLPs, we have 10 different selection biases that may be complimentary or quite distinct. This provides greater diversification and supports a much broader based ecosystem. Australia will only be successful if we first of all have a healthy, robust early stage scene. So by supporting as many partner funds as possible, it will help build the community," he said.