Invest Rural

Why we exist

A curated day that turns ambition into a fundable strategy.

Invest Rural runs curated events that connect rural businesses, startups and scaleups with investors while demystifying the funding pathways most business leaders never hear about.

Led by passionate ecosystem champions, each event fast-tracks investment readiness and builds trusted relationships between business leaders, funders and ecosystem leaders. All in one day.

Our why

Build a thriving and inclusive rural economy.

Bring investors and rural business leaders into the same room.

Foster a new wave of resilience, growth and innovation in rural communities.

Upcoming events · November 2026

Three events. Three communities.

Bringing ambitious rural business leaders and the investors who back them into the same room, across three communities this November.

Tamworth

New South Wales

Goonoo Goonoo Station

10 Nov 2026

Workshop + Ecosystem Dinner

Full Scaling Rural Ventures Workshop, plus the Investor & Ecosystem Dinner and a live pitch session.

Goondiwindi

Queensland

TBC

12 Nov 2026

Workshop + Ecosystem Dinner

Full Scaling Rural Ventures Workshop, plus the Investor & Ecosystem Dinner with the funder panel.

Toowoomba

Queensland

TBC

13 Nov 2026

Coffee + Investor
Panel

A Friday-morning funder panel with coffee and open networking, in partnership with The Connection Table.

Investor & Ecosystem Dinner · under the stars

Scaling Rural Ventures Workshop

A one-day workshop for business leaders who are ready to grow and want clarity on how to get there. Participants work through the tools and thinking that turn ambition into a fundable strategy.

Sessions include

Demystifying Investment: an investor panel connecting leaders directly with funders
Make Your Case: develop and sharpen how you talk about your business
Funding pathways and what capital is actually available
Scaling strategy, R&D incentives and building the right team for growth

Participants leave with

Clarity on funding pathways and the capital available to them
Practical tools to scale from the regions
A sharper story and the confidence to tell it
New networks that open doors

Investor & Ecosystem Dinners

Rural businesses thrive when the ecosystem comes together. The investor panel is the reason to be in the room: the region's business community, ecosystem leaders, chambers and government sit directly across from the people who deploy capital.

Angel investors, venture capital, debt, private credit, impact investors and crowdfunding platforms each explain how they invest, what they look for and what most leaders get wrong. The Tamworth evening concludes with a live pitch session hosted by UNE SMART Region Incubator, with structured feedback from the investor panel.

Investor Panel & Coffee in Toowoomba

In partnership with The Connection Table, a Friday-morning investor panel with coffee and networking.

Just the right people in the same place at the right time. A funder panel gives each investor the chance to introduce themselves: who they are, what they back and what they're looking for. Then open networking over brunch.

Program · draft

On the day.

A working draft of the running order. Times and session titles are still being confirmed.

Tamworth & Goondiwindi

Scaling Rural Ventures Workshop

8.30–9.00amDoors open & networking
9.00–9.30amWelcome & housekeeping
9.30–9.45amSetting the scene: explaining the capital stack
9.45–10.15amScaling strategically from rural Australia: a panel of local businesses who have raised
10.15–11.15amMake Your Case, pitching 101: facilitated by Kirstin Hunter, CEO of Birchal
11.15–11.45amMorning tea & networking
11.45am–1.15pmDemystifying Investment Panel
1.15–2.15pmLunch & networking
2.15–2.45pmUnlocking R&D value: tax incentives & funding strategies
2.45–3.30pmSession TBC
3.30–4.30pmSession TBC
5.00pm+Wrap up & networking

Ecosystem Dinner

6.30–7.00pmDoors open & networking
7.00–7.45pmFunder panel & Q&A
8.00–8.45pmPitch event in partnership with University of New England (Tamworth only)
8.45–10.00pmNetworking

Toowoomba

Investor Panel & Coffee

9.00amCoffee & welcome
9.15amFunder panel
10.15amOpen networking

Full program to be confirmed closer to the events.

Success story · Reckless Brewing

They met the CEO of Birchal in the room. Then they raised.

At an Invest Rural event, the team behind Reckless Brewing (award-winning beer, built to scale) met Kirstin Hunter, CEO of Birchal, Australia's leading equity crowdfunding platform.

That single introduction turned into a full crowdfunding raise: $513,068 of real capital from a community of believers, on terms that suited a rural business. It's exactly what Invest Rural is built to make happen: the right people, in the same place, at the right time.

$513K

Raised via Birchal

Conversation that started it

See the raise →

Previous events · Bathurst 2025

Past speakers and investors.

The funders, business leaders and operators who made our last event. This is the calibre we bring together.

Investors

Philippe Ceulen

Mandalay Venture Partners

Partner and active venture and ecosystem builder.

Kirstin Hunter

Birchal

Leads Australia's equity crowdfunding platform. Former Techstars MD and co-founder of Future Super.

Prem Chand

Hunter Angels

Chair of Hunter Angels, pairing angel investing with global business leadership.

Rory Gazarian

HMC Private Credit

Private credit specialist working with high-net-worth clients.

Melanie Portelli

Westpac

Senior marketing and customer experience leader at Westpac, working closely with business leaders on funding pathways and cashflow.

Renee Martin

SEFA

Head of Impact and Engagement with 25 years across public health, policy and advisory.

Jim Cooper

Blue-X

General Manager who has built accelerators in climate and agriculture tech worldwide.

Speakers

Olympia Yarger

Goterra

Pioneered the world's first decentralised, autonomous insect farms for processing food waste.

Hamish Munro

Pairtree

Fifth-generation farmer and CEO who took the platform to National Farmers Federation certification.

Michele Stansfield

Cauldron

Leads the biotech, with over a decade commercialising fermentation technology.

Teala Stephens

Cake Equity

Turns the complexity of startup equity into clear, human language.

Patrick Stewart

Advanced R&D

Helps business leaders access their R&D tax refunds early.

Sinéad Fitzgerald

Vested Impact

Microsoft executive with a passion for creating more female investors.

Maggie Ng

NOAH Connect

Chemistry PhD specialising in R&D tax incentives and competitive grants.

Nicholas Chilton

Venture Affairs

Leads Australia's first government relations firm built for startups.

Tiffany Holland

SparkLabs Cultiv8

Ecosystem connector accelerating partnerships and commercialisation.

Kristy Withers

Good Goods

Entrepreneur who built multi-million-dollar brands, now mentoring through Idea to Empire.

Rhonda Taylor

Elevate & Bathurst & Backroads

Place-led strategist with 30 years in brand, tourism and regional growth, now leading Elevate and Bathurst & Backroads.

Book your ticket

Claim your seat in the room.

Workshop tickets are for business leaders (includes the evening event). Evening-only tickets are for ecosystem leaders and government. Toowoomba is open to all.

Business Leader

$165*

Full-day Scaling Rural Ventures Workshop plus a seat at that evening's Ecosystem Dinner.

Tamworth · Goondiwindi

Ecosystem Dinner

$60*

Evening only. Dinner and networking with business leaders, investors and the local ecosystem.

Tamworth · Goondiwindi

Investor Panel & Coffee

$45*

Friday-morning funder panel with coffee and open networking. Open to all.

Toowoomba

*Prices exclusive of GST. Choose your event and ticket type below to secure your place. Payment is taken at checkout and your spot is confirmed straight away.

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A curated day that turns ambition into a fundable strategy.

Our why

November 2026.

Three events. Three communities.

Scaling Rural Ventures Workshop

Investor & Ecosystem Dinners

Investor Panel & Coffee in Toowoomba

On the day.

Tamworth & Goondiwindi

Toowoomba

Backing Invest Rural in 2026

Tamworth

Goondiwindi

Toowoomba

The room changes what people think is possible.

They met the CEO of Birchal in the room. Then they raised.

Past speakers and investors.

Philippe Ceulen

Kirstin Hunter

Prem Chand

Rory Gazarian

Melanie Portelli

Renee Martin

Jim Cooper

Olympia Yarger

Hamish Munro

Michele Stansfield

Teala Stephens

Patrick Stewart

Sinéad Fitzgerald

Maggie Ng

Nicholas Chilton

Tiffany Holland

Kristy Withers

Rhonda Taylor

Claim your seat in the room.

Ecosystem champions who make the introductions.

Bathurst 2025 was backed by.