Steve Baxter

Tech start-up investor Steve Baxter is a proud Queenslander, born in the remote town of Cloncurry and raised in Emerald in the State’s central highlands. He left school at 15 and joined the Army, enlisting in its apprenticeship program. There, he became a technician working in the field of electronics, telecoms and guided weapon systems. In 1994, at the age of 23, Steve put his life savings of $11,000 to launch his first start-up, the pioneering internet service provider SE Net, from the spare room of his Adelaide home. SE Net was eventually acquired by Ozemail/UUNet under the stewardship of its founding Director and recent Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

In 2001, Steve and a schoolmate launched his second start-up, PIPE Networks, a provider of wholesale telecoms infrastructure that listed on the ASX in 2005. Eight years later TPG Group acquired it for $373m. Steve spent a year with Google in California in 2008, leading a project to deliver high-speed telecommunications systems across North America.

Since 2010 he has become a major early stage investor in startups leading to the founding of Brisbane tech startup hub River City Labs, founded and underwrote the Startup Catalyst and River Pitch programs; he has been on the listed boards of Vocus Telecoms, Indoor Skydive Australia Group and OtherLevels as well as on the board of Commercialisation Australia. He has been heavily involved in the early days or founding of numerous industry groups and forums, including the South Australian Internet Association, South Australian Internet Exchange, Australian Domain Name Authority, AuDA, INTIAA, IIA, AusBone and AusNOG.

He has been a Shark on Channel 10’s Shark Tank Australia for the past three seasons. In 2006 Steve received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Northern Region. In 2016, he received the Pearcey Medal for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of distinguished lifetime achievement and contribution to the development and growth of the ICT industry.