BetterLabs backs The Volte

RAC’s BetterLabs Ventures has closed four new deals, including an investment into a previous Business News 40under40 winner’s startup, The Volte.

Established in 2016, The Volte is a fashion rental marketplace co-founded by Bernadette Olivier, a 2020 Business News 40under40 winner and a former senior compliance specialist at Western Power.

Ms Olivier said the investment would help The Volte scale rapidly, to continue to change the way Australian women consume fashion.  

“We believe that the circular, fashion economy is the key to ensuring that fashion is sustainable in the future,” Ms Olivier said. 

Other recipients of BetterLab’s latest investment round – which was collectively worth more than $2.7 million – included social media training platform for kids, Digii Social, and Hey Lady, a social platform helping women to learn English.

The group said it had also invested in US Insure-Tech company Waffle, which provides a single location to access insurance, such as life, cyber, rent or pet insurance.

Now entering its third year of operations, Better Labs is part of RAC’s strategic innovation function.

RAC general manager of Strategic Innovation James Edwards said BetterLabs was starting to see higher quality investment applications.

“With fourteen investments, the BetterLabs fund is now starting to take shape across the emerging innovation domains we are focused on building,” Mr Edwards said.  

“We have seen a significant influx over the past 12 months of great overseas start-up and scale-up talent returning to WA which will provide a great opportunity to further grow and develop the local start-up community.”