Arcanys Ventures
Get capital + a full tech team
Up to $800,000 in investment.
Capital and technical investment for startups to build faster
When customer demand outpaces your team, the obvious answer is to hire.
But a senior engineer in Australia takes six months and $180,000 a year – time and money most startups don't have to spare. Meanwhile your backlog grows, your best people stay stretched, and your runway keeps shrinking.
But with Arcanys Ventures, there’s a faster path to growth, with capital + a full tech team, ready within weeks.
One package. Two kinds of firepower
Available through Stone & Chalk, Australia's largest and most trusted innovation community, this investment from Arcanys Ventures is worth up to USD $800,000.
That breaks down as:
- Up to USD $270,000 in cash
- Up to USD $530,000 in engineering services
- A minimum of 3 developers working directly in your product
- Optional part-time CTO for startups that need technical leadership
This ratio is flexible and bespoke to the needs of your startup.
Delivered by Arcanys
Arcanys is a Swiss-founded global technology company with 360+ engineers, designers, QA specialists, DevOps, and architects.
Their teams work inside real product environments, alongside founders and CTOs. They are recognised as a Top Workplace in Asia by Forbes and as a Great Place to Work, with over 40% of its team women.
Every engineer uses AI-augmented tooling as standard, which means the team you get is faster and more productive than a cold hire from day one.
As an international company, Arcanys can reduce typical engineering costs by 60% compared to the same resources built locally.
Why choose Arcanys Ventures
34
portfolio companies
94%
survival rate
(double Australian average)
1
major international exit
80%
receive follow-on investment
What you can use the support for
Every startup’s roadmap is different, but the pattern is usually the same: there is too much important technical work for the current team to carry alone. Arcanys can help you:
- Build and scale core product features
- Accelerate roadmap delivery and reduce bottlenecks
- Strengthen architecture and reduce technical debt
- Improve testing, QA, and release processes
- Support mobile, web, cloud, and backend development
- Integrate AI capabilities into products and workflows
- Deliver product management and business analysis
- Align or pivot product and tech ahead of fundraising
Arcanys can also support go-to-market, fundraising, hiring, and operational functions – complementing the core product and engineering execution as companies scale.
This is not for every startup
This opportunity is a good fit if you have:
- A product or MVP already live in market
- Traction – pilots, revenue, pre-orders, or committed demand
- An engineering bottleneck that requires 3 or more developers
- A clear 18-month roadmap and urgency to move faster
- A CTO, technical co-founder, or strong technical lead already in place
- Non-technical founders looking to bring in technical leadership and build out your delivery team
This is not the right fit if you are:
- Pre-product or still at the idea stage
- Looking for cash-only investment
- Committed to keeping all development strictly in-house
- Research-only, with no product offering
- Looking for an outsource agency or project approach
Case study: Payment Logic
"We’ve been working with them for over 9 years."
Payment Logic started with a one-month fixed-fee trial and were immediately impressed with the output, the work ethic, and the attrition rate that meant the same engineers stayed on the product year after year.
- The team grew from 2 people to 29
- Arcanys built out core engineering, QA, and analysis.
- Arcanys engineers became trusted voices in board-level product and strategy conversations.
"I can put them on a project and immediately get productive. They really have the ability to help founders and take them on a huge journey." ~ Mark Nimco – Co-CEO, Payment Logic
How the process works
Selected startups typically have an engineering team deployed within six to eight weeks.
1. Submit an expression of interest – Stone & Chalk reviews your fit against product stage, team composition, roadmap, and technical needs.
2. Join a discovery call – Arcanys learns about your product, priorities, and where engineering support creates the most value.
3. Complete a technical and business review – A structured assessment covering your tech stack, architecture, code quality, financial position, and growth trajectory.
4. Receive a proposed package – A custom cash-and-services split, team structure, and engagement plan built around your startup's specific situation.
5. Begin team deployment – Engineers embedded in your product. Your backlog starts shrinking.
Arcany’s Managing Director ANZ, Karen Lawson will also be at Stone & Chalk hubs for meetings with founders during this process.
If tech is slowing your growth, apply now
As an equity investment, Arcanys Ventures' only upside is your success. There are no monthly invoices, no hourly billing, and no services contract riding on the relationship. They are invested in outcomes, not just ownership.
Most founders who fit this model talk themselves out of applying. They think they're not far enough along, or not big enough, or that a deal like this isn't meant for them.
But your backlog only slows when you start to take action. If you have a product in market, customers pulling you forward, and a team that can't build fast enough to keep up, this is the conversation to have.
Applications close 28 June 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much investment is involved?
Typical packages range from USD $400,000 to $800,000 in combined cash and engineering support.
How is the package split?
No startup is the same, and Arcanys Ventures works closely with the founders to understand the most effective blend of capital and execution led support needed.
Typically, most packages are around one-third cash and two-thirds engineering services, though the final mix depends on the startup, round, roadmap, and level of technical support required.
What does the tech team support include?
The tech team includes developers, QA, Scrum, design, DevOps, and senior architectural support. In some cases, Arcanys can also provide fractional CTO support.
Arcanys are also able to drive growth with add-on services including sales, technical, legal, recruitment, finance, fundraising and go-to-market support.
Is Arcanys Ventures a VC or a dev shop?
Arcanys Ventures takes an investor-first approach, providing both capital and execution support. Whereas a traditional dev shop is paid to deliver services, the engineering support is part of the investment package. Arcanys Ventures grows in value when your company grows in value.
Through Arcanys, founders can access the expertise of more than 360 engineers and product leads who work inside your tools, workflows, and roadmap.
How is this different from outsourcing?
Traditional outsourcing often works like a project: you brief an external team, they deliver a defined scope, then the engagement ends.
Arcanys Ventures works more like an embedded product team, built around your company rather than delivered as an external project.
Engineers typically work with you for 12 to 18 months (and often longer), fully integrated into your standups, systems, delivery rhythms and roadmap.
The goal is not a one-off build, but to create continuity through critical stages of growth — with a team that operates as an extension of your own, and can scale up, down, or transition as your needs evolve.
The aim is not to hand over a one-off build. The aim is to give your startup the technical muscle and experience to move faster through critical stages of growth.
Why give up equity instead of raising cash and hiring locally?
This model makes sure that not only your capital goes further, but that your startup is supported with exceptional talent and experience at every level.
Hiring senior engineers locally takes 3–4 months and consumes a large part of a seed-stage budget. Through Arcanys Ventures, the same capital can often support a larger engineering team, with hiring, HR, infrastructure, and retention already handled. Typically the model reduces costs by 60% when compared to scaling locally, which means almost double the team.
Arcanys have worked with founders and 200+ customers for over a decade, and bring deep experience in building, scaling and go-to-market. Their leadership can also provide coaching, mentoring and prevent the missteps that you don’t see coming.
How much equity does Arcanys Ventures take?
The exact amount depends on the round, valuation, and investment structure.
Arcanys Ventures generally invests on the same terms as the lead investor, rather than setting a separate valuation for itself. They provide meaningful delivery capacity without distorting your cap table.
Who owns the IP?
You own the IP. All code, work product, and intellectual property created through the engagement belongs to the company. This is set out clearly in the engagement documents before the team starts.
Arcanys Ventures’ upside comes from the equity it holds in your company, not from controlling or withholding your code.
What stage do we need to be at?
This opportunity is built for post-idea-stage startups, typically from Seed to Series A. You should already have a product or MVP in market, ideally with commercial traction, with a clear need to build faster.
Do we need revenue already?
Not necessarily. Revenue helps, but Arcanys Ventures also looks at pilots, LOIs, pre-orders, proof-of-concept work, committed demand, and other strong growth market signals.
Do we need a technical co-founder?
A technical co-founder is a strong positive, but not essential. Business-led teams can still be a fit if you have a real technical bottleneck, clear product direction, and are open to external technical guidance.
What if we do not have a CTO?
Arcanys Ventures is usually strongest when the startup already has a CTO, technical co-founder, or strong technical lead.
In some cases, Arcanys Ventures can provide fractional CTO or senior architect support while the founder recruits permanent technical leadership.
However, this is not a permanent CTO-for-hire model. If the lack of technical leadership is a major structural gap, Arcanys Ventures may recommend hiring a CTO or senior technical lead first.
If you are a non-technical founder, they can assist with hiring and evaluating the right skill set for your business.
What if we have technical debt?
Technical debt is common. Arcanys Ventures is comfortable working with moderate technical debt, weak documentation, or agency-built codebases. The harder cases are products that need a full rebuild before growth can happen.
Where is the engineering team based?
Arcanys’ engineering team is based in the Philippines, with senior technical leadership and architectural support across relevant time zones.
The model is built for startups in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Europe, using shared tools such as Slack, Linear, Jira, Notion, or equivalent systems.
Will the time zone slow us down?
The model depends on meaningful overlap during the working day.
Arcanys generally looks for around four hours of shared working time between the startup and the engineering team. Daily standups, shared delivery tools, and async handovers help work keep moving without everyone needing to be online at the same time.
Can an offshore team really meet our quality bar?
That is a fair question, especially for founders who have had poor experiences with outsourced development.
Arcanys has been building distributed engineering teams for more than a decade. The model is built around long-term team continuity, senior oversight, and founder approval.
In their 360+ strong team, Arcanys have less than 5% churn of their workforce, and are rated by Forbes as one of the best places to work. Every year their workforce and their partners enjoy a company-provided holiday away, and Arcanys also give back to the community through the Arcanys Early Learning Foundation.
Arcanys are expert matchmakers between startups and top technical talent. They help select the strongest technical and values-aligned team, while you get final approval before they join your team.
If an engineer does not meet the agreed standard in the first month, Arcanys will replace them with another team member.
We need very specialised technical expertise. Can Arcanys provide that?
Sometimes, depending on the expertise required. Arcanys is not a deep research lab. It does not replace a PhD scientist, domain CTO, or founder who understands the company’s core intellectual property.
Arcanys is strongest when the technical direction is clear and the company needs execution capacity: platforms, dashboards, APIs, mobile apps, cloud infrastructure, integrations, QA systems, and production-ready software around the core technology.
As a quick test, if your specialist team knows what needs to be built and needs help building it, Arcanys may be a strong fit. If you are still proving the science, you may be too early.
With AI coding tools, do we still need an engineering team?
Yes. AI tools make good engineers faster. They do not replace product judgement, architecture, code ownership, QA, security, scalability, or production reliability. Arcanys operate at the intersection of expertise, experience, and empathy. While some expertise can be delivered by AI, experience and empathy are the most important skills required to deliver strong results. The real comparison is not AI versus engineers. It is AI-augmented engineers versus no extra engineering capacity.
What kinds of companies are strongest for this model?
This model is strongest for companies with clear technical delivery needs, including:
- B2B SaaS
- Applied AI
- Clean tech
- Health tech
- Personal safety tech
- Hardware and software startups
- Startups with strong data moats or meaningful product defensibility
Does Arcanys Ventures lead investment rounds?
Usually, no.
Arcanys Ventures generally follows the terms set by the lead investor, whether that is a SAFE, convertible note, CLA, or priced round. This helps keep the round structure clean for founders and other investors.
How quick is the process?
For straightforward cases, the process can move in 4 to 5 weeks.
More commonly, it takes 6 to 8 weeks from introduction to team deployment, depending on the company, round, paperwork, and level of technical review required.
What if the team is not the right fit?
There are safeguards. You interview and approve each engineer before they join your team. If the first month does not meet the agreed quality bar, Arcanys can replace the engineer.
The team mix can also be adjusted if your roadmap changes within reason. For example, if the work shifts from DevOps-heavy to frontend-heavy, the team structure can be reviewed.
What happens after the first 12 to 18 months?
There are a few possible pathways.
Arcanys Ventures may follow on with further investment. The team may transition into a paid or partly paid model. Or Arcanys Ventures may step back into a pure shareholder role.
The right path depends on the company’s growth, funding position, and ongoing engineering needs.
Will this confuse our enterprise or corporate partners?
It usually has the opposite effect. Arcanys is not positioned as a competing vendor. The startup owns the customer relationship, owns the IP, and leads the commercial strategy.
For enterprise partners, having an experienced engineering platform behind the startup can reduce delivery risk. It shows there is real technical capacity behind the roadmap.
I’m still not sure if I should apply, who can I speak to?
Email karen@arcanysventures.vc from Arcanys Ventures to have a conversation.
Karen is the Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand at Arcanys Ventures. She works directly with founders across the startup ecosystem and can help you understand whether the capital + tech model is the right fit for your business.
She brings deep experience as an investor, board director and former startup leader, with past leadership roles at Peloton Australia, Spotify ANZ, Slingshot and CareerOne.
How do I apply?
Submit your EOI form by clicking the button below.
