VentureCrowd Appoints Optus AI Expert Jesse Arundell to Advisory Board to Drive Next-Gen Investment Vision

Sydney, Monday, 7th July 2025 - Digital investment platform VentureCrowd has appointed Jesse Arundell, Head of Artificial Intelligence Solutions and Strategy at Optus, to its Advisory Board as it moves to accelerate the use of its proprietary agentic AI tools across to the private capital markets.

Arundell is widely regarded as one of the country's prominent enterprise AI leaders. At Optus, he leads the design, development and scaled adoption of new Artificial Intelligence products, platforms, systems and experiences to the people and customers of one of Australia's largest telecommunications, media and technology organisations. Prior to this, he was the Head of Emerging Technology at CommBank.

As part of Arundell's role, he will oversee VentureCrowd's agentic AI approach to capital raising and investing, helping founders access capital more efficiently, with an ambition to speed up the process and reduce the capital raising timeframes from 6-12 months to 3 months.

Jesse Arundell, says, "Coming from a financial services background and operating in a highly regulated environment, I've long admired VentureCrowd's mission to open up and democratise private market investment."

"What VentureCrowd is building with agentic AI tools has the potential to redefine how private capital is raised, allocated and scaled. I'm excited to help guide the next phase of its evolution," concludes Arundell.

Since inception, VentureCrowd has raised over $330 million for more than 150 projects, with over $30 million in income returned to investors. By 2027, the company plans to help over 3,000 founders and businesses each year in raising capital, fueling innovation and contributing to a thriving ecosystem.

Steve Maarbani, CEO of VentureCrowd, said Arundell's expertise is pivotal in realising the full potential of agentic AI in capital markets. "Jesse brings an enterprise-grade understanding of AI applications that few in Australia can match." 

"We are building investment infrastructure for the future. As we continue embedding intelligent agents into every part of the VentureCrowd experience, his input will be invaluable in helping us build a smarter, more scalable investment platform that is globally relevant" Said Maarbani.

The appointment comes as VentureCrowd strengthens its focus on its AI-first product strategy, in order to support a more open and dynamic financial ecosystem in Australia. Arundell will be instrumental in guiding how the company will embed AI agents across the full capital raising lifecycle. From campaign creation to investor engagement and post-raise compliance, the tools streamline a traditionally fragmented and costly process into a seamless digital experience.

VentureCrowd is investing heavily in technology and AI solutions to build a one-of-a-kind digital capital raising platform for founders, and a next-gen investment platform for alternative assets.

Jesse Arundell

In addition to his role at Optus, Jesse also operates as a mentor to StartMate founders through their bi-annual accelerator program, advises technology scale-ups and maintains a portfolio of 10-plus angel investments made alongside leading global venture capital firms. He also led Australia's bid to help create international innovation-management standards and serves on both the Australian (MB-279) and global (ISO/TC279) technical committees.

Jesse has also been recognised as one of the Australian Financial Review's Young Executives of the Year and named among Australia's Top 100 Future Leaders.

Agentic AI 

At the core of VentureCrowd's technology stack is an advanced data layer developed through years of cutting-edge data science. Building on this foundation, the company has launched several proprietary solutions, including a machine learning algorithm to predict likelihood to invest, and an AI-powered capital raising assistant that delivers personalised guidance once reserved for consultants, analysts and copywriters by guiding founders through the capital raising process in real time.

With digital transformation reshaping every corner of financial services, VentureCrowd's mission is to continue to disrupt capital raising for founders and democratise access to private capital markets for all investors across retail, wholesale and institutional investors.

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About VentureCrowd:

VentureCrowd is a next-generation digital investment platform leading the democratisation of private assets, including venture capital. Founded by former PwC Venture Capital Partner Steve Maarbani, VentureCrowd provides a digital gateway to private market investments and offers a full suite of financial products through two AFSLs. The platform combines cutting-edge AI with a seamless digital experience to simplify the investment journey and connect private companies, property developers, and syndicate leads directly with high-quality investors. Since inception, VentureCrowd has raised over $330M for more than 150 projects, returned over $30M to investors, and achieved venture capital exits of up to 295% ROE.