Our investors

We’d particularly like to thank the following major investors who have made STREAT a reality.

The TK Foundation

The TK Foundation believes in helping people help themselves. They are a philanthropic grantmaking organisation striving to be a positive force of change by providing disadvantaged youth with access to career paths through education, vocational training and employment; promoting the health, safety and welfare of seafarers; and promoting Knowledge and education in matters relating to the sea and oceans. 

The TK Foundation initially funded STREAT’s feasibility study that was undertaken in early 2008. In September 2008 STREAT’s founders flew to Copenhagen to present the feasibility study to the TK Foundation Trustees. We can still remember the 6am phone call from Denmark two months later telling us that they’d agreed to become STREAT’s first start-up investor.  We’ll always be grateful to them for their belief in what we wanted to achieve and for kick-starting our journey.

The R.E. Ross Trust

The R E Ross Trust was started in 1970 and supports Victorian projects that address disadvantage and inequity, encourage and promote community and individual health and wellbeing, and protect and preserve Australian flora and fauna.

The R E Ross Trust were our first Australian investors. Their investment was critical to our start-up and opened the way for us to find other local investors.

The Australian Government through their Jobs Fund

The Jobs Fund is an Australian Government Initiative designed to maximise job and training opportunities in local communities. The Jobs Fund forms part of the Australian Government’s Jobs and Training Compact and has been established to support families and communities most affected by the Global Economic Recession.

In 2009 STREAT was successful in gaining $1.2 million from the Get Communities Working stream of the Jobs Fund which has a focus on effective Intermediate Labour Market models, including social enterprises. The funding supports the expansion of STREAT’s small street cafes to five locations across Melbourne’s CBD.

The Government’s Jobs Fund was one of the only silver linings of the GFC. It has stimulated the start-up of a number of Australian social enterprises which is enabling this fledgling sector to demonstrate how the open marketplace can be used to bring about social change. 

AXA Foundation

AXA believe they have a responsibility to support the local communities in which they conduct business and where our employees live and work. AXA’s core business around the world is financial protection and helping people to cope with life’s unforeseen and sometimes unfortunate events. Therefore, AXA’s community investment activities within Australia and New Zealand aims to assist families and children who are experiencing difficulties due to illness or are disadvantaged due to circumstances beyond their control, through sustainable solutions.

In 2009 the AXA Foundation donated the funds for STREAT’s mobile vending carts for the first site at Federation Square. When you buy a tasty meal with STREAT at Fed Square you can thank the AXA Foundation for investing in STREAT's Mobile Vending Units (MVUs) which are the Rolls Royces of mobile vending.

Westpac Foundation

The Westpac Foundation is a charitable trust which invests in creating and sustaining social enterprise in disadvantaged communities across Australia.

Each year the Foundation provides grants to help not-for-profit organisations establish community based programs. Since the Foundation began in 1999, over $20m has been awarded in grants to more than 100 organisations.

The Foundation's main focus is to help address the causes of social problems in disadvantaged communities. 

The Newsboys Foundation

The Newsboys Foundation provides grants to community organisations working with disadvantaged young people aged 11 – 18 years in Victoria.

The Newsboys Foundation has an interesting and impressive history, first as a Melbourne-based Club for newsboys from 1893 until 1973, and then as a Foundation supporting community organisations working with disadvantaged young people in Victoria.

Throughout its long life, the organisation has remained true to its core objective of supporting young people in our community who need assistance to realise their full potential. In 2011 Newsboys Foundation will provide funding to assist STREAT’s youth program.

Social Ventures Australia

Social Ventures Australia (SVA) invests in social change by helping increase the impact and build the sustainability of social sector participants. A non-profit organisation at the forefront of sector development and innovation, they provide investment and support to carefully selected high potential organisations that are fostering solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing our community. SVA believes education and employment to be critical areas of focus if all Australians are to have the opportunity to realise their full potential. SVA's Employment Portfolio invests in and supports Ventures based in Australia that focus on employment outcomes for people excluded in the Australian labour market. This includes people with disabilities or a mental illness, refugees, those suffering homelessness, indigenous people, disadvantaged youth and other long term unemployed people. STREAT is a venture in SVA's portfolio.

A message to potential investors

STREAT’s growth and expansion over the coming three years will result in the company being financially sustainable from its own earned revenue at the end of this time. And that’s no mean feat given that a normal cafe doesn’t employ a team of psychologists, youth workers or trainers as part of its team!

STREAT is still looking for further investors and in-kind supporters and would love to hear from you if you’re a potential investor.

For more information about STREAT as a social enterprise, please visit the section on our business model.

To initiate a conversation, please contact us.