Steve Baxter
Technology Entrepreneur
Steve Baxter is a pioneering tech entrepreneur, investor and former Shark Tank judge who has built and exited multi-million-dollar telecommunications companies and now backs Australia’s most ambitious start-ups. From launching one of the country’s first internet providers to leading defence tech investment, Steve delivers candid, commercially grounded insights on innovation, risk and building businesses that matter.
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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 launched his first start-up, the pioneering internet service provider SE Net, from his spare room. Servicing more than 35,000 customers, SE Net was eventually acquired by Ozemail/UUNet under the stewardship of its founding Director and Former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
In 2001, Steve launched his second start-up, PIPE Networks, in 2005, selling eight years later to the TPG Group for $373 million. Steve then spent a year working with Google in California, leading a project to deliver high-speed telecommunications systems across North America.
He was a Shark on Channel 10’s Shark Tank Australia for its first four seasons, and was appointed ‘Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur’ in 2018.
Steve is now the Co-founder and Executive Chairman of TEN13, Australia’s leading tech startup investment platform, and Founder and Lead Investor with Beaten Zone Venture Partners which is dedicated to early stage investments in Australian sovereign lethal defence technology.
