PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel funds ScriptRock, his first startup investment in Australia

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and the first external investor in Facebook, has invested in his first Australian startup. He led a A$1.2M (US$$1.25M) seed funding round in ScriptRock, an enterprise software provider.

The move by Thiel, which was announced last week, was made through Valar Ventures, an early-stage VC firm founded by him with other partners.

ScriptRock essentially allows users to store, share, and test configurations of applications hosted internally or externally.

James Fitzgerald, partner at Valar Ventures, explained that a greater number of great tech companies are being started outside the United States. This trend is encouraged by lower barriers to customer acquisition, brought about by the Internet.

“ScriptRock has an excellent founding team which is addressing a global problem, and we look forward to seeing them continue to develop their vision in the years ahead,” he said.