Founder Finds Future: Matt Wright Backs the Next Generation of Builders

By Matt Wright

After selling his Brisbane-based used-car business for $120 million, Matt Wright has turned his attention to the founders coming up behind him. Through Founder Finds Future, his new investment…

After selling his Brisbane-based used-car business for $120 million, Matt Wright has turned his attention to the founders coming up behind him. Through Founder Finds Future, his new investment initiative, Matt plans to invest $1 million each into three founders, one in Australia, one in the UK and one in the US, pairing the capital with a year of direct mentorship.

On the Founder Finds Future site, Matt explains the thinking behind the programme in personal terms. He says he left school at 15 and went on to build an automotive business that he eventually sold for $120 million, and he describes the initiative as the kind of help he wishes he'd had when he was starting out. That framing sits at the centre of the project: support offered from the perspective of someone who built a company from a standing start rather than from a textbook.

The programme is built around a structured path to that support. Applications run through a five-stage process and are open to founders aged 21 to 35, with applications opening on 1 June 2026. The three selected founders each receive $1 million alongside a year of mentorship from Matt. On the size of the cheques, Matt has explained that $1 million per founder was a deliberate choice, because anything less, in his words, "doesn't move the needle."

The initiative draws directly on Matt's own experience. He founded Cars4Us in 2019, growing it from four people and a seven-car warehouse to roughly 200 employees and around $500 million in annual revenue before the sale to Toyota Tsusho Corporation. Matt says he routinely worked 80- to 100-hour weeks while building the company and has no plans to retire, intending to stay on through the transition while continuing to run businesses.

With Founder Finds Future, Matt is channelling that experience into backing three founders he believes are ready to build something of scale, and giving them the capital and guidance to do it.