Australian family businesses are entering a period of significant strategic recalibration. As they look toward the next 10 years, many are bracing for tougher growth conditions while simultaneously reconsidering the fundamentals of how their businesses are owned, governed, and funded. KPMG’s Global family business survey 2026 captures this shift clearly, revealing a sector that remains cautious and conservative in the near term, but increasingly open to external capital over the longer term.
Detailed analysis: Australian family businesses
- Funding growth
- Survey Insights
- Capital deployment
- Setting the groundwork
- Future pathway to growth
A cautious present, a more open future
In the short term, Australian family businesses are behaving exactly as their reputation suggests: prudently. Over the next five years, 80% expect to fund growth primarily through reinvested earnings and shareholder equity, a clear signal that self-reliance remains the dominant instinct. But this conservatism doesn’t hold indefinitely. Looking across the next decade, the picture changes significantly.
Of the Australian respondents, 57% say they would consider a role for third-party capital, be it private equity or similar external investors, over the next decade. Nearly half would entertain a public listing while still retaining family ownership and control, and more than a third are open to a possible sale or exit within that same period. Two-thirds are also willing to consider debt funding as part of their growth strategy.
Taken together, these figures point to a business community that is not abandoning its traditional caution, but is quietly preparing to diversify how it funds its future.
Capital isn’t just about money – it’s about control
One of the more important insights from the survey is that seeking third-party capital is rarely a purely financial calculation for a family business. It is, at its core, a governance decision. Bringing in outside equity, such as private equity, a strategic investor, or a partial listing, typically comes bundled with expectations, board representation, information rights, and a defined timeline for returns and exit. These expectations can sit uncomfortably alongside the patient, multi-generational capital that has traditionally defined family ownership.
This helps explain an interesting gap in the data.
While 57% of Australian family businesses are open to third-party capital, the global figure sits at 64%. Rather than reflecting weaker appetite for capital, this gap more likely reflects a stronger Australian preference for retaining control and speaks to the underlying values still shaping decision-making in these businesses.
How would the capital be deployed?
The survey also sheds light on funding priorities. Technology and AI investment tops the list for Australian family businesses at 58%, trailing India (71%) and the United States (72%) and suggests Australian businesses may be behind the curve on digital transformation relative to global peers. Growing the core operating business follows at 47%, with operational efficiency (40%) and diversification (38%) close behind.
Perhaps more telling are the lower priorities. Overseas expansion sits at just 26%, (33% globally), and headcount growth is at only 20%. These figures point to a more domestically focused, consolidation-minded phase of growth for Australian family businesses, rather than aggressive international scaling.
Accelerating next-generation leadership development ranks lowest of all, at just 15% versus 23% globally. This is a striking gap, particularly given the scale of ownership and governance transition, many of these same businesses are anticipating over the coming decade. If succession and leadership renewal are not being actively prioritised, the transition itself may become harder to manage when it eventually arrives.
Getting the groundwork right before capital arrives
For family businesses that either want to attract or pursue third-party capital, critical work should happen before a capital partner comes to the table. It can help to clearly separate the three layers of decision-making split between the family as owners, the board and management. For example, what remains reserved for family shareholders (such as changes to the business’s core purpose or a future sale), what sits with a professionalised board (capital allocation, executive appointments), and what is delegated to management with regards to operational efficiency and productivity.
Equity partners will typically expect these arrangements to be formalised. Board seats, veto rights over defined transactions, information and reporting rights, and an agreed pathway to liquidity should all be documented in a shareholders’ agreement.
Just as important is reaching early alignment on the return profile and time horizon a partner expects, and how dividends will be balanced against reinvestment and the family’s own income needs. This conversation is often harder than agreeing on an initial valuation and is far better resolved in advance than negotiated under pressure once a deal is already in motion.
Funding the future pathway to growth
Australian family businesses are not abandoning their traditional caution, but many are entertaining the prospect of working with third parties as partners and funders in their business.
Their success in doing so will depend on how carefully they prepare, ensuring governance, control, and succession issues are addressed before the conversation is had and that capital arrives.
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Robyn Langsford
Australian Family Business & Private Clients Lead | Global Lead, Family Business | ASPAC Lead, Private Enterprise
KPMG Australia
