Venture Capital (VC) firms provide capital to startups with long-term growth potential. Over the last decade, the New Zealand startup ecosystem has exploded and the number of VC firms serving the market has followed.
VC firms are different from angel investors, startup accelerators, and private equity. This article focuses on venture capital in New Zealand and was last updated on 13 October 2022. If I'm missing a venture capital fund, please let me know and I'll add it.
Be sure to check out Venture Capital Careers for VC jobs.
Aera VC
Aera VC invests at the frontier of deep technology and sustainability to accelerate the world to a better future.
Those who create breakthrough ideas the fastest will generate new markets, exponential financial returns and a better future for us all. Aera VC will be right behind them.
They invest across two disciplined verticals with a focus on Climate & Frontier markets:
- Climate solutions for radical progress towards a sustainable planet. Transformational technologies to reverse climate change.
- Frontier breakthroughs to advance humanity. Including special opportunities at the outer edge of what is possible to advance humanity.
They believe sustainability is the largest investment opportunity of our life time and have been generating outstanding financial returns since 2016 while investing in the pursuit of a better world.
Angel HQ
Angel HQ are Wellington-based investors who impact the world. Their diverse network of angel investors exist to support early stage companies who have the potential for rapid global expansion.
Their members play an instrumental role in developing promising New Zealand businesses, having backed over 100 impressive New Zealand companies.
Blackbird Ventures
Blackbird Ventures is based in Australia and New Zealand and invest in every type of technology to space, unified by the biggest of ambitions.
They back generational ambition with generational ownership by raising funds, investing in the best startup companies all the way through their journey from idea to beyond their initial public offering. Their portfolio is worth over $10B and includes some of the most successful Kiwi startups including Sunfed, Seachange, and Mint Innovation.
Calvert Drive Ventures
Calvert Drive Ventures provides seed investment and advisory to a portfolio of over 70 early-stage web3, sports, and media tech startups. It has a proven track record of portfolio companies and material exits.
Covalent Ventures
Covalent Ventures is an active health & wellness sector investor based in Aotearoa New Zealand. They work with companies in the ecosystem to scale into global brands, creating real-world impact in major markets.
The team has deep global healthcare sector experience with coverage across biotech/pharma, medical devices, digital health, mental health, healthcare systems, novel ingredients, consumer packaged goods and other allied sectors.
Cure Kids Ventures
Cure Kids Ventures is a seed and early stage investment fund that invests in the commercialisation of innovations in products and services with a potential to benefit child health. Their deal flow comes from our deep links to Universities, research institutes and organisations resulting from more than 40 years of private research funding.
Their team is skilled in early stage company development and have global experience in the biotech, healthcare, and medical devices industry. CKV is owned by Cure Kids Foundation, New Zealand’s largest private funder of child health research.
Icehouse Ventures
Icehouse Ventures is a venture capital firm backing brave kiwi founders with unique insights building global companies. Since 2003, they've invested >$320m in over 300 New Zealand companies from pre-seed to Series A and beyond. They look for founders and teams with unique insights solving hard and interesting problems.
Icehouse Ventures’ began with the formation of Ice Angels, NZ’s first angel network, in 2003. A small group of passionate investors saw the opportunity to band together to support Kiwi innovators to take on the world.
The Impact Enterprise Fund
The Impact Enterprise Fund is New Zealand's first domestically-focused impact investing fund. It was established for investors wanting to support the creation of positive social and environmental outcomes while generating full market-rate financial returns.
The Fund’s investment thesis is based on the recognition that mission-driven businesses focused on achieving a meaningful social and/or environmental impact are generally those at the cutting edge of disruptive social and environmental innovations and can be expected to outperform their traditional predecessors.
Matū
Matū invests in scalable science and deep tech startups in Aotearoa NZ. They provide their portfolio companies with expert governance, executive management, operational support, and mentorship.
Their capital comes with decades of commercial and scientific experience, aimed at turning ground-breaking scientific ideas into globally focused, IP-rich companies.
Movac
Movac is New Zealand's most experienced technology investor and is deeply integrated into the Kiwi tech sector. They've been actively investing since 1998. They're high-touch investors with international connectivity who care deeply about the personal development of the teams they invest in.
NZ Growth Capital Partners
NZ Growth Capital Partners provides investment support for Kiwi's building world-class companies. Their Aspire fund invests directly in early-stage NZ tech startups alongside other like-minded investors while Elevate is a fund of funds, investing in venture capital firms; aimed at filling the Series A and B capital gap for high-growth NZ tech companies.
Pacific Channel
Pacific Channel invests in ground-breaking science and advanced engineering deep tech companies in New Zealand that create meaningful global impact and value. Deep tech companies are focused on developing novel scientific or engineering innovation to solve substantial global challenges.
As a thematic investor, they are focused on technology companies involved in the following areas:
- Improving the quality and lenght of life
- The future of food
- Transitioning to a sustainable economy
- Automation and industry 4.0
They support these companies across multiple stages of their growth with capital, expertise, and networks.
Punakaiki Fund
Punakaiki Fund is an evergreen fund, which means they raise capital as they go, and seek to apply that capital to existing and new investments. They believe in New Zealand, in rapidly maturing high tech economy, and the tens of thousands of people who start and grow amazing business in NZ.
Their mission is to ensure that every great company is well funded, and that they see vast pools of local capital deployed to this highly productive and low emissions sector.
Red Ocean
Red Ocean was founded in 2005 to actively invest in disruptive ideas. Since then, they've helped a number of entrepreneurial companies realise their ambitions.
They invest in the infrastructure necessary to support the emerging and rapidly growing number of smaller, more nimble organisations, and focus our efforts primarily on:
- Big data collection and interpretation
- Curated skill sourcing and asset sharing
- Process disintermediation
- Health, safety, and fitness
- Education and skill development
Sparkbox Venture Group
Sparkbox Venture Group supports high-growth companies across the Asia-Pacific region.
Their sector preference is information technology, mobile, material science, cleantech, communications, medical and diagnostic technology, Internet and the cloud.
WNT Ventures
WNT Ventures invests in ambitious, deep tech founders. WNT are high conviction partners, helping founders build global businesses by connecting them to resources, expertise and support. They want deep technology to be among NZ’s fastest-growing and highest-value creation sectors.
Zino Ventures
Zino Ventures was launched in September 2015 to empower NZ technology companies to expand into Chinese speaking markets. They invest $1-$2m in NZ domiciled companies, generally at the expansion stage (Series A and B) that have a product or service that has been validated in NZ and which is a unique proposition in Chinese speaking markets.