Your Guide To The Top Venture Capital Firms in New Zealand – 2023

We have compiled a list of the best venture capital firms in New Zealand that you can reach out to in order to make it easier for you to raise the capital you need to take your business to the next level.

 

1. Movac

• Location: Wellington, New Zealand
• Industries: Venture capital
• Investment Stage: Early-stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed
• Companies invested in:  Open, Tomic, ZeroJet, MOBI, Zeosoft, 1Above, VendHQ,, PartsTrader NZ, and others

Founded by Phil McCaw, Movac is one of New Zealand’s most renowned venture investors. Movac mostly focuses on investing venture capital in early-stage technology companies.  

Movac has raised a total of NZ$397M across 3 funds, with their latest being Movac Fund 4 which was announced on Nov 13, 2016, and raised NZ$105M in total.

Overall Movac has made 35 investments. Their most recent investment was on Aug 29, 2022, when Atomic raised $4.5M. Movac has seen 11 exits with Timely, Unleashed Software, and PowerbyProxi being some of its most recognized exits.

Year Founded	1998
Company Size	10-50
Number of Investments	35
Number of Exits	11
Total Fund Raised	$150M
Number of Funds	5

 

2. Tuhua Fund

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries: Venture capital
• Investment Stage: Early Stage Venture, Seed
• Companies invested in: Datch, Dawn Aerospace, Surgical Design Studios, Sharesies, 90 Seconds, Halter, and others

Formed by The Icehouse and ICE Angels which are well-known startup incubators and angel investors in New Zealand, Tuhua Fund is a micro-venture fund investing in 25 Kiwi Startups. 

Tuhua Fund has raised a total of NZ$11M in a single venture fund which was announced in April 2016 and raised a total of NZ$11M. Tuhua is a tech-focused micro VC firm that invests mostly in early-stage startups across New Zealand

Tuhua mostly invests in tech companies in sectors like Advanced Materials, AI, and Fintech. Top investments include Parrot Analytics, 90 Seconds, Sunfed Meats, TNX.

Thus far, Tuhua Fund has made 10 investments with their most recent one being in May 2020.

Year Founded	2016
Company Size	1-10
Number of Investments	10
Number of Exits	1
Total Fund Raised	NZ$11M
Number of Funds	1

 

3. Pacific Channel

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries: Finance, Technology  
• Investment Stage: Early stage, Seed
• Companies invested in: Quantifi Photonics, Geo40, Upstream Medical Technologies, and others

Founded by Brent Ogilvie, Pacific Channel is a leading venture creation, development, and investment firm in New Zealand. 

Pacific Channel focuses on early-stage investments and has made 5 investments thus far. The company is committed to helping New Zealand’s deep-tech and life sciences focussed companies grow. Their most recent investment on 18th August 2022 was when Orbica raised $2.8M.

Founded in 2006, Pacific Channel has placed in excess of NZD 25 million of seed and early-stage funding into 16 of New Zealand’s life science and clean-tech companies, across 35 deals.

Year Founded	2006
Company Size	1-10
Number of Investments	69
Number of Exits	14
Total Fund Raised	NA
Number of Funds	NA

 

4. Zino Ventures

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries: Technology
• Investment Stage: 
• Companies invested in: Montoux, HReasily, LatiPay, and others

Set up in 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand, Zino Ventures is an investment fund that focuses on empowering technology-based companies that are trying to expand and capture the Chinese-speaking markets.

Zino Ventures has made 2 investments so far with their most recent one in April 2018, when HReasily raised SGD2.3M. 

Makes investments in territories such as New Zealand. Generally, invests in tech companies in sectors like Fintech.

Year Founded	2016
Company Size	1-10
Number of Investments	11
Number of Exits	1
Total Fund Raised	NA
Number of Funds	NA

 

5. Sparkbox Venture Group

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries:  Technology, FinTech, Medical
• Investment Stage: Early stage
• Companies invested in: Booktrack, BioLumic, Sharesight, Footfalls, Heartbeats, Snakk Media, and others

Founded in 2001 by Andrew Duff, Sparkbox Ventures is one of New Zealand’s most active seed-stage investors. 

Sparkbox Ventures has made 24 investments. Their most recent investment was in May 2020, when Aroa Biosurgery Ltd raised NZ$19.1M. Their most notable exits include Aroa Biosurgery Ltd and GreenButton.

Sparkbox actively seeks startups in the tech sector to invest in which include SaaS, FinTech, AdTech, and EdTech.

Year Founded	2001
Company Size	1-10
Number of Investments	66
Number of Exits	29
Total Fund Raised	NA
Number of Funds	2

 

6. Centrality

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries: Apps, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Developer Platform, Marketplace, Information Technology 
• Investment Stage: 
• Companies invested in: ZenLedger, Streams, Evertas, BarnBridge, CoverUS, and others.

Founded in 2016 by Aaron McDonald and Jerry Yuan, Centrality is a venture studio that’s developing a peer-to-peer blockchain marketplace. Centrality has raised a total of $95M in funding over 2 rounds. 

Funded by James Sowers, Centrality has made 7 investments thus far, of which 3 are lead investments. Their most recent investment was on Aug 3, 2021, when ZenLedger raised $6M.Centrality has had 1 exit, which was CoverUS. 

Year Founded2016	2016
Company Size	51-100
Number of Investments	7
Number of Exits	1
Total Fund Raised	$95M
Number of Funds	2

 

7. K1W1

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries: ICT, Biotech, Cleantech
• Investment Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture
• Companies invested in: Zincovery, Excellent, Atomic, Zenno Astronautics, ZeroJet, CarbonCrop, Pictor, Alimetry, Runn, and others

Founded in 2012 by Sir Stephen Tindall, K1W1 provides startups and businesses in New Zealand with early and late-stage venture investments.

K1W1 has made 55 investments so far with their most recent investment in Oct 2022, when Zincovery raised $3M.K1W1. The company has made 2 diversity investments and has had 6 exits so far and its most notable exits include Rocket Lab, Unleashed Software, and Postr.

Year Founded	2012
Company Size	1-10
Number of Investments	55
Number of Exits	6
Total Fund Raised	NA
Number of Funds	NA

 

8. Icehouse Ventures

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries: Financial services, VC
• Investment Stage: Seed, Venture
• Companies invested in: Zincovery, Excellent, FileInvite, BioLumic, Helico, Ceryx Medical, CarbonCrop, and others

Icehouse Ventures is a venture capital firm that backs brave Kiwi founders who are building global companies with fresh insights. Icehouse Ventures has raised a total of NZ$193.3M across 23 funds, their latest being IVX. 

Overall, Icehouse Ventures has made 111 investments with their most recent investment was in Oct 2022, when Zincovery raised $3M.

The company has had 11 exits so far with their most notable exits being PowerbyProxi, Adherium, and Rocos.

Year Founded	2003
Company Size	11-50
Number of Investments	111
Number of Exits	11
Total Fund Raised	NZ$193.3M
Number of Funds	23

 

9. Aera VC

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries: Financial services, VC
• Investment Stage: Early Stage Venture, Seed 
• Companies invested in: AstroForge, Praan

Founded in 2017 by Derek Handley, Keenan Kwok, and Nick Winstone, Aera VC is an early-growth fund investing in deep tech ventures that accelerate the world towards a sustainable future.

Aera VC has made 25 investments overall and their most recent investment was in May 2022, when AstroForge raised $13M.

Aera believes that sustainability is the largest investment opportunity at present. 70% of Aera VC investments are co-founded by women or those from minority backgrounds.

Year Founded	2017
Company Size	11-50
Number of Investments	25
Number of Exits	1
Total Fund Raised	NZ$193.3M
Number of Funds	1

 

10. Powerhouse Ventures

• Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
• Industries: Financial Services, Intellectual Property, VC
• Investment Stage: Early Stage
• Companies invested in: Granular, Salient Predictions,  Invert Robotics, Syft, Upstream Medical Technologies, and others

Powerhouse Ventures is a venture capital firm in New Zealand that specializes in offering startup incubation and growth-stage seed money. Powerhouse Ventures primarily invests in It invests in the Medical, Cleantech, Biotechnology, and Software sectors. 

The Firm’s top investments are Avalia Immunotherapies, Fluent Scientific, Solar Bright, etc. The firm typically invests between $300,000 to $5M.

Unlike typical incubators that offer general business services to any startup, Powerhouse utilized a stringent selection process to ensure great value and global appeal.

Year Founded	2006
Company Size	11-50
Number of Investments	50
Number of Exits	20
Total Fund Raised	NZ$193.3M
Number of Funds	NA

 

11. Jasmine Social Investments

• Location: Lower Hutt, New Zealand
• Industries: Healthcare, Education, Social Investments
• Investment Stage: Early stage
• Companies invested in: Tala, ZOLA Electric, Vend, and others

Founded in 2006 by entrepreneur Sam Morgan, Jasmine is a VC fund that invests in social ventures. It invests mostly in the early stage of high-impact charitable organizations in Africa and South Asia and focuses on health, education, and environmental sustainability-related projects. 

Jasmine Social Investments invested in MyVillage in Apr 2019 during a seed round at a valuation of $6.1M.

Year Founded	2006
Company Size	1-10
Number of Investments	4
Number of Exits	1
Total Fund Raised	NA
Number of Funds	NA

  

12. Cure Kids Ventures

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries: Technology, Medicine
• Investment Stage: Seed, Early-stage
• Companies invested in: Formus Labs, Upside Biotechnologies, Syft, Amaroq Therapeutics, Pictor, and others

Cure Kids Ventures is a subsidiary of Cure Kids and acts as its seed and early-stage corporate venture capital arm. The company typically invests in life sciences companies sectors such as Diagnostics, Biopharma, and Medical Devices.

Its investment focus is on research, seed, early-stage, and expansion ventures targeting startups with high growth potential. The company seeks innovative products capable of improving health outcomes, particularly for children.

Year Founded	2005
Company Size	1-10
Number of Investments	9
Number of Exits	NA
Total Fund Raised	NA
Number of Funds	NA

 

13. Red Ocean

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries: IT, Digital media, Commerce
• Investment Stage:  Early-stage
• Companies invested in: Legaler, The Inspiration Room, Tradiee, and others

Early-stage is a tech-focused VC firm founded by Richard Webb in 2005, funding companies in New Zealand, the US, and Australia 

Red Ocean generally invests in tech companies specializing in areas like digital media, edtech, and big data. Top investments include Start Mesh, Inspiration Room, Effective Measure, Tribesta.

Year Founded	2005
Company Size	1-10
Number of Investments	7
Number of Exits	NA
Total Fund Raised	NA
Number of Funds	NA

 

14. First Cut Ventures

• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Industries: IT
• Investment Stage: Seed, Early stage 
• Companies invested in: Sharesies, Halter, Narrative, Spalk, and others

Founded in 2015, First Cut Ventures is the largest student-run venture fund that makes seed-stage investments in New Zealand. It invests in tech companies operating in sectors such as Sports Tech, IoT. Notable portfolio companies include Halter, Spalk, and Sharesies. The firm invests $500K per company

First Cut Ventures has raised a total of A$5M in a single venture fund, which was announced in May 2022.

Year Founded	2015
Company Size	NA
Number of Investments	9
Number of Exits	7
Total Fund Raised	A$5M
Number of Funds	1