New Zealand Innovations February Newsletter
Kia Hora Te Marino - May Peace Be Widespread! Who could have imagined the tragic events unfolding in Ukraine even a month ago, yet here we are in the midst of the worst humanitarian crisis of our lifetimes. Our partner Mark Pavlyukovskyy grew up in Ukraine before moving to America as a 9y old - the names and places on the newsreel have a deep personal connection to him. He will share his thoughts in a separate post.
Fund update
NZVC has caught tremendous media attention lately with press coverage in TechCrunch and New Zealand Herald. We hope you will enjoy reading why investors and founders love working with us.
Startup of the month: VXT
Vxt is a VoIP telecommunications platform for lawyers and recruiters. Its core products are phone and smart voicemail apps that automate tasks associated with answered and missed calls, like taking notes, recording time and data entry. Their users save hours per week, spending less time on processes and more with people.
A big factor in our decision to invest into Vxt was the amazing founder story of Luke Campbell. You can listen to his talk given at University of Canterbury’s Centre for Entrepreneurship where his journey began. His is an incredible story of perseverance - overcoming the academic struggles of high school years, dealing with corrective spinal surgery for scoliosis as a teenager, going on to study physics at University and winning the UC Innovators’ Summer Start-Up Scholarship which led to launching of Vxt.
Luke has got Vxt on an explosive growth curve with $25k MRR, targeting to triple ARR to $1M by the end of the year.
New Zealand border update
As part of its 5 phase reopening, New Zealand opened its border to Australians on 27th February without any need for isolation.
Edmund Hillary Fellowship is planning on holding its in-person welcome weeks shortly. Please reply to this email if you need further information on planning your travels to NZ.
Best regards,
Mark Pavlyukovskyy, Ajay Gupta, and Glen Anderson