NZVC Year End Newsletter
Kia Ora friends! Happy New Year 2022!
Welcome to the year-end edition of NZVC newsletter where we have tried to capture the incredible year that was 2021. Thanks to your support, we were able to bring to life our vision of “Investing in cutting edge companies at the edge of the world!” The pandemic sowed the seeds of our idea that in a world of remote work, great startups will be born anywhere and New Zealand was uniquely positioned as a country with a tremendous technical talent pool that operated almost unhindered by Covid. Aided by the eco-system created by the Edmund Hillary Foundation, we saw a unique convergence of factors that made New Zealand a real hub for innovation. Our confidence in our vision has continued to grow as we meet awe-inspiring founders committed to building global companies from New Zealand.
Fund update
The final close of the fund is slated for February 2022. We are happy to welcome more value-add LP’s who are passionate about the New Zealand story! Please reply to this email with your interest by January 30, 2022.
Portfolio update
Firstly, on portfolio construction we subscribe to the “unbounded mean power law” theory of seed-stage investing which you can read about here (nerdy research paper here). What this basically means is that we have a much better shot at capturing the outsized returns from a winning seed-stage company if we invest in 50 rather than 15 startups. From this broad seed-stage portfolio, we intend to double down in the follow-on rounds of 10 or so successful startups.
Our team has worked tirelessly to identify and deploy capital into 21 startups to date, including 2 rounds of follow-on funding. We couldn’t be more excited about the technologies these companies are working on and would like to give you a brief look inside each of them.
DEEP TECH
Dotterel: Audio equipment that can be trained on any location and can completely eliminate background noise. Software backend can completely replace all legacy microphones to allow 1 microphone to record up close, or far away.
Sensori: It provides photogrammetry and 3D modelling for the construction industry. We are one of the first investors in this ex-Weta Digital team.
Seachange: A deep-tech startup that is making zero emission electric hydrofoiling ferries a reality.
Pyper Vision: A fog dispersal technology that empowers Airports, Airlines and ATC to move aircraft without fog interruptions.
BioFab: They use mycelium to replace traditional glues and binders and produce composite materials that are truly more environmentally sustainable. We are the first investors in this startup.
B2B SAAS
Vxt: A telecommunications platform for lawyers & recruiters, a phone & smart voicemail apps that automate tasks associated with answered & missed calls, like taking notes, recording time & data entry.
Preno: A hotel management software, allowing owners to manage all their properties, bookings, payments and billing in one platform.
Hypercore: A loan management platform for private lenders. It helps lenders to automate their workflows and provide them with real-time analytics and KPIs on their portfolios.
oVRcome: A virtual reality smartphone app that helps people to self treat their anxiety disorders using virtual reality exposure therapy in the comfort of their home.
Arcanum: An MLOps platform that monitors and manages ML models in production to make ML based decision making accessible to all organizations.
Chnnl: A digital platform providing insights, information, and data on employee's mental health and wellbeing.
CRYPTO
Creatify: A platform that offers NFT launches as a service and partners with influencers and top brands who want to launch their own NFTs.
Swan Bitcoin: A bitcoin buying app that allows the convenience of a regular bank account with features like automatic funding from a bank account via ACH and regular automated purchases.
Coinrule: They offer a platform that you can link your exchange to and then set up automatic trading rules to manage your crypto (eg after 10% rise over 24 hrs sell 5% of assets).
Easy Crypto: It's the biggest crypto-currency exchange that allows users to trade 150+ crypto currencies.
MARKETPLACES
Archipro: A marketplace that connects clients undertaking a construction project with architects, designers, builders, and suppliers. We invested in the seed equity round and doubled down in the Series-A round just completed.
Lula: A marketplace connecting individual retail stores to delivery apps like Grubhub, Door dash and Ubereats.
EasyRent: A ‘Mid-Term Rental Market’, making it easy for anyone to find or rent out a room for 1-6 months.
HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Jeuneora: A global retail e-commerce and direct to consumer beauty and personal care brand.
Sahha: A mobile app that allows your phone to passively follow your mental health and alert you for the risk of depression.
CYBERSECURITY
Safe: A free browser extension built for teams that helps businesses protect their email from phishing attacks.
Team update
With a mission to connect New Zealand startups with the rest of the world, especially Silicon Valley, we are proud of our globally distributed team. Some say NZVC never sleeps! Here is how we take turns manning the post:
Mark Pavlyukovskyy , Rich Bodo and Jae Yoo are our boots on the ground in New Zealand, always hunting for the next unicorn
Vishal Chaddha in India works his charm to access more deal flow in New Zealand than most of the locals
Ajay Gupta and Glen Anderson out of Silicon Valley provide the much needed bridge for global ambitions of kiwi founders
Although video calling has been a huge enabler for NZVC, we made sure at least some of us got together at different times of the year.
Mark and Rich hunting for unicorns in NZ!
Ball is always in Mark’s court.
Ajay and Glen, evidently with legs, as they met for lunch in Palo Alto.
Happy New Year! May the coming year be full of grand opportunities and prosperity in 2022.
Best regards,
Mark Pavlyukovskyy, Ajay Gupta, and Glen Anderson