Portfolio Day 2022.

The partners in the room

NZVC partners Mark, Ajay, Glen, Vishal and Andre introduced themselves and spoke about the origins of the fund, how each of them became part of it, and why they were excited to be investing alongside Kiwi founders.

• Mark Pavlyukovskyy

  He came to New Zealand as an Edmund Hillary Fellow a day before the border closed in March 2020.

• Ajay Gupta

  Today he is an investor based in the Bay Area where he has invested into many dozen of top early-stage startups across deep tech, healthcare, and other AI-enabled technologies.

• Glen Anderson

  He is excited to bring his expertise in AI as well as broader investing experience from Monta Vista Capital to companies in New Zealand.

• Vishal Chadha

  Early stage investor and advisor in the Asia-Pacific startup ecosystem for a decade.

The day, hour by hour

1. 12:00 - 12:30 pmLunch and networkingA session while everyone arrives
2. 12:30 - 1:20 pmFireside chatTom Staggs, investor in NZVCTom worked at Disney for over 27 years, serving as COO and CFO of the Walt Disney Company as well as Chairman of the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts worldwide. While CFO, Staggs was instrumental in purchasing Pixar as well as acquiring Marvel Entertainment. He left active duties at Disney in 2016. He co-founded Candle Media with longtime friend and colleague Kevin Mayer, focused on acquiring creator-led content brands, including Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine, Moonbug Animation, and Singapore's One Animation. He sat on the boards of Spotify and Weta Digital until Weta was acquired by Unity. Tom has long been a fan of New Zealand and is part of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, cohort 8.
3. 1:30 - 2:00 pmNZVC partners' introductionNZVC partners Mark, Ajay, Glen, Vishal, and Andre introduce themselves and speak about the origins of the fund, how they each became a part of it and why they are excited to be investing and working with Kiwi founders. Ajay presents a short overview of the fund to date: how many investments have been made, how much deployed, how much is remaining, and the areas the fund is excited about.
4. 2:00 - 2:15 pmCreating the world's most entrepreneur friendly visaYoseph Ayele, Co-Founder EHFYoseph Ayele talks about the idea behind EHF and the impact it's had to date.
5. 2:15 - 3:00 pmFrom farming sheep to launching rockets: New Zealand's rise as a tech powerhouseJudith Collins, Member of ParliamentA fireside chat looking at New Zealand's rise as a tech powerhouse, what industries are particularly well suited to play to New Zealand's strengths, and what we can expect to see in the next 10 years.
6. 3:10 - 4:00 pmPortfolio company presentationsLed by Vishal ChadhaOver half of the NZVC portfolio companies present a few slides about what they do, their growth plans and how the wider portfolio and LP base can support them on their journeys.
7. 4:30 - 5:15 pmFireside chatJaan Tallinn, investor in NZVCJaan Tallinn started his career developing games with friends and classmates in Estonia. That led to Kazaa, the P2P file sharing app, and later Skype. Since exiting Skype, Jaan has been a prolific investor, including in DeepMind, which created AlphaGo (beating the world Go champion) and more recently AlphaFold (elucidating the structure of all known proteins). He spends most of his time thinking, speaking and writing about AI-induced existential risk to humanity. He is the co-founder of the Future of Life Institute as well as the Center for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University.
8. 5:30 - 6:15 pmFireside chat: building a software startup from NZHosted by Glen AndersonFeaturing NZVC portfolio companies Upstock, Firmsy and EasyRent, that are building and scaling software businesses out of NZ.
9. 6:30 - 7:15 pmFireside chat: exporting deep tech out of NZHosted by Glen AndersonFeaturing NZVC portfolio companies Dotterel, Zenno, KiwiFibre and Seachange on the advantages and challenges of creating deep tech in NZ and exporting to customers all over the world.
10. 7:30 pmClosing remarks and dinner

Portfolio Day 2022, in 16 photographs

The whole album from the inaugural day at FCB Wellington, from the partners' introduction at 1:30 PM to the Jaan Tallinn fireside chat at 4:30 PM.