From Edge to Epicenter: Building the NZ Innovation Ecosystem | NZVC Portfolio Day
Mark Pavlyukovskyy and Hendrik Remigereau host TechMates, the NZVC podcast. The guest on this episode is Shaun Quincey, CEO of Simfuni; Janine Grainger, Co-Founder of Easy Crypto & Jacques Richter, Investment Director at NZ Growth Capital Partners, and it went out on 6 November 2025. It covers the NZVC portfolio companies Simfuni and Easy Crypto.
- Guest
- Shaun Quincey, CEO of Simfuni; Janine Grainger, Co-Founder of Easy Crypto & Jacques Richter, Investment Director at NZ Growth Capital Partners
- Date
- 6 November 2025
- Companies
- Simfuni · Easy Crypto
- Watch
- YouTube
- Listen
- Spotify
Live on stage at NZVC Portfolio Day, Shaun Quincey (Simfuni), Janine Grainger (Easy Crypto, exited earlier in the year), and Jacques Richter (NZ Growth Capital Partners, Aspire seed fund) discuss the state of the New Zealand startup ecosystem. They cover what works, access, trust, and regulators who take meetings, and what is hard: under-capitalization, distance, and the tall poppy tax on ambition. The panel covers using New Zealand as a sandbox before going global, what investors fund at seed, and the case for exits, founder mafias, and more diverse founders, with the ecosystem up six times since 2019.
- New Zealand as incubator, world as market: high-trust access, and global translation is the test.
- Capital and culture: the comfortable $10M plateau, under-capitalization, and fund size reality.
- Diversity matters: stop funding the same founder mold; women still under-funded.
- Ecosystem math: six times the enterprise value since 2019; aim for about 5,000 startups, not 1,000.
Companies in this episode
-
Simfuni
Fintech
Simfuni is an Auckland-based insurtech company that builds cloud software for life insurers to run premium billing, payments, reconciliation, and arrears management.
Read about Simfuni
-
Exited
Easy Crypto
Fintech
Easy Crypto was New Zealand's largest cryptocurrency exchange, founded in December 2017 by siblings Alan and Janine Grainger to give people a simple, trusted way to buy and sell digital assets.
Read about Easy Crypto
NZVC Portfolio Day, New Zealand startup ecosystem, venture capital, regulation, tall poppy syndrome, founder diversity, talent