New Zealand's Movac reaches $74.5m first close on tech fund

The corpus comprises NZ$75 million from institutional investors including Ngai Tahu Holdings and New Zealand Venture Investment Fund (NZVIF), as well as domestic family offices, community trusts and other private investors. NZVIF, a government-sponsored fund-of-funds, made a cornerstone investment of NZ$20 million in the vehicle earlier this year.

Fund IV was launched in March with a target of NZ$80-100 million and will remain open to investment until April next year. It will focus on New Zealand start-ups that have passed the Series A stage, have a team in place to grow the business and the ambition to scale to NZ$100 million in revenue. The GP plans to back up to eight start-ups, committing NZ$2-10 million to each one.

"We have already been meeting with and conducting due diligence on various opportunities, and are very impressed by the quality of the companies that we're seeing," Phil McCaw, Movac's managing partner said in a statement. "We anticipate that we will make Fund IV's first investments prior to Christmas."

It extends a string of fundraising activity in New Zealand's VC space this year, including a commitment of NZ$38 million for a vehicle managed by Global From Day One and a A$20 million ($15 million) Australian IPO for start-up incubator and investor Powerhouse Ventures. Last month, NZVIF and Enterprise Angels renewed a partnership that plans to commit about NZ$20 million to local technology start-ups over the next four years alongside other private investors.

Founded in 1998, Movac claims to be New Zealand's largest technology investment fund manager, having deployed about NZ$65 million across more than 25 companies. The firm closed its third fund in 2012 at NZ$42 million with backing from NZVIF and private equity investor Rangatira.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Technology
• Fundraising
• Venture
• New Zealand
• New Zealand Venture Investment Fund