NZVIF expands seed-stage mandate

According to a statement, Seed Co-investment Fund (SCIF) will also scrap a NZ$250,000 million limit for initial deployments in a single company in favor of a NZ$1 million minimum commitment to each of its angel network partners. The current mandate, which requires a passive investment approach, will be revised to allow for more active portfolio management.

SCIF will also be allowed to co-invest alongside investors that are not existing angel partners. The changes are expected to provide broader support for start-ups and improve investment returns as well as fill in a perceived early-stage funding gap.

Angel Association New Zealand (AANZ) welcomed the decision as official recognition that due diligence and active engagement were essential to establishing an early-stage innovation ecosystem. “As an industry we are moving from prioritizing the number of deals we do to prioritizing the value of the ventures we have invested in,” Marcel van den Assum, chairman of AANZ, said in a separate disclosure.

NZVIF has made fund-of-fund investments and direct co-investments in at least 235 companies since 2002 and has about NZ$300 million of assets under management. SCIF was established in 2006 as a NZ$50 million fund for cooperating with local angel investors targeting technology-focused companies.

New Zealand’s angel market is considered a critical part of the local venture ecosystem, which is often characterized as highly reliant on high net worth individuals. According to government data, angel investment in the country during 2016 amounted to a record NZ$69 million. This compares to NZ$61.2 million in 2015 and about NZ$56 million in 2014.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Technology
• Fund-of-funds
• Venture
• GPs
• New Zealand
• New Zealand Venture Investment Fund
• seed
• Co-investment