![]() Lee runs Hong Kong-based private investment company Blue Pool Imax Corp director Settle is a founding partner with LA-based VC firm Greycroft - a backer of media startups sold to Dreamworks and Disney. ![]() In the meantime, VC insiders say it's the three independent members of the NZGCP's investment committee Danny Lee, Dana Settle and Matt Ocko, who hold the most sway over the supersized $300m Elevate fund, which contributes matching amounts to private VC funds, and the smaller Aspire fund, which makes direct investments (it has recently put money into Aroa Biosurgery and online education startup Kami as it thrived globally during lockdowns). NZGCP - the re-tooled successor to under-performing Crown VC agency NZVIF - is still looking for a new chief executive following the departure of Richard Dellabarca close to a year ago ahead of a sharp culture review conducted by former Employment Court Judge Graeme Colgan. Danny Lee, James Pinner, Matt Ocko, Dana Settle Movac's latest fund - the $250m Fund 5 - includes up to $20m from Elevate. McMurchy - who has previously held senior roles with Starbucks, Microsoft and Amazon in the US - was this week spruiking Movac's "northern drift" as the firm opened a new office in Auckland. There's also been refreshment over the past years, most recently with Lovina McMurchy coming onboard last September as a partner. And for an oldie, it still shows a lot of vigour, with recent investments in the likes of A roa Biosurgery, Mobi2Go, Portainer, Tradify and Dawn Aerospace. It includes major wins from early investments in Trade Me (where Movac made its bones), Auckland's PowerbyProxi (bought by Apple for more than $100m in 2017 Apple would value it at $279m in 2019, its stop-start wireless charging efforts notwithstanding), Unleashed, and this year, Timely ($135m), Vend ($455m), and Coretex (sold just last week to NZX-listed Eroad for $158m). While Whineray is the top dog, and former Australian Future Fund chief strategist Stephen Gilmore holds sway as chief investment officer, people in the startup community name Super Fund external investments and partnerships manager Hamish Blackman (ex Craigmore Funds) as a key player in the Guardians' push into venture capital. Over the past year we've seen big chunks of matching Elevate money go to Kiwi and Australian VC funds for NZ investment. To appreciate the extent that the Super Fund's involvement has goosed the Government's direct participation in venture capital, consider that between 20, the sometimes dysfunctional Crown vehicle known as the NZ Venture Investment Fund (NZVIF) put a total $173m into local startups - whereas the Super Fund kicked $240m into the $300m Elevate fund, which launched in March 2020 and has control over how that money is spent. Whineray is chief executive of the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, the Crown entity that manages the $55 billion NZ Super Fund - and no entity looms larger over NZ's VC scene. Matt Whineray, Stephen Gilmore, Hamish Blackman The $240m his agency chipped into Elevate, and its oversight of the new fund, has turbocharged the local VC scene. NZ Super Fund chief executive Matt Whineray.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |