New Zealand Innovations july Newsletter
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Kia ora friends! Welcome to our monthly newsletter where we talk about what excited us the most in the New Zealand startup space, and our observations on this fast growing hub of innovation.
NZVC Fund Update
Since our first close on June 7th, we continue to onboard more value-add investors to our fund. We have most of the fund subscribed now, and If you are interested in getting involved, please contact us.
In the last few weeks we have met an impressive number of deep technology startups. Rocket Lab’s upcoming listing via VACQ SPAC continues to inspire the next generation of deep technology entrepreneurs in New Zealand. We met inspiring founders working in the areas of wireless power transmission, next generation microphones, and advanced robotics. Equally exciting were our first interactions with the founders in the medical technology space who are devising modern prosthetics and solutions to gastrointestinal problems. We hope to support some of these promising ventures in the coming months.
Startup of the month: Archipro
Archipro is a marketplace that connects clients undertaking a construction project with architects, designers, builders, and suppliers. What makes them incredibly successful in New Zealand is their curated showcasing of the completed architectural projects with interactive tagging, which allows clients to see the professionals and suppliers who were involved every step of the way. Brands, retailers, designers and builders vie to be on their subscription-based sales-driven platform.
We are very impressed with the vision and design ethos of the entire company, led by their charismatic founder Milot Zeqiri. After becoming the market-leader in New Zealand, Milot has his sights set on Australia and we couldn’t be more excited to join him as an investor on this journey!
Mark’s Investor Session at Edmund Hillary Fellowship: Silicon Valley operator run fund in Aotearoa NZ
Mark had a great Live Session chat with EHF’s Strategic Alliance Lead, Michelle Cole, and several fellows in attendance on June 16th. The discussion centered around why he and fellow investors decided to start the first operator run fund in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZVC) to help founders navigate the challenges of starting and growing world-class companies. After investing in our first few companies we reflected on the NZ ecosystem, the opportunities and challenges we see for New Zealand becoming a global innovation hub and what the future holds for building the next set of iconic companies from Aotearoa. You can watch the full discussion here: https://www.ehf.org/live-sessions.
Fun fact about NZ: Did you know…
(Source: https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/aotearoa)
…that Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand, has its origins in great mythological stories, some of which refer to the long white cloud formations that helped the original navigators discover this land.
“Aotearoa is made up of either two or three words, Aotea and roa or Ao tea and roa. Aotea could be the name of one of the canoes of the great migration, the great magellan cloud near the bright star Canopus in summer, a bird or even food; ao is a cloud, dawn, daytime, or world; tea white or clear, perhaps bright, while roa means long or tall.
The most popular and authoritative meaning usually given is “long white cloud”, and there are two stories current to illustrate this. It seems the voyagers to New Zealand were guided during the day by a long white cloud and at night by a long bright cloud. The more usual one tells how, when Kupe was nearing land after his long voyage, the first sign of land was the peculiar cloud hanging over it. Kupe drew attention to it and said “Surely is a point of land”. His wife, Hine-te-aparangi, called out “He ao! He ao!” (a cloud! a cloud!) Later Kupe decided to call the land after his wife's greeting to it, and the cloud which welcomed them. The name Aotea was given both to the Great Barrier and to the North Island, but the latter became Aotearoa, presumably because of its length.”
After that dose of history, hope you will enjoy this song by NZ’s Reggae singer Israel Starr!
Best regards,
Mark Pavlyukovskyy, Ajay Gupta, and Glen Anderson