Auckland-based NZVC is planning to invest in 50-60 Australia and New Zealand early-stage founders with its new NZ $50 million Fund II.
Fund II invests from Pre-Seed to Series A, with smaller initial cheques and significant follow-on reserves.
General partner Mark Pavlyukovskyy founded NZVC in 2021 as Aotearoa’s first operator-led venture fund, having relocated to New Zealand through the Edmund Hillary Fellowship.
The US-born serial entrepreneur was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Princeton University, and listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 after he previously cofounded and exited Piper, an ed-tech company that raised US$15 million and shipped 100 000 units to 70 countries.
NZVC’s investor community includes global entrepreneurs such as Neuralink cofounder Max Hodak, Brad Feld, cofounder of Techstars and Foundry Group), and AngelList’s Naval Ravikant.
Pavlyukovskyy said the geographic for Fund II is 70% New Zealand and 30% Australia and the rest of world, and targets four strategic areas shaping the next decade of innovation — with AI as the underlying technology platform:
They are
Already Fund II has backed Puralink, the autonomous pipe-inspection robots, in Australia and two Kiwi startups Foundry Lab, which delivers on-demand metal casting for rapid, sovereign manufacturing; Wych and open-banking platform transforming data-driven financial automation.
NZVC Fund I invested in 53 companies and ranks among the top 5% of APAC funds for its 2021 vintage.
“Our first fund was a successful experiment that we’re now doubling down on with Fund II,” Pavlyukovskyy said.
“We’re backing the next generation of ANZ founders building globally significant companies across AI, robotics, and sovereign technology. It’s a once-in-a-decade moment for this ecosystem.”
Working alongside him as general partner is Hendrik Remigereau, which spent the past decade at the intersection of venture capital, technology, and strategy across Europe and Asia-Pacific.
He was part of the leadership team at Merantix, a €100 million AI venture studio and fund, where he co-founded AI House Davos at the World Economic Forum and helped build Europe’s largest AI community at the Berlin AI Campus. After relocating to Australia, he joined NZVC to expand it into the region’s first operator-led venture fund.
“The NZ and Australian ecosystem shows the same momentum as Berlin or Paris a decade ago — early successes, a growing tech mafia, and international investors starting to take notice. This is the best time to make a big impact,” Remigereau said.
The duo are also behind the TechMates podcast, showcasing Kiwi and Aussie entrepreneurs. The most recent episode features Liam Kampshof from NZ agtech Bovonic, which is dealing with one of the biggest issues in the land of the long white milk cow – mastitis in dairy herds.
You can watch here.
Simon Thomsen
General partner Mark Pavlyukovskyy founded NZVC in 2021 as Aotearoa’s first operator-led venture fund, having relocated to New Zealand through the Edmund Hillary Fellowship.
The US-born serial entrepreneur was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Princeton University, and listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 after he previously cofounded and exited Piper, an ed-tech company that raised US$15 million and shipped 100 000 units to 70 countries.
NZVC’s investor community includes global entrepreneurs such as Neuralink cofounder Max Hodak, Brad Feld, cofounder of Techstars and Foundry Group), and AngelList’s Naval Ravikant.
Pavlyukovskyy said the geographic for Fund II is 70% New Zealand and 30% Australia and the rest of world, and targets four strategic areas shaping the next decade of innovation — with AI as the underlying technology platform:
They are
- Service as a Software – AI-elevated service delivery at software-like margins
- The Next Automation Frontier – robotics and automation in the physical world
- Human Enhancement – longevity, health tech, and cognitive augmentation
- Geopolitical Sovereignty – reshoring, supply chain, defence, and data-sovereignty tech
Already Fund II has backed Puralink, the autonomous pipe-inspection robots, in Australia and two Kiwi startups Foundry Lab, which delivers on-demand metal casting for rapid, sovereign manufacturing; Wych and open-banking platform transforming data-driven financial automation.
NZVC Fund I invested in 53 companies and ranks among the top 5% of APAC funds for its 2021 vintage.
“Our first fund was a successful experiment that we’re now doubling down on with Fund II,” Pavlyukovskyy said.
“We’re backing the next generation of ANZ founders building globally significant companies across AI, robotics, and sovereign technology. It’s a once-in-a-decade moment for this ecosystem.”
Working alongside him as general partner is Hendrik Remigereau, which spent the past decade at the intersection of venture capital, technology, and strategy across Europe and Asia-Pacific.
He was part of the leadership team at Merantix, a €100 million AI venture studio and fund, where he co-founded AI House Davos at the World Economic Forum and helped build Europe’s largest AI community at the Berlin AI Campus. After relocating to Australia, he joined NZVC to expand it into the region’s first operator-led venture fund.
“The NZ and Australian ecosystem shows the same momentum as Berlin or Paris a decade ago — early successes, a growing tech mafia, and international investors starting to take notice. This is the best time to make a big impact,” Remigereau said.
The duo are also behind the TechMates podcast, showcasing Kiwi and Aussie entrepreneurs. The most recent episode features Liam Kampshof from NZ agtech Bovonic, which is dealing with one of the biggest issues in the land of the long white milk cow – mastitis in dairy herds.
You can watch here.
Simon Thomsen