Wellington angel investor group Movac has formed a partnership with the New Zealand VentureInvestment Fund to access up to $4 million of government funding for development of promising youngcompanies.
Movac can obtain up to $500,000 per individual investment under NZVIF’s Seed Co-InvestmentFund, in a matched one-to-one investment in promising companies with global and scalableambitions.
It is NZVIF’s twelfth partnership under SCIF, in which to date there has been $44 millionco-invested into 40 companies.
“Establishing this investment partnership will increase the pool of growth capital available tothe promising companies which Movac invests into,” said its director, Phil McCaw. “New Zealandproduces great ideas and really promising companies. What we, as a country, lack to some extent iscapital. What has been pleasing, from both entrepreneurs’ and the industry’s perspective, is thegrowing level of angel investment in recent years, which is assisting innovative young companies togrow.”
NZVIF chief executive Franceska Banga said angel investors are the mainstay of investment forhigh growth start-ups in New Zealand and the best source of both advice and capital forentrepreneurs starting down the path of building a global company.
“The more active and strong angel groups we have, like Movac, the greater the pool of capitalto build the pipeline of young businesses,” she said. “Angel investing is becoming an importantasset class in terms of commercialising New Zealand innovations.”