Wellington
From what I gather, the NZ Venture Investment Fund needs more capital input to be able tocontinue backing seed and start up companies.
It hasn't (yet) made enough of a return on its investments to start pumping that money into newventures.
As NZVIF chief executiveFranceska Banga says, "we do need to see new venture capital funds emerging if young technologycompanies are going to consistently have access to New Zealand investment capital."
Of course even as New Zealand's angel investment scene grows ever stronger, along with the restof the world everyone's seeing a shortage of venture capital funds.
In spite of a so-called shortage of fund though, last year America achieved the following:
Venture capital firms invested US$21.8 billion in 3,277 companies in 2010. Angel investors ponyedup another US$16-$20 billion in over 50,000 early stage start-ups.
In comparison, since its establishment in 2002, NZVIF has invested NZ$123 million into 100 seedand start up companies, and combined with private investment, these 100 companies have received $308million in funding.
NZVIF gave an interesting breakdown on some of these investments.
Key traits are an export focus, high growth and high productivity in sectors such as software andinternet, agricultural technologies, medical devices, niche manufacturing and biotechnology.
"If New Zealand was able to ramp up the formation and growth of new companies in high valueindustries, and if only 10 to 20 percent of those companies were to realise their full potentialexporting high value goods and services around the world, this would have a considerable impact onNew Zealand's future economic prosperity," Banga says.