Punakaiki Fund is one of New Zealand’s first VCs. Since 2014, we’ve made over 120 investments into more than 30 companies. As an evergreen fund, we invest to hold and help companies grow for longer. We’re always looking for new investments and encourage you to get in touch with our investment team.
We invest in high-growth businesses. While we have a wide investment mandate and seek a diversified portfolio, we find SaaS business models particularly attractive due to their recurring revenue model, high margins, and ability to scale quickly.
We like investing into companies that sell to other businesses, and that provide products and services critical to the businesses of their customers. We look for founders who exemplify Kiwi values and have strong credentials.
We have a strong Socially Responsible Investment Policy that precludes us from investing in a number of sectors, or in high emissions industries (including crypto).
We enjoy meeting people and helping companies. We’re happy to be involved well before any formal documents have been prepared, and like to be kept up-to-date with your progress.
We look for companies where there is clear evidence that they understand the end user, and that have created products and services that delight them. We look for an understanding of the other players in the market place, and of what global niche the company is targeting.
We’ve invested in companies that have targeted end users including hairdressers and spas, retail ISPs, Chinese mothers, gyms, HMOs, HR departments at fast growing companies, boarding schools, 18-35 year old NZ women, developers at fast growing companies, HR professionals, large enterprises, ICT providers, semiconductor conglomerates, trucking companies, movie makers, remote workers and more.
We look for companies with a clear understanding of how they find and retain paying customers, and we especially look for a growing revenue curve. SaaS companies should have recurring revenue of over $500,000, and non-SaaS companies of over $3 million, but more importantly we are looking for early evidence of sustainability.
We look for founders who really know their space, who can attract and retain great talent, and who are capable of leading the journey for many years. We expect to see technical talent inside the tent, and for founders to be working in the business full-time. We like teams who are guided by a smart and experienced board, and we’ll often provide a director if we are leading an investment round.
We’ve invested in companies with one founder, two founders and several founders. Many of the companies we have invested into have or had female founders, co-founders and/or CEOs, as well as couples in the business. We have good cultural diversity as well including tangata whenua founders, immigrants from a number of regions, as well as sexual diversity. (Two of the founders are in same-sex marriages). The founders range in career progression from recent graduates to well seasoned professionals, from miners to COOs to successful previous founders and more. They are all are inspiring, tenacious and focused on building great businesses for the right reasons.
We look for companies with business models that are able to generate sustainable growth. With the right product and end user, path to customer, and company, this is often easy to see.
We prioritise companies we’ve invested in before when performance merits it. We don’t charge any fees or demand any kickbacks, and strongly prefer not to invest in companies with these sorts of shareholders. We look for companies with simple shareholder registers and seek to minimise your legal costs by keeping the deal simple. We strongly recommend that you retain a lawyer who understands founder-centric, early stage investment. You can ask us for a recommendation or ask other founders.
Our current investments range from under 5% to over 50% of company ownership. We generally aim to hold 10-20% after the first investment.
We have invested over $3 million into seven companies and over $5 million into two companies.
We look for companies where there is clear evidence that they understand the end user, and that have created products and services that delight them. We look for an understanding of the other players in the market place, and of what global niche the company is targeting.
We’ve invested in companies that have targeted end users including hairdressers and spas, retail ISPs, Chinese mothers, gyms, HMOs, HR departments at fast growing companies, boarding schools, 18-35 year old NZ women, developers at fast growing companies, HR professionals, large enterprises, ICT providers, semiconductor conglomerates, trucking companies, movie makers, remote workers and more.
We look for companies with a clear understanding of how they find and retain paying customers, and we especially look for a growing revenue curve. SaaS companies should have recurring revenue of over $500,000, and non-SaaS companies of over $3 million, but more importantly we are looking for early evidence of sustainability.
We look for founders who really know their space, who can attract and retain great talent, and who are capable of leading the journey for many years. We expect to see technical talent inside the tent, and for founders to be working in the business full-time. We like teams who are guided by a smart and experienced board, and we’ll often provide a director if we are leading an investment round.
We’ve invested in companies with one founder, two founders and several founders. Many of the companies we have invested into have or had female founders, co-founders and/or CEOs, as well as couples in the business. We have good cultural diversity as well including tangata whenua founders, immigrants from a number of regions, as well as sexual diversity. (Two of the founders are in same-sex marriages). The founders range in career progression from recent graduates to well seasoned professionals, from miners to COOs to successful previous founders and more. They are all are inspiring, tenacious and focused on building great businesses for the right reasons.
We look for companies with business models that are able to generate sustainable growth. With the right product and end user, path to customer, and company, this is often easy to see.
We prioritise companies we’ve invested in before when performance merits it. We don’t charge any fees or demand any kickbacks, and strongly prefer not to invest in companies with these sorts of shareholders. We look for companies with simple shareholder registers and seek to minimise your legal costs by keeping the deal simple. We strongly recommend that you retain a lawyer who understands founder-centric, early stage investment. You can ask us for a recommendation or ask other founders.
Our current investments range from under 5% to over 50% of company ownership. We generally aim to hold 10-20% after the first investment.
We have invested over $3 million into seven companies and over $5 million into two companies.
PAUL ORGAN
ORAH FOUNDER AND CEO
Everything we do is centered around our values. We believe in treating everyone with kindness and respect, being ambitious in our goals for the community and ourselves, and pioneering new ways. We are evidence-based, disciplined investors, and look to where the future will be.
We believe that our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is a key driver of our success. We see that well run and diverse boards, management teams and companies are able to understand more about their end users and customers, make better decisions and lead to higher long term value.
Other VCs may say they’re in it for the long run. As an evergreen fund, you know we are. We’re here to transform the New Zealand economy, which means a commitment to helping companies grow and keep growing for many years.
We believe in bold founders and their visions. That’s why we think founders should be the ones making decisions for their companies. We’re here to help, along with our vast network of investors and founders, when needed.
If your technology company is New Zealand based, growing quickly, and has at least $500,000 of revenue (SaaS) or $3 million revenue (non SaaS) then please get in touch. We target initial investments of at least $1 million.
