Mike Bennetts Elected Chair of the Board
The directors have elected Mike Bennetts as Chair of Punakaiki Fund. Mike brings considerable governance and executive expertise to the boardroom, and, along with the other directors, is an investor in the fund.
The board also determined that the Net Asset Value of the fund at the end of September was $12.3 million, or $14.60 per share, up from $14.14 at the June fundraising.
New Investment: Mobi2go
We are very happy to announce our latest investment — Mobi2go, where we have invested up to $1 million — with $500,000 invested immediately and an additional $500,000 only if and after we raise a certain amount of additional funds.
Mobi2go helps food service businesses sell more by adding an ordering function to their marketing website. Customers can order their food and beverages online and either pick up in person at the restaurant, or, in some cases, arrange delivery. Mobi2go integrates with many POS systems and generally sends the order directly to the kitchen. The customer turns up, picks up the food (which has their name on it) and walks away — having already paid. It’s a winner — saving time for the customer and increasing same-store sales, often by 20%, without adding front of house staff for the restaurant.
Punakaiki Fund adds three new directors
Punakaiki Fund press release today, marking the beginning of a new era for the fund. Chris Humphreys and I are very happy to be able to welcome such an excellent set of directors.
Three new directors bring wealth of experience
Auckland, 13 October 2015 – Punakaiki Fund Limited, an investor in growth stage technology and software companies, has appointed three new directors at its recent AGM. As it gears up for growth, its 475 shareholders have appointed Mike Bennetts (CEO of Z Energy), John Berry (co-founder of Pathfinder Asset Management) and Bryan Hutchins (director of Real Journeys). All three are shareholders in Punakaiki Fund.
New Investment: Vend
The Vend investment was announced today. The deal terms were as described in the shareholder vote material, where we combined a $2 million cash investment with an issue of Punakaiki Fund shares (to myself) to purchase Vend Shares.
The NBR has covered this story but it is behind the paywall. Here are some excerpts:
EverEdgeIP
Last night we signed and today we are announcing a new investment: EverEdgeIP Global.
About EverEdgeIP
CEO Paul Adams and Lance Wiggs have been discussing EverEdgeIP with increasing intensity for a while now, starting with informal meetings exchanging information about our approaches, progressing a while later to formal Better by Capital sessions to assist EverEdgeIP to get ready for this round (the last session was more than 3 months ago), and more recently about this investment. We are very impressed with their approach, the investment case and future possibilities about working together.
Crowdfunding now live: Invest in Punakaiki Fund
We are very happy to announce our crowdfunding investment offer to the public:
Vibe acquires Melbourne-based RackCentral
Vibe Communications continue their relentless growth – this time by acquiring RackCentral and bringing on board the much respected Shaun McGuane. Here’s the full press release:
Snowball Offer
Punakaiki Fund will soon be presenting an offer through the Snowball Effect platform.
We are pleased to announce that we have selected Snowball Effect to present our fund-raising offer to members of the public. Equity crowdfunding allows us to reach out to people who up until now have been unable to invest in Punakaiki Fund. This includes many of the investors who supported us in the 2013 Public Offer, when we did not reach the minimum.
Boardingware
We are delighted to announce that we have purchased 16.67% of Boardingware Limited.
Boardingware helps boarding schools manage their students’ movements and pastoral care, replacing stacks of paper, email trails and other cumbersome systems. It allows students, boarding masters and parents to easily request, approve and track absences, such as weekend leave. And it records events, discipline issues and positive feedback on students, making those reports a lot easier to compile.
Weirdly
We are very happy to announce that we have purchased 18.6% of Weirdly Limited.
Weirdly helps companies that actively recruit people find better applicants, and also reduce the effort required to manage applicants. There are a number of recruitment management systems that already exist, and Weirdly adds a cultural fit layer to the front of the process. It’s all done online these days of course (it’s been a while since Lance applied for a job), and rather than launching directly into the application and resume/c.v. sending process, candidates first get posed a series of questions through Weirdly.