LWCM Submission on the Venture Capital Bill
The New Zealand Government has previously announced its intent to create a $300 million venture capital fund of funds – dubbed the Venture Capital Fund (VCF).
Over the last few weeks and months Treasury, NZ Super Fund, Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), NZ Venture Investment Fund (NZVIF) and the government have been working on three key pieces of work:
The first piece of work is the legislation – the Venture Capital Bill. This allocates $300 million to the Guardians of the NZ Super Fund (the Guardians), who will manage and administer the VCF, and also requires the Guardians to contract with NZVIF to run the VCF.
The bill is at the Select Committee stage, and LWCM completed our own Venture Capital Bill Submission last week, and I (Lance) appeared in front of the Committee yesterday (Tuesday 1 October).
Note that submission and my appearance were on behalf of LWCM, not Punakaiki Fund. We did not consult the Punakaiki Fund Board for our submission.
The second is the Policy Statement on the Venture Capital Fund Act 2019. A draft of this Policy was shared with industry, and submissions were made to that draft by last Friday. LWCM’s submission for the draft Policy document is attached to our submission to the Venture Capital Bill. Chris and I also attended a workshop in Auckland facilitated by the players above.
The third piece of work has not been made public, and that’s the draft Contract between the Guardians and NZVIF to manage the investment of the VCF’s capital. We would like to see the contract made public for comment, and certainly once it is in effect. Our understanding is that the Guardians, Treasury, MBIE and NZVIF have been allocating substantial resources to negotiating this document.
As part of the third piece of work the Guardians will review the suitability of NZVIF to run the VCF, and perhaps NZVIF will make internal changes to be ready to run the new fund.
This matters to Punakaiki Fund as some of the VCF funds could potentially be placed with Punakaiki Fund, and VCF funds will obviously be placed with venture capital funds that both compete and collaborate with us.
Punakaiki Fund Releases 2019 Annual Report
We have now released our March 31, 2019 annual report.
Top financial highlights are:
– Asset value was $47.3 million, with revaluation gains of $7.1 million
– Just $0.8 million net cash used in operating activities
– 23.3% IRR annualised increase in the value of our investment portfolio
Tightening our Mandate
Investment Mandate
At our launch 5 years ago Punakaiki Fund had a broad mandate, able to invest in any New Zealand company that was “high growth”, as well as turn-around opportunities. We also stated that we would focus on Internet, technology and design-led companies.
Over the following years we added and amended our Statement of Investment Policies and Objectives, and then added a Socially Responsible Investment Policy addressing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
Mobi2Go Accepts $5m Investment
Mobi2Go Accepts Investment
We are pleased to announce that Punakaiki Fund portfolio company Mobi2Go has closed a $5 million investment round with Movac, a fellow (and larger) New Zealand venture capital fund.
December 2018 Quarterly Report
We have generally kept Punakaiki Fund company news for investors only, but will now be publishing more information. The first release is our latest Quarterly Report. Note that there is a webinar this afternoon (Tuesday) at 5pm, which all are welcome to join.
We have also released all of our historical Quarterly Reports. The earlier Quarterly Reports are redacted to preserve confidential information, while more recent reports are written for a public audience.
2018 Retail Offer Results, Share Trading and new Wholesale Offer
Retail offer closed in November 2018
Welcome to 158 new investors, and many thanks to all 321 investors who invested a total of $2,536,506 in the October 2018 retail offer.
New iNAV, Melon Health investment, and venues for Wellington & Christchurch
As we count down to closing the October 2018 Retail Offer we bring you three pieces of news:
1: Our investor net asset value per share has increased
We held our quarterly Board meeting on Friday, and I’m very happy to announce the new September quarter-end valuation:
Punakaiki Fund 2018 Retail Offer: Launch Event
Punakaiki Fund Limited makes long-term investments into high-growth New Zealand companies, and has a portfolio of 20 investments and $40.6 million in assets.
Please join Lance Wiggs, selected portfolio company founders, and the Punakaiki Fund team as we launch our 2018 Retail Offer to support further investment into great New Zealand companies.
Punakaiki Fund September 2017 Interim Accounts
We have released our September 2017 interim accounts, which are the half-year financial snapshot. These show that the assets of Punakaiki Fund were $31.56 million at the end of the quarter, of which $29.25 million was investments.
The accounts show a profit of $1.145 million for the half-year, but we believe the more important piece of reading is the statement of cash flows. This shows that net cash used in operating activities was $213,000, which represents just 0.67% of total assets, or 1.35% on an annualised basis.
New Investment: Coherent Solutions
We are very happy to publicly announce our investment into Coherent Solutions.
Coherent Solutions builds advanced coherent (laser) and non-coherent light testing equipment, primarily for the development and manufacture of fibre optic telecommunication components and systems.