Note, this first appeared on Deal Street Asia at this link
January22,2016: NewZealandVentureInvestmentFund(NZVIF) (http://www.nzvif.co.nz/) and its Taiwanese counterpart National Development Fund (NDF), will each commit $7.5 million in a new fund across both these countries.
This new vehicle – The Global from Day One Fund II (GD1 Fund II) – has already raised over NZ$30 million and is targeting a final close of up to NZ$45 million.
This is the second venture capital fund established as a joint New Zealand-Taiwan arrangement. GD1 Fund II joins Movac (http://movac.co.nz/) and GRC Sinogreen as active VC funds in the New Zealand market.
This new vehicle will primarily invest in New Zealand-based startups with a focus on offshore markets, while some part of it will be set aside for startups aiming to use Taiwan as a springboard to achieve growth in Asia.
GD1 Fund II, which will be based in Auckland and Taipei, is a 10 year Silicon Valley-style micro VC fund that will invest in high growth technology companies.
The final amount that NZVIF and NDF will invest in this new fund will depend on the vehicle’s final size.
The fund’s managers have committed about 20 percent of the capital, with the rest being raised from private investors in New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the USA.
GD1 Fund II will target startups developing software, internet, and smart devices or ‘lean hardware’, and will be looking at deals between $250,000 and $1.5 million in the Pre Series A and Series A stages, and invest in around 20 companies in New Zealand and Taiwan.
This new VC fund is being launched by investors from Sparkbox Ventures (http://sparkbox.vc/) – the Auckland-based early stage fund – and Pinehurst Advisors (http://pinehurstadvisors.com/) – a Taipei-based early investment fund. GD1 Fund II’s managers’ track record include investments in over 100 early stage companies, including successful New Zealand companies like Xero (https://www.xero.com/), Booktrack (https://www.booktrack.com/), MishGuru (http://www.mish.guru/)and GreenButton (http://www.greenbuttondata.org/).
The GD1 management team of Mark Hsu, Chintaka Ranatunga and Kevin Chen will be managers for the second fund too.
GD1 Fund II is the eleventh venture capital fund established with NZVIF as a cornerstone investor, and the latter’s commitment is to ensure that at least half the fund will be invested into New Zealand-originating technology companies.
“From a New Zealand Inc perspective, one of the chief benefits of the partnership that NZVIF has with Taiwan’s National Development Fund is that it opens access to new networks and markets for fund managers and the high growth companies they invest in,” Franceska Banga, CEO of NZVIF, said in a statement.