Published: 25 JUL 2022
Technology

Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s tech sector continues to experience rapid growth and presents exciting opportunities for investment.

Specific investable opportunities include the following:

Innovative high-efficiency wireless EV charging solutions

IntDevice technology offers customers greater freedom on where and how EVs (from buses and trucks to cars and robots) can charge, with automatic high power and fast charging ‘drive on’ units. An opportunity exists for investment or collaboration. 

For more information contact Investment Specialist Yan Zhang

Building materials and technologies

We are interested in talking to companies with the interest and ability to bring products or technologies to the Auckland building material market. We are interested to engage prior to the conclusion of the Commerce Commission report so that we can provide feedback on the process, particularly around barriers.

For more information about opportunities in this sector, contact Investment Specialist Andrew Carpenter

Venture capital funds with a focus on technology

Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland continues to attract offshore investors looking to secure quality exposure to technology ventures. This is typically either through limited partnership or co-investment alongside Auckland-based funds.

Climate Venture Capital Fund, MOVAC and Nuance Connected Capital are now raising capital to support investments in Kiwi technology companies addressing climate change. Other Auckland-based technology venture capital funds that are also raising include Hillfarrance Venture Capital (gaming and AI investments), Quidnet Ventures (deep tech and science-based investments), and GD1 (health tech and deep tech).

The managers of these funds would be pleased to speak with prospective offshore institutions and family offices, both as limited partners as well as co-investors in the funds’ technology companies. We are happy to facilitate introductions as appropriate.

An upcoming event of note for professional investors is the NZ Private Capital Conference 2022 in Queenstown, New Zealand on 20 October 2022.

For more information about opportunities in this sector, contact Investment Specialist Andrew Carpenter

Circles – it's like Strava, for golf

Founded by former Olympic high performance and big data specialists, Circles is a B2C, SaaS platform that, for a monthly fee, provides golfers with everything they need to think and train like a pro. Its vision is to be the leader in performance insights for golf globally.

It works! Circles users are experiencing a three-stroke reduction in three- months, and for Professionals, 19x ROI.

Circles has just over 2700 players and 560 coaches across 22 countries. Seeing 20 per cent month-on-month revenue growth with a current MRR of USD$31k.

It has just signed a multi-year contract with the Chinese Ladies Professional Tour (CLPGA) and multiple national and NCAA teams.

Circles has identified a market of 15 million golfers worth NZ$10.6 billion and is raising capital to get 18,000 paid users and NZ$13 million in ARR, in next 24 months. 

Circles has signed term sheets and with $500k remaining for the raise, is looking for investors that understand sport or SaaS economics to close the round.

For more information about this opportunity contact Investment Specialist Wing Lin

Opportunities for investment in Kiwi fintech

There is strong investment activity in New Zealand technology that impacts the way we borrow, lend, save, spend, store and transfer money. Auckland’s emerging global status as a financial technology (fintech) hub is fuelled by recent extraordinary growth. No longer held back by distance and with rich talent and global market opportunities, Auckland is well placed to serve New Zealand as a fintech hub offering strong investment incentives. 

The Technology Investment Network (TIN) recently released its inaugural Fintech Insights Report, offering a deep dive into one of the New Zealand’s fastest-growing tech export sectors, with global revenues of nearly NZ$2 billion. In this a recent two-part series, we look at the critical success factors in Auckland’s status as the national fintech hub and at avenues open to investors.

For more information about opportunities in this sector, contact Investment Specialist Andrew Carpenter