Investors line up to support tech growth fund

Some big-name investors are backing venture capital firm Movac’s latest $202 million growth fund.

Movac’s latest venture capital fund secured investment from NZ Super Fund, Fisher Funds, Generate KiwiSaver and Government Superannuation Fund, alongside a number of iwi, community trusts, family offices and individual investors.

The Movac Growth Fund 6 would provide growth funding to technology companies with at least $2m in product revenue, along with an ambition to scale for global expansion.

“Raising capital is incredibly challenging globally at the moment, for both funds and companies, so I’m absolutely stoked to have raised a fund of this scale,” Movac partner Mark Vivian said.

“Our track record of returning cash to investors across multiple funds over a number of years has been a critical evaluation factor.

“Whilst the capital markets are fairly volatile at the moment it’s worth noting that historically, venture capital funds deployed by experienced managers in cycles like this have had very strong investment returns.”

The Super Fund announced last December it would commit up to $70 million to Growth Fund 6 – its third investment in a Movac fund.

Movac had previously invested in tech companies Vend and Unleashed Software, which were succeeding on a global stage.

Additionally, Vivian said Movac was making “excellent progress” in its fourth early-stage fund, which targeted deep tech companies that were pre-revenue or early-revenue.

“With our success from making very early-stage investments in the likes of PowerbyProxi, Aroa Biosurgery and Greenbutton, our team has skills and experience of supporting highly-disruptive deep tech companies who are building solutions for massively valuable problems.

“We’re bullish about the early-stage part of the Kiwi tech ecosystem, and are enthused by the strong investor interest we’ve had so far in Movac Emerge Fund 4.”

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