Auckland-based VC Icehouse Ventures has raised its first NZ$5 million in the direction of a $20m goal to spend money on women-led startups.
The brand new ArcAngels Fund II is Aotearoa’s largest fund investing completely in female-founded and led ventures.
Theresa Gattung, Chair of International Ladies and the Kiwi lead for ladies entrepreneur initiative SheEO, is a cornerstone investor in ArcAngels Fund II, with key contributions from Vend co-founder Mel Rowsell, and Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1 funding firm.
The brand new fund follows on from the inaugural ArcAngels fund, which raised NZ$2.8 million – 40% greater than the preliminary $2m goal – lower than two years in the past.
It backed 31 New Zealand ventures, together with accounting startup HNRY (Claire Fuller), cryptocurrency change platform Straightforward Crypto (Janine Grainger), on-line market ArchiPro (Brittany Gribben) and Astrix Astronautics (Fia Jones).
New Zealand at the least punches above its weight relating to investing in feminine founders. The worldwide common sits at round 2-3%, however ArcAngels supervisor Lauren Fong stated the native determine is round 19%.
There’s nonetheless room for enchancment, and Fong stated Fund II will spend money on as much as 50 female-founded startups over the subsequent 4 years, with its first funding made final month, and two extra underway.
“A community-driven method is vital to encouraging extra ladies entrepreneurs into the ecosystem, and our second ArcAngels fund will probably be enjoying a extra lively position in rising this group,” she stated
“Ladies are on the market constructing $1 billion companies, and there’s no motive why these corporations can’t make their begin in Aotearoa/New Zealand.”
Theresa Gattung stated she is going to proceed to offer her time, power and cash to backing ladies entrepreneurs.
“Early-stage ventures are receiving extra funding than ever earlier than and but the amount of cash going to ladies elevating capital on this nation is tiny,” she stated.
“This wants to alter, and it’s actually thrilling to again ladies entrepreneurs and investor teams like ArcAngels who’re rising angel investor networks to assist women-led companies. I consider New Zealand has the chance to face out and make a distinction on this if all of us work collectively.”
Sarah Balle, founding father of on-line grocery store challenger Supie, was amongst these backed by the inaugural fund and appreciates the assist from the Kiwi ecosystem.
“It’s tremendous inspiring to see superb ladies like Theresa Gattung and Mel Rowsell, who’ve constructed and led unimaginable companies, stepping as much as assist different ladies like me who’re new to entrepreneurship. The encouragement and assist we obtain by the funding group helps us preserve pushing these boundaries and opens doorways to new connections, which is particularly vital in these early days of launching a brand new firm.”
Whereas the fund is targeted on backing women-led companies, the ArcAngels investor community has males accounting for round 40% of the fund’s buyers.
Six of the 8 ladies on the 16-strong Icehouse Ventures staff: (again, l-r) Jo Wickham, Enterprise Accomplice; Bex Gidall, Analyst; Steph Benseman, Principal (entrance) Lauren Fong, Principal; Laila Grace, Operations Analyst; and Michaela Egbers, Advertising Supervisor.
