The New Zealand government-financed Elevate venture capital fund-of-funds has committed $NZ17 million to a first fund being raised by deep tech venture firm Nuance Connected Capital.
Including the commitment from the Elevate fund, which is managed by New Zealand Growth Capital Partners, Auckland and Tauranga-based Nuance has so far raised $NZ55 million.
Other commitments to the Nuance fund include a cornerstone investment from global multi-family office Alvarium. The manager plans to continue fundraising until March 2022.
Since officially launching in May, Nuance has made four investments. These include jointly leading, with two overseas investment firms, a $US10 million round for electric bike company UBCO (APE&VCJ, Jul 2021) and contributing to a $NZ15 million Series B round for testing and measurement business Quantifi Photonics led by Punakaiki Fund (APE&VCJ, Aug 2021).
Nuance was founded by general partners Adrien Gheur and Ngaio Merrick. The company’s advisory board includes Dino Vendetti, founder and managing director of Seattle-based Seven Peaks Ventures, also an investor in UBCO.
Gheur spent 15 years in investment roles in South-East Asia and co-founded Jakarta-based Maloekoe Ventures where he was managing partner until last year. Since 2018, Gheur has been a Fellow in the Edmund Hillary Fellowship’s second cohort of entrepreneurs, investors and start-up teams working to incubate global impact ventures from New Zealand.
Merrick became involved with investing in early-stage ventures as investment manager for Lewis Holdings, a family investment company for the late Sir David Levene, the founder of the former Levene retail chain. Sir David died in August. Merrick continues in her role with Lewis Holdings.
The $NZ300 million Elevate fund-of-funds has now committed to six fundraisings, in each case with its funding conditional on the funds raising substantial additional capital from private investors. The other commitments are to Blackbird Ventures NZ, Movac Fund 5, Pacific Channel, Finistere Aotearoa, and Global From Day One 3.
New Zealand Growth Partners acting chief executive and Elevate investment director James Pinner said the Nuance fund represented a significant commitment from the private sector to invest in deep tech ventures, which aim to solve large societal challenges – like climate change – using emerging technologies like synthetic biology, artificial intelligence or quantum technologies.
Image: Nuance has already invested in four companies including testing and measurement equipment company Quantifi Photonics.