Kia ora,

It was great to have a an in-person pitch evening recently after a hiatus of almost 12 months. Zoom has been great but its hard to beat having the opportunity to meet the founders in person and engage with them. It was pleasing to see such interesting pitches from a range of companies (see below for more details if you missed the pitch evening). We have a number of our members considering or committed to investing in this group of companies.

It's encouraging to see some of our portfolio companies recently raising capital as follows:

• Insite AI -$US19m (series A)
• FileInvite -$10m (series A)
• Evnex -$2.7m (seed)

Coming up we have our new member dinner on the 27th of July where we are looking to introduce a new group to angel investing and the contribution it makes to the start-up ecosystem.

Other events scheduled include a catch up with the team from Angel Investors Marlborough on the 10th of August who will share their investment experiences over drinks and nibbles and our next Pitch Evening on the 1st of September (more details to follow on both events).

We look forward to seeing you at these events.

Ngā mihi,

Paul Claridge

Chair

Interesting Stuff

Ōtautahi’s own Brianne West launches a $20m start-up support fund plus record growth for NZ startups.

• Entrepreneur launches $20 million business start-up support fund | Stuff.co.nz
• Media Release :: Record growth for NZ startups as conscious investment trend emerges – Angel Association New Zealand

Investor News

Once again, we had four fantastic presentations providing a range of opportunities. Thanks to Peter, Joelle, and the team at Lane Neave for finally getting to host and putting on a fantastic evening. For those that missed it, the companies that pitched were:

Take a Breath is a first mover in the health tech space, focused on breathing for health and performance With a mission to directly address anxiety one breath at a time, Take a Breath is a social enterprise that sells to large corporations, and gifts to schools and at risk sectors. Take a Breath has established some excellent proof points and is now gearing to up-spec the tech and scale the business out of NZ.

Matū Karihi is a venture capital fund focusing on supporting Kiwi science and deep tech at the earliest stages. Karihi is an open/evergreen fund with a long-term approach, and we leverage our scientific and commercial expertise within the team to provide active support for our portfolio companies. Karihi has invested in 14 (soon to be 16) companies over three and a half years, with a very strong pipeline of opportunity, and we are looking for investors to join us on this journey.

TDRI Ltd is poised to become a leader in Roading Intelligence through the use of its Lincoln Agritech developed and patented non-invasive, continuous sub-surface moisture detection sensor systems. TDRI have gained initial traction supporting the road construction and maintenance industry through the provision of vastly improved data-driven insight into sub-surface moisture, the number one issue in roads. TDRI has further opportunity to expand its technology into other industry vectors.

InsituGen has developed a novel test that will revolutionize steroid testing. Chief Scientist Professor Alison Heather has developed an in vitro (cell-free) screening method that measures the anabolic effect caused by all steroids with androgenic activity. Therefore, this test can detect new designer androgen drugs, based on their activity rather than their structure. This new, proprietary and disruptive technology will enable testing laboratories to remain ahead of the underground chemists and dopers.

Events

There are some great events coming up with our inaugural members dinner being held on the 27^th of July. The goal of the dinner is for existing members to bring along any friends and colleagues who could become our next Angel Superstars. Register here to lock in your ticket and make sure you get in quick as numbers will be limited.

We are holding our next Investor Evening on the 1st of September which is being co-hosted by ChristchurchNZ and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise. Register here to get your ticket and remember to bring a guest!

AANZ Summit 2022 - The second Angel Association Summit of the year is coming back to the South Island with another fantastic venue in Queenstown. It would be great to have a big CA contingent present and early bird registrations are still open so make sure you secure your place here.



CA are proudly supported by: