Icehouse Ventures Launch - 18 years in, 18 years from now

On the eve of our first Icehouse Ventures international trip, with an investment mission to China for Eden Ventures and our portfolio companies Nectar, Rocos, LearnCoach & Jettzy – I thought I would share some words I shared with the crowd at the launch of Icehouse Ventures this week.

We were honoured to have founders, Miriana Lowrie of 1 Centre and Georgia McGillivray of The Social Club, Sam Stubbs of Simplicity, Sir Stephen Tindall of K1W1, Anne Catley a trustee, board member of Icehouse and Icehouse Ventures and investor in Ventures Funds and Robbie Paul, the founding CEO of Icehouse Ventures sharing their vision and the opportunity they saw that Ventures has to make a difference in New Zealand and the world’s startup ecosystem.

In wrapping up, Robbie Paul challenged me to reflect on what Ventures would be doing in 2037, 18 years from now.

My first reflection was to pay homage to our founders, David Irving, Bridget Coates, Barry Spicer and John Hood – what were they thinking in 2001 when we started this thing with the worst name in history? Yes we were a child of New Zealand’s Knowledge Wave (yes, something came out of that, actually quite a bit), if a little illegitimate and pre because we were in the oven for a good 2 years before some magic happened to give us the chance .. thank you Bridget for being able to get those partners on board ….. it’s one thing to have an idea … it’s another thing to make the idea spark into an opportunity.

I also want to pay my respect to the board members, trustees, committee members and advisors that enabled this partnership with Icehouse, Simplicity, FNZ and K1W1 to happen. From an idea two years ago out a strategic retreat, to a company with a bank account and shareholders – countless hours, time, patience, guidance and support. To our advisors - Deloitte our financial advisors, Mel Firmin our independent fund advisor and Simmonds Stewart our truly awesome legal advisors on this transaction. A massive effort to enable us to be here now, with our new partners on board – thank you.

Now the year is 2037 ….

God willing - I will be 68 and hopefully a grand-father, Robbie will be over 50 and Jasper, Robbie’s son will be of age …… with his daughter not far behind …..

In perspective, I was 33 when I was the first employee of the Icehouse. Think about it though, Robbie was 23 when he joined us, Jason 25 and Jack 17 – these three and the whole Ventures team have really 10x’d their knowledge, ambition and expertise – they are proof that you can be world class, you can be wise and you can win even as young people – they inspire us all to dream big, work hard and keep moving ahead on the vision, every day – they also model the way by doing all of this – thank you.

By 2037, we want more companies like Rocket Lab, Xero, Grinding Gear Games, Vend, Push Pay, Avertana, Crimson Education, PowerbyProxi, Valocity, Mint Innovation and Halter - more globally successful and significant enterprises operating out of and from New Zealand, winning on the world stage. In 2019, we only have 2,400 firms that have >100 FTE’s – we need many many more – that is really one of the major ways we will impact on our productivity and long-term prospects if we can crack that!

By 2037, the Icehouse will be 36, and through some magic with a spreadsheet and a CAGR formula I have dived into the past to predict the future. The collective impact of the Icehouse could be

·     870,000 new jobs created

·     NZD$2.2 trillion in revenue growth

·     NZD$550b of export revenue

·     And NZD$940m of funds under management

This FUM number looks conservative we will do more.

When I step back, I think about the hundreds and thousands of entrepreneurs, founders, investors, mentors, board members, family members who have been on journeys – journeys of success, journeys of failure and ultimately journeys of learning. That is exciting.  

What matters is dreaming, what matters is belief and a purpose – we have always believed that the very essence of success comes from having a vision and being able to execute against it – this is not a ‘sole game’ – this is a team game and it takes a village to raise the child - but as romantic as it is, what you must have is the spark, you must have the vision for something different and something new – so my final words really are for us all to encourage the misfits, the visionaries, the crazies to keep dreaming of changing the world, the rest of us can get in behind you, can help run cover, can help build the fences and destroy them when necessary but we need our people to keep dreaming to make the world a better and different place ….

Thank you all for all of the 300 people who came to our launch and the others who sent their best wishes - thank you to the amazing team and stakeholders for giving us a chance to prove some more things …..

Thank you to Simplicity, thank you to First NZ and thank you to K1W1 who have invested $3m to start Icehouse Ventures with The Icehouse and for those investors who join us over the next 90 days to finalise the last $1m we are raising to close out the round.

This week’s launch of Ventures signifies the beginning of something new and more, so thank you for all who have got us to here this week, and I ask for your support as we move forward over the next 18 years – and to the team that drives it forward, we are so grateful for that opportunity …

Enjoy and thank you for all being a part of the launch of Icehouse Ventures.

If you are a startup founder from New Zealand and you need capital, support and networks to realist your dreams – share your dream with us.

If you are an investor and want to back some amazing startups coming out of New Zealand – let us know and we can share the options for getting you involved.

Icehouse Ventures invests in New Zealand start-ups and high-growth companies with global aspirations. The company was formed to address the challenges of scale and shortage of capital facing ambitious entrepreneurs building global high-growth businesses from New Zealand.

Icehouse Ventures next-generation model for investing includes a series of funds, angel networks, and a startup accelerator*. It plans to launch an expansion fund for Series A+ investment opportunities as well as a new index fund next year, with an SME Growth Fund anticipated in 2021 and consideration to a venture debt offering in time.

Shareholders include The Icehouse, owned by a charitable trust that was formed in 2001, KiwiSaver retirement savings funds manager Simplicity, Stephen Tindall’s investment company K1W1 and investment banking firm FNZC (First NZ Capital).

More than NZD106m has been invested into 165 companies since The Icehouse first began channelling capital to start-ups. NZD22m was invested into 56 companies in 2018.

Contact Icehouse Ventures for more information or look to the company’s blog for the latest news and events.

*Funds include Tuhua Ventures, First Cut Ventures, and Eden Ventures; angel networks are Ice Angels and Arc Angels; and Flux is the accelerator that is also part of Icehouse Ventures.