Every year we take a look back at the year that was in our Startup Year in Review - a video that documents and celebrates the startups that have reached major milestones throughout the year.
User Experience / User Interface Designer
Icehouse Ventures is looking for a talented designer to join our growing product team. We are using technology to disrupt the venture capital industry by opening up investment to a more diverse range of investors and streamlining capital raising for New Zealand technology startups.
For all the positives that come with the expansion of Aotearoa's venture ecosystem, we have growing pains. And while we pride ourselves on diversity, inclusivity, kindness and equality, the startup community must acknowledge that we have a ways to go to meet these foundational Kiwi principles.
For an industry that invests in innovation and disruption for a living, the venture capital ecosystem has been pretty resistant to disruption itself. There have been attempts around the edges such as rolling funds, equity crowdfunding and better CRM systems, but the core process of raising capital from investors and deploying capital into companies has remained the same since the early days of VC.
Every year we take a look back at the year that was in our Startup Year in Review - a video that documents and celebrates the startups that have reached major milestones throughout the year.
Many of our portfolio companies are searching for talented developers across a range of languages and at different skill levels. We've partnered with Skillsme who have developed a powerful AI tool that assesses candidates' tech capabilities to enable us to easily match startups with qualified talent.
Last month we held the 5th annual Icehouse Ventures First Cut Challenge - our nationwide search for New Zealand’s most promising young founders.
Introducing the IVX Fund
Today we announced the launch of IVX (as in Icehouse Ventures Expansion), a late-stage venture fund that will invest in 20-30 of NZ’s leading tech companies.
We have already raised over $50m to date from Simplicity, an Iwi, Hobson Wealth, Sir Stephen Tindall, and over 100 individual investors and are moving towards a $75m final close. The fund is now open for investment from new investors.
What is "late-stage venture capital?
IVX is a late-stage fund. What does that mean? Most of the capital will be deployed into companies with established and growing teams, well-developed products & services, evidence of competitive wins, five or more years in market, revenue & proven business models, and strong governance. And the most critical feature: potential for significant global growth. Example companies already in the IVX portfolio include Shuttlerock who are generating $10m+ revenue, Dawn Aerospace who have their technology commercially operating on multiple satellites in space, and Sir John Kirwan's Mentemia whose tech is used by The Warehouse, Sky, Eroad, and others.
How does IVX compare to other VC funds?
IVX leverages our unique relationships, information, and follow-on rights we have as a result of being among New Zealand’s most active early-stage investors. Our pipeline includes our 250+ startup investments, a subset of which thrive and become sought after. This simply cannot be reverse engineered. (Note IVX can also invest in startups outside of our family.)
This is not a novel model. YCombinator, a Silicon Valley-based accelerator that got its start making $20k pre-seed investments, subsequently raised a $1b “continuity” fund to invest further in its top performers like Airbnb and Dropbox. Having long-duration relationships with founders and longitudinal data on their performance is a real advantage.
Icehouse Ventures back brave kiwi founders with unique insights who are building global companies. We're looking for people who are inspired by helping these ambitious entrepreneurs achieve big things.
We are NZ's most active venture capital firm, with over $140m funds under management, and a portfolio of 240+ of the countries most exciting early-stage businesses (like Sharesies, Ethique, Mint Innovation, Halter, Narrative, Dawn Aerospace, Tradify and FirstAML).
If you have a superpower and a passion for startups, we'd love for you to join us.