Robbie Paul: Icehouse Ventures CEO on the company opening a seed fund to back NZ's latest emerging companies

The hunt is on for New Zealand's next big new start-up.

Icehouse Ventures recently opened a $30 million seed round in an attempt to fund 30 new Kiwi-made business ventures.

CEO Robbie Paul says they're looking to invest in new technology that can go from New Zealand to the world.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now. The hunter's on for New Zealand's big new startup,
ice House Ventures has opened a thirty million dollar seed
round in an attempt to fund thirty new business ventures.
Their seed funds have produced some of New Zealand's biggest
startups like Shears's and Halter, which everybody knows about, which
is a unicorn, which is very successful. So what's the

(00:21):
next one? And already they've got half the cash that
they've asked for. Robbie Paul is the ice House Ventures
CEO with now.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hi, Robbie Raan good to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
So what you've got half the fund subscribed already? Is
that right? Correct?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, we've bolted out the gates. More than fifteen million
committed to towards our thirty million dollar target. And I
mean what's really important is reaching a first close. Men's
were in business and we've got cash to invest in
sort of great companies even if we but we're obviously
very confident that we will.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
The minimum is fifty k right, who is investing.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Mostly wholesale and ess from around New Zealand and several
investors from offshore. The minimum, correct is fifty thousand. Importantly,
that's paid over a series of years, so it's not
all upfront. We invest in companies over a few years.
In the commitment and payment pattern sort of follows that.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Obviously, you're looking for the next Halter, it's the Unicorn,
it's the it's the you know, it's I guess it's
the dream of any seed fund. What are you looking
for particular types of businesses to invest in this time around?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
You're right, I mean Halter is a remarkable company, and
certainly if we can find one more of those with
this fund, then every we'll look after itself. And to
answer your question on the areas that we're interested in,
I mean generally software, hardware, technology that can be taken
from New Zealand to the world, but not too much
more specific than that. And at the earliest stages. And

(01:54):
keep in mind this fund is investing in in startups
really at their inception. At that point, you're indexing pretty
heavily on the quality of the entrepreneurs, right, because a
company is going into a market that market probably shouldn't
even exist at this point, right, if you're going to
be building something really valuable.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
So are you looking when you say quality entrepreneurs, do
you mean entrepreneurs that have already had success or do
you mean the attitude or the idea plus the attitude?
What's the formula.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
That's a great question. And great entrepreneurs come in all
different shapes and sizes, and we've actually had a lot
of success, including with Halter and Jamie Beaton at Crimson
investing in that are I mean for the first time,
so we will certainly to do that. In other cases.
We've also been by investing in entrepreneurs who've been around

(02:51):
the block, built and sold companies and are going it again.
There's a medical device company called The Inside's Company that's
led by an entrepreneur named Garth Sup and we had
actually invested in his first company about fifteen years ago
and now he's back doing it again. So I would
say attitude, to your point is key. Ambition, intellect, honesty, drive,

(03:15):
you know, gravity and make all those types of things
are really important.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Interesting. Robbie, thank you for being with me tonight. Robbie
Paul is the Ice House Bench is chief executive that
fun thirty million dollar fund. If you've got a good idea,
I guess, and you're motivated and you're ambitious, then get
your ideas into ice House for more from Hither Duplessy
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