Investment capital firm Maker Partners backs three new New Zealand startups

Maker Partners, a new investment capital firm, has raised $15 million in its latest fund to build a diversified portfolio of high-growth companies.

Maker, which calls itself a purpose-driven venture capital firm,
Its eyes are on young founders of early start-ups creating global social and sustainable change.

The VC announced in February that former Spark Ventures CEO Rod Snodgrass, former Infratil CEO Marko Bogoievski, serial entrepreneur Jonathon Reid, and tech guru Hemant, who is said to have helped build India’s first e-commerce site. Founded by Walter-Reo.

Since founding Maker, the group has made three investments.

The company has invested $1.5 million in its on-demand home services business, NexDo. NexDo book lawn mowing, sweeping and junk removal services through the app.

It also invested $1 million in Paris Georgia, a conscious women’s fashion brand, and $1.6 million in Abel Odor, a non-synthetic fragrance company founded by former winemaker Francis Schumac.

The founders of the three businesses, Francis Shumack, Saksin Niranjan, Paris Mitchell Temple, and Georgia Shelley, are in their late 20s and early 30s.

Maker Partners lead Rod Snodgrass said Maker has exceeded its $15 million goal, with its first fund closing before Christmas at more than $18 million.

Maker put in 20% of its goal, or $3 million.

The funds raised will be used for 4-6 investments per year over the next 2-3 years.

“Other funds write a lot of small checks. They invest in a lot of companies on the assumption that one of them will be big. rice field.

“We are investing in a few who are writing big checks with higher convictions.”

As active investors, Maker partners often sit on the investment firm’s board of directors and assist with key recruiting, networking, and ongoing support and mentorship.

At this stage, Maker was only interested in investing in New Zealand-based companies.

Snodgrass is a director of NexDo and was an investor in NexDo prior to Maker’s involvement. Due to his personal interests and his experience working in global apparel through New Zealand outdoor clothing company Ilabb, he also serves on his Georgia board of directors in Paris.

“We are looking for purpose-driven New Zealand companies with disruptive products or platforms that address existing problems in the global marketplace.”

Makers have little interest in startups modeled after “deep tech” companies or government-owned enterprises, but they do care about businesses enabled by technology.

Snodgrass said he, like other founders, is eager to help build a “great kiwi business.”

He said Maker isn’t just focused on chasing the next unicorn.

“We are in a very disruptive time when many large traditional businesses are in decline.

“They are being attacked by disruptive small businesses, and New Zealand doesn’t have enough new businesses and new growth to worry about where the jobs will come from,” he added.

“So for me, a lot of it is building a lot of great New Zealand businesses over the next ten years.”

Our investments in the first three companies are at the check-mark and typically started with small investments ranging from $250,000 to $2 million in pre-seed and seed-stage companies.

“We want all these businesses to be at least tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Snodgrass.

“Personally, we don’t care much about unicorns, billion-dollar businesses like Xero. We are very pleased to announce that we are committed to building many great businesses.”

He said unicorns are rare, especially in New Zealand.

“We aim to make founders rich to do great things for the world and create great businesses worthy of creating jobs.”