February 2006
Welcome to the first NZVCA newsletter of 2006! This is shaping up as another excellent and interesting year for the industry. We finished with a flourish of venture capital and private equity activity in the second half of 2005 and this seems to have carried over into 06! Look out for confirmation of this in the next NZVCA/Ernst & Young Venture Capital Monitor industry survey (covering the whole of 2005) - due out in late March. We are currently putting together our schedule of NZVCA events for the year ahead and will have the details available towards the end of February. For now though, please pencil in the first Wellington networking evening on Wednesday 8 March (see further details on this below) and the 5th annual NZVCA conference which will be held in Auckland on Thursday 2 November. Congratulations to Jenny Morel of No 8 Ventures who was awarded a CNZM for services to venture capital in the New Year’s Honours list. Recent deal activity includes: The December 05 completion of a global license, integration and investment agreement by eMarketing solutions provider, Calcium Software, with NZVCA full members Investors Guaranty Global Alliance. Calcium was initially funded from angel capital firm Sparkbox Ltd and supported by Wellington’s Creative HQ business incubator. A successful capital-raising for BEE – Beauty Engineered Forever - that Deloitte was involved in via the NZTE Escalator Service. A case study on this deal is available in the News section of the NZVCA website. Endeavour iCap, GBS Venture Partners and No 8 Ventures backed company Proacta announced on 21 December 2005 that the first human clinical trial for its New Zealand-developed anticancer compound PR-104 has been approved to start at Waikato Hospital.
NZVCA member online survey
As mentioned in our last newsletter, we are currently putting together a (simple) online survey that will be e-mailed out to all NZVCA members in the week commencing 13 February. The feedback we get from the survey will form the base for NZVCA strategy development for the next two or three years and so please take the time to complete this survey if you can.
Wellington networking event - Wed 8 March 2006 at Russell McVeagh
Full event details are set out in the News & Events section of the NZVCA website. Registrations for this event close at 5.00pm Wednesday 1 March 2006.
To register, please go to the “Events” section of the NZVCA website and click on “Register” for this specific event. The event is free to NZVCA members.
Take me to the online registration for this event
Directions 2006 - Understanding Governance Survey
In the week commencing 13 February we will also be e-mailing out a NZ "corporate governance" survey. The NZVCA has joined together with the University of Waikato and a dozen other large New Zealand firms, advisors and government agencies to better understand how well companies use ‘good governance’, whether directors are effective in their jobs and how investors interact with Boards.
In an effort to help firms in New Zealand to better understand good and not-so-good governance, this short (8-9 minutes to complete) web-based survey has been created and the results of this survey will be made available to all participants.
Again, we would be grateful if you could take about 8-9 minutes and complete this survey - an important national effort and a very important issue for all companies.
New Thinking Week - Auckland - Monday 27 February to Thursday 2 March
The NZVCA is also partnering with another group of organisations to bring you New Thinking Week later this month. Full details of all of the events are set out in the attached document.
"newthinking 06" is a week of events promoting New Zealand's biotech, creative and technological capabilities. Events include the NZBio conference, Telecom NZ Incubator Expo and Awards, a Connect NZ Springboard Showcase and KEA's "World Class New Zealander" awards.
Take me to the New Thinking event website
Connect New Zealand Springboard Showcase - 1 March 2006
Building on the success of the inaugural Springboard Showcase in November 2005, Connect New Zealand is running a second event for technology & life sciences companies as part of New Thinking Week.
This event is being held from 07.30 – 11.00 am on the 1st of March 2006 at the Sky City Auckland Convention Centre. Full event details are set out in the attached document.
Take me to the Connect Auckland website
New NZVCA member
We welcome the following new member:
Waterman Holdings - Full Member
Best wishes
 Chris Twiss
ex NZVCA
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