NZVC Portfolio Day

Amos is the CEO and co-founder of biotech future food company Miruku. With a background in agritech, food ingredient innovation and business development, he is passionate about the potential of biotechnology to enable healthy, sustainable and resilient food systems. Amos is a board member of the food rescue charity Just Zilch and an advisor on several biotechnology projects.

Anna has over 20 years’ experience in marketing and communications across B2C and B2B. She’s led global campaigns from 100% Pure New Zealand to serving as CMO at Les Mills International. Now as CEO of consumer testing platform Stickybeak, she helps FMCG marketers worldwide make smarter, data-driven decisions.

Ben Scales is the Co-Founder and CEO of KiwiFibre, a New Zealand-based startup developing high-performance natural fiber composites. With a background in sustainable materials and innovation, he is leading the charge to replace carbon-intensive materials with lightweight, eco-friendly alternatives.

Brad has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Before co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, before that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars.

Bradley So is an Immigration Law Specialist with a focus on business and investment migration. Over the past two years, he has assisted clients in investing more than $500 million in New Zealand. Passionate about business growth and workforce development, Bradley has helped numerous companies expand their migrant workforce and frequently presents at seminars and New Zealand law conferences on a wide range of immigration topics.

David Yu, a 27-year veteran of the games and collectibles industry, founded Games R Us at 17 and later co-founded VeVe in 2018 — now the world leader in digital collectibles with over 9 million sales.

Under his leadership, VeVe has partnered with top global brands like Disney, Marvel, DC, and Star Wars, offering an immersive AR-based collecting experience through its app and marketplace.

Dermot Butterfield is CEO and Founder of Wych, a global open data platform helping organisations securely access and use customer data through a single, fast-to-implement API. The platform gives businesses of any size — without large technology budgets or in-house compliance teams — the ability to build better products through data transfer, insights, payments and more. Wych currently operates across Australia and New Zealand.

Erika Palmer is Co-founder and CEO of Cupla, an app helping couples strengthen their relationships through better communication and quality time. A Chartered Accountant by background, she is now based between Auckland and San Francisco as she scales Cupla globally.

Hendrik's venture journey began in Europe, leading the expansion of Founders Intelligence before its acquisition by Accenture. At Merantix, he helped build Europe's leading AI venture studio and co-founded AI House Davos. Now based in Australia, he's passionate about scaling ANZ startups globally.

Jacques is an Investment Director responsible for managing our Aspire fund. Jacques obtained experience in consulting engineering in the UK and South Africa before joining a development finance institution. He spent five years in venture capital and industry development roles, pursuing the economic growth and industrial development objectives of the bank.

Jamie is the Founder and CEO of Outlier Space. Outlier Space is building New Zealand's first reusable satellite and re-entry vehicle, to enable in-space material R&D and manufacturing operations. Jamie is known for his ability to create outstanding teams able to solve the toughest of challenges. Prior to founding Outlier, Jamie spent nearly a decade in aerospace with Rocket Lab, and before that completed 4 Americas Cups with Emirates Team NZ. Jamie is passionate about building a globally competitive company and unlocking the next phase of commercial activity in orbit.

Janine co-founded Easy Crypto, New Zealand's leading cryptocurrency trading platform, established in 2017. She is a member of the Executive Council for FinTechNZ and recognised as a Women of Web3 Top 10 Changemaker, the Blockchain New Zealand Stand-Out Individual and Entrepreneur of the Year, and winner of the 2023 IBM Hi-Tech Awards for Inspiring Individual.

Jeremy Bryant is an experienced AgTech software leader and strategist. He founded Aimer Farming, the company behind AIMER, an AI-enabled digital assistant for pastoral farms, and AIMER Vision, a smartphone-based pasture measurement tool.

He has deep expertise in machine learning and simulation, with extensive experience applying both supervised and unsupervised learning methods, as well as developing process-based and hybrid analytical simulation models.

Jovan Pavlicevic is a Kiwi entrepreneur and co-founder of Emerge and SquareOne. A seasoned founder with experience building and scaling businesses across New Zealand and the UK, he’s now focused on challenging the banking status quo in NZ. A firm believer that “it’s always been done this way” isn’t a good enough reason, Jovan is passionate about questioning the norm, backing bold ideas and building better alternatives.

Lane is a veteran blockchain developer and researcher, currently Head of Research at NEAR Foundation and a core contributor to Spacemesh. Formerly an Ethereum Core Developer at the Ethereum Foundation, he writes and speaks on open protocols, crypto governance, metadata privacy, sci-fi and ultra distance running.

Leighton Roberts is an entrepreneur, innovator, and the co-founder of Sharesies. With a mission to break down the wealth divide, Sharesies is an innovative fintech platform that empowers anyone to start investing and building wealth, regardless of their budget. A natural problem-solver who loves turning ideas into business reality, Leighton brings invaluable insights into financial education, innovation, and scaling successful startups.

A serial entrepreneur who exited his first company, Piper, after raising $15M from top-tier investors. Mark arrived in New Zealand as an Edmund Hillary Fellow just before the 2020 lockdown and saw an opportunity to empower Kiwi founders with global ambition.

Nicole Freed is the Co-Founder of Daisy Lab, a New Zealand startup pioneering precision fermentation for dairy protein production. New Zealand is the world’s largest exporter of dairy proteins, but traditional production comes at a cost to the environment, polluting waterways and generating significant greenhouse gas emissions. Daisy Lab is working to change that—using precision fermentation to create identical dairy proteins without harming land, rivers, or animals.

Pene is CEO of Crimson Global Academy, an online school now teaching in 70 countries after running 144,000 classes last year, having previously helped scale Crimson Education and worked at Xero and Vend. She's spent years building pathways for ambitious young people to move straight from the classroom into building real ventures, most recently partnering the The Icehouse to launch The Fellowship. As part of this year's Genius Bar, she's focussed on helping young and aspiring founders navigate the startup ecosystem and fostering the next generation of NZ talent.

Philip is a design and product leader who’s shaped digital experiences for more than 25 years. A Co-founder of Xero and now Co-CEO of Upstock, he’s helped build iconic brands and advised top startups across product, growth and strategy.

With over 17 years of experience working in payments across the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand, Shaun has built and led high-growth payment companies from startups to publicly listed organisations. He is a seasoned financial services entrepreneur with expertise in building and scaling regulated and unregulated solutions for enterprise and early-stage startups. Shaun has a passion for unlocking revenue with seamless customer experiences.

Steph Kennard is a self-taught graphic designer, web engineer, and the founder of the creative agency Charlie & Co. She is also the creator of Bonnet, a groundbreaking vehicle service app that quickly reached #1 in New Zealand and now manages over 60,000 vehicles. With her proven ability to seamlessly blend design and technology, Steph consistently delivers innovative, industry-leading digital solutions.

Steven Zinsli is the Founder & CEO of Extraordinary (formerly HealthNow), a company revolutionizing how organizations manage non-payroll employee benefits. Under his leadership, Extraordinary issues a specialized employee card that lets staff access benefits—such as health, transport, or wellness—without reimbursements or gift cards.