Times of global economic uncertainty are bad news for fledgling start-ups. None more so than those in need of angle funding. The fact is that most angel investors head for the hills at times like this – their own wealth and returns from their more robust investments are heading south, they’re generally not especially motivated towards altruistically giving their “hard” earned dollars, drachmas or yen away to others.
Into the fray then comes excellent news that a consortium funded by Sparkbox and K1W1, an investment company owned by Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall, have launched the Start-Up Fund, aimed at companies from Auckland’s business incubator the Icehouse.
Apparently the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund’s Seed Co-Investment Fund (SCIF) will match investments made by Sparkbox and K1W1, so enabling Kiwi entrepreneurs to get funding of up to $150,000 per project.
$150k is enough money to get over the proof-of-concept hurdle – it’s not so much that businesses get silly and spend up on bling – but it can remove some of the impedimenta to success.
Applicants for the Start-Up Fund must be Icehouse residents. The 85 start-ups that applied for this first round of funding were first cut down to 20, says Hamilton. Of this 20, six are now being put through a process that will cut the candidates down to two. The winner will be announced in the next couple of weeks.
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