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

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

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  Speaker 2: Right now, The hunter's on for New Zealand's big new startup,
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  Speaker 2: ice House Ventures has opened a thirty million dollar seed
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  Speaker 2: round in an attempt to fund thirty new business ventures.
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  Speaker 2: Their seed funds have produced some of New Zealand's biggest
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  Speaker 2: startups like Shears's and Halter, which everybody knows about, which
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  Speaker 2: is a unicorn, which is very successful. So what's the
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  Speaker 2: next one? And already they've got half the cash that
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  Speaker 2: they've asked for. Robbie Paul is the ice House Ventures
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  Speaker 2: CEO with now.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, Robbie ran good to be here.
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  Speaker 2: So what you've got half the fund subscribed already? Is
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  Speaker 2: that right? Correct?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've bolted out the gates. More than fifteen million
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  Speaker 3: committed to towards our thirty million dollar target. And I
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  Speaker 3: mean what's really important is reaching a first close means
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  Speaker 3: we're in business and we've got cash to invest in
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  Speaker 3: through of great companies. Even if we do, but we're
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  Speaker 3: obviously very confident that we will.
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  Speaker 2: The minimum is fifty k right, who is investing.
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  Speaker 3: Mostly wholesale investors from around New Zealand and several investors
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  Speaker 3: from offshore. The minimum correct is fifty thousand. Importantly, that's
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  Speaker 3: paid over a series of years, so it's not all upfront.
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  Speaker 3: We invest in companies over a few years. In the
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  Speaker 3: commitment and payment pattern sort of follows that.
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  Speaker 2: Obviously, you're looking for the next Halter. It's the unicorn,
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  Speaker 2: the it's the you know, it's I guess it's the
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  Speaker 2: dream of any seed fund. What are you looking for
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  Speaker 2: particular types of businesses to invest in this time around?
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  Speaker 3: You're right, I mean Halter is a remarkable company and
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  Speaker 3: certainly if we can find one more of those with
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  Speaker 3: this fund, then everything we'll look after itself. And to
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  Speaker 3: answer your question on the areas that we're interested in,
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  Speaker 3: I mean generally software, hardware, technology that can be taken
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  Speaker 3: from New Zealand to the world, but not too much
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  Speaker 3: more specific than that at the earliest stages. And keep
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  Speaker 3: in mind this fund is investing in in startups really
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  Speaker 3: at their inception. At that point, you're indexing pretty heavily
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  Speaker 3: on the quality of the entrepreneurs, right, because a company
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  Speaker 3: is going into a market, that market probably shouldn't even
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  Speaker 3: exist at this point. Right, If you're going to be
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  Speaker 3: building something really valuable.
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  Speaker 2: So are you looking when you say quality entrepreneurs, do
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  Speaker 2: you mean entrepreneurs that have already had success or do
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  Speaker 2: you mean the attitude or the idea plus the attitude?
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  Speaker 2: What's the formula?
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  Speaker 3: That's a great question. And great entrepreneurs come in all
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  Speaker 3: different shapes and sizes, and we've actually had a lot
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  Speaker 3: of success, including with Halter and Jamie Beaton at Crimson
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  Speaker 3: investing in that are I mean for the first time,
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  Speaker 3: so we will certainly to do that In other cases,
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  Speaker 3: we've also been by investing in entrepreneurs who've been around
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  Speaker 3: the block, built and sold companies and are going it again.
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  Speaker 3: There's a medical device company called The Inside Company that's
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  Speaker 3: led by an entrepreneur named Garth Sutherland, and we had
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  Speaker 3: actually invested in his first company about fifteen years ago
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  Speaker 3: and now he's back doing it again. So I would
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  Speaker 3: say attitude to your point is key. Ambition, intellect, honesty, drive,
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  Speaker 3: you know, gravity and mac all those types of things
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  Speaker 3: are really important.
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  Speaker 2: Interesting. Robbie, thank you for being with me tonight. Robbie
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  Speaker 2: Paul is the Ice House Bench's chief executive. That fund
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  Speaker 2: thirty million dollar fund. If you've got a good idea,
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  Speaker 2: I guess, and you're motivated and you're ambitious, then get
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  Speaker 2: your ideas into Ice House.
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