FKA 😇 Advice, Connections and Funding for NZ Startups

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2018#43

7/12/2018


	7 December 2018 #43

Tuesday 18 December 2018, 18:30 @ The Flagship

Thanks to party animal and hospo director extraordinaire Paul Trotter.

All partners, founders and angels get your $66 ticket ☞ here. Numbers are limited for this boutique venue. Be there it will be a great night!

We dug up this old 2016 FKA Xmas video, no dancing, a little dark.

At this point, a big THANK YOU is due to our sponsors who have hosted all our pitch nights throughout this year, especial KPMG who has hosted most of them. Also, Potentia hosted us with a sabrage of the sexes.

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Graeme Thomson has a day job in Wellington with alternative asset managers Morrison&Co and he is moonlighting with MIG our angel partners in Manawatu. Not enough! He has talked with Jai, Ian and Charlie about Santa and how FKA do things. All feel there is a good fit. The editor is delighted to have a Veto Gate fit for Xmas!

As you know, our Veto Gate is about lifting the Santa hat on new applicants to make sure we don't bring any unwanted reputational risk or otherwise onto the group. If you know of any reasons why Graeme should not join, now is the time to speak up.

Please notify the Board in confidence.

Last week we said the Moxion.io round was looking to be oversubscribed. This week we can confirm the $1.2M target has been well exceeded with now $1.8M of commitments. The Board and shareholders are delighted with this strong level of support, and the company will accept the extra money. Awesome result!

CEO Hugh and Exec Chair Nigel are already back in Hollywood for promising meetings with several of the big content producers that have recently entered the film industry and are driving big changes.

Diligence on Geo AR Games, Kademi and FormuslLabs is still alive but not likely to close before Xmas. FormusLabs has only just started, Kademi has been held back travel, and GAG is waiting for further progress from Chinese investors.

Thank you, Uli, Ralf and Debra, and your respective teams, for hanging in there. Once again, proof that true angels do their best work over the festive season.

Just in time for Xmas news from one of our founders, "We've got our reactor nearly ready [...] to get the first run in around Christmas time. Here is our PIG (pre-industrial generator) being loaded inside the container. That was last week [... and] a photo of our gasifier which will turn the wood into a usable gas to feed the PIG. Exciting times :)"

PIG, not turkey this Xmas!

The other day a dialogue on LinkedIn

Hi Rudi I am looking for an investor, But I think the Angel investor should be call vulture, angel is an bs con, and a complete miss use of Angel, can you explain what Angels do?? Suck the life out of the inventor!

You can see from my profile that I'm an angel investor so I'm unsure what you're trying to achieve by going into a tirade about angel investors before you know me.

I agree that I do not know you! I was referring to the use of the word "Angel" I think it conjures up the idea that you are helping people because you are such an Angle, when in actual fact Angle investors are all about helping themselves! you may be the exception, so why use the term Angel? It would be like me saying I am a god designer. Forgive me if I have offended you!

Pivots, some love them, some loathe'em. "Before dominating their respective spaces, these companies looked very different from what they are known for today. Check out their stories." CB Insights

Some of the tech that we get excited about as investors can have negative social impact. Mobile phones may be good for those at either end of the conversation but they can be bad for others in the room.

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Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2018#42

30/11/2018

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	30 November 2018 #42

Congrats to Debra and her formidable DD Team who have landed themselves a great job just before Xmas when many others are thinking of winding down. 18 YES votes of 21 cast as at 21:00 last night or 85% of FKA's Voting Angels in support of progress to DD, a strong mandate.

☞ Here again their pitch video of you've missed it last week.

Tim and Josh are FKAngels and Ambit co-founders. Their round has progressed well. They had to hire Bruno to count the incoming commitments. Sadly, no DD report is available from the lead investor to make this a syndicated co-investment opportunity, also the round is nearly full. Some FKAngels are investing directly. Still, Tim or Josh would be very happy to talk to individual FKAngels.

Ash vs Evil Dead was the first hit series made with Moxion. Then came Warner's blockbuster production The Meg. Then FKA stepped in as lead investor and helped the motley crew raise $1.5M in 2017 to take on Hollywood. More progress but with a burn that called for more money in 2018. This $1.2M round is now oversubscribed!

FKA Nominee investors are taking up 320% of their collective rights. That is a great testament to FKAngels writing follow-on cheques for their portfolio companies. Thanks also to our local syndication partners EA, MIG, AngelHQ, AIM, and our Aussie friends, the Brisbane Angels.

The CEOs of our portfolio companies have a measure of crazy which is good. Ben from StretchSense is a perfect example. See for yourself!

Note the seemingly shy man in the background, it's our Ralf Muller.

Our Xmas Party will be held on 18 December from 18:30 as is normal for our pitch nights, only this will not be an ordinary pitch night. Check out the routine that Garth, Charlie, Jai, Rudi and Josh have rehearsed for the occasion. A Board that seemingly puts no foot wrong.

$99 for all that want to be touched by an angel and discounted to $66 for enchanted angels, founders and partners. A boutique venue in Wynyard Quarter, hence numbers are limited. Don't hang around, email rb@fka.nz for payment instructions to secure your place. ☞ tiny.cc/xmas-party

Haha, so Jackie in her other life... she is not sprinting but she runs the ecentre which in turn runs a new Sprint programme in 2019. They are taking a leaf from the FKA playbook – offering this programme for no fees, no equity, thanks to foundation partners Callaghan Innovation and Massey University. Cool! A few other FKAngels have already caught up with her, if you're interested, catch her, she doesn't run fast. Interested founders give her a yell too. Jackie.Young@ecentre.org.nz

AANZ Chair, John O'Hara has bigger wings than most as he is also an avid aerial pilot. He knows a thing or two about runways. His roundup for the year is full of interesting news from the summit earlier this month and other stuff. No, that is not John in the picture.

Please give generously to our tiny.cc/help-santa appeal

Drinks and canapés at the offices or sun deck of EY on Takutai Square in Auckland on Wednesday 5 December at 1700.

Kindly RSVP to Karen This week with her correct email!

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Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2018#41

23/11/2018

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	23 November 2018 #41

Debra brought along Ju Zhang on Tuesday night and this is his pitch. The team at FormusLabs were super efficient, having their video already submitted before Tuesday night. Consequently, the DD Vote is well underway, 13 votes already cast. The GO/NO-GO decision is not far!

Enke was one of the three female Angels in the Dirty Dozen that founded Flying Kiwi Angels in 2014. When she left us to do an MBA in the US, Arron took over her portfolio and her angelic role. Standing on the shoulders of giants or walking alongside growing giants, both are a great honour. All the best to Enke on her onward journey!

Sadly, the full article sits behind the Wall Street Journal paywall.

Lawrence up in Whangarei passed the Veto Gate without any skeletons surfacing in his cupboard. Consequently, our CCH welcomed him aboard as a Flying Kiwi earlier in the week. This was his enthusiastic response:

"Marvelous! As my first official act, I am going to be teaching six two-hour sessions at Kamo high school today and tomorrow about the need for technology aware artists."

Centrality is all about blockchain and is put on an accelerator to grow its app ecosystem. They are leveraging Lightning Lab know-how and have hired can-do man Jeff Mann to run it.

Learn more about it, Tue 4 Dec 2018 @ 1800 in Auckland. Pls RSVP!

Āhau / A decentralised digital identity platform / CarbonClick / A turnkey solution for carbon offsetting / CentralPlace / Your social shared economy platform of the future / Cinema Logic / Optimizing the theatrical distribution supply chain / City On / More fun at travellers' destinations / Pocket / A social bank account / Yabble / DIY collaborative platform for research /

Yabble didn't stop after we stopped DD, they are now incorporating BC tech. Some may remember CarbonClick, Jan and Paul impressed us at ADI back in July.

Your Chief Cat Herder has battled with a bigger cat than usual over the last few days. All FKAngels can be reached by an email consisting of their first and second name on the fka.nz domain. So far, so good.

After angels reported missing emails, he went out hunting and turned up a rogue spam filter at the fka.nz domain. All fixed now but some of you may have received a confusing backlog of emails as a consequence.

Funny but not surprising to many, rb@fka.nz was flagged as the top spammer on the fka.nz domain.

When recording the 2018 Xmas song the Board also recorded this one. We hope you like it! If you do, like it on LinkedIn ?

The ecentre aka Jackie is inviting you all to this talk of MYOB's resident futurist Keran McKenzie. Contrary to popular belief, he will not be talking about the future of ironing nor will he give styling advice. Check out the B:Hive coworking space on the North Shore and hear him speak.

☞ Read more and register here.

Drinks and canapés at the offices or sun deck of EY on Takutai Square in Auckland on Wednesday 5 December at 1700.

Kindly RSVP to Karen This week with her correct email!

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Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2018#40

16/11/2018

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	16 November 2018 #40

Next Tuesday, 20 November will be the last pitch night with investment pitches in 2018. Sad but true. Debra is bringing a startup with a proposition that is going to the bone, literally. Come and see for yourself!

18:30 @ KPMG, 18 Viaduct Harbour Ave, Auckland.

If his startup is called Horn, does that make Lawrence horny or is he just crazy, chasing a fully horned unicorn after a near miss? Ask Jackie, Martin or Rudi who have all spoken to him and everyone feels there is a good mutual fit. Lawrence has already been helping Martin with ADI Whangarei over recent months.

With Tim Warren, we have at least one other Angel who had red hair at some point and a photo to prove it. But seriously, if you know of any material reasons why Lawrence should not join our group, now is the time to speak up! Raise your concerns in confidence with the FKA Directors.

The eight-company pitch in Whangarei on Monday was a great kickstart of the Northland startup ecosystem. Some potential Angel fodder there, all helped by Northland Inc, NZTE and AANZ.

Suse from AANZ was supported by a strong FKA contingent with Jackie, wannabe Lawrence, Martin and Rudi. So strong was our contingent that somehow, the MC Ken Erskine ended up registered as a Flying Kiwi Angel with a big lanyard sign to prove it. But he carried that 'badge of honour' with his typical GSOH throughout the day.

CCH says, "Ken would make a fine first Scotsman in our ranks."

Techion, our Portfolio Company #7, has made TV news with the role that the Techion tech plays in the Starworms Project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

ADI Auckland and ADI Queenstown were running neck on neck this week, each with four bookings. Julian had one for ADI Hamilton. And here some email feedback that Cornelius received, not for his good looks, "Thanks for the great questions, we’ve not yet met people with your sort of background in the investment space...".

End of Year Celebration for 2018

You are invited to join friends and colleagues for end-of-year drinks and canapés at 5:00pm on Wednesday 5 December at the offices or sun deck of EY on Takutai Square in Auckland.

It’s been "pedal to the metal" all year in angel investment so please join us to celebrate the excitement and traction founders and investors are generating in New Zealand.

Kindly RSVP to Karren Hmm, red wine, one way to drown starworms!

Robyn Grace is a Kiwi filmmaker and knows Moxion from productions such as Ash vs Evil Dead and The Shannara Chronicles. She is raising money on Boosted to shoot a new short and wants to use Moxion.

Her partner Rory MacGillycuddy has co-hosted Ask Angels Anything with Rudi and devised the cheeky fundraiser slogan.

Says Rudi, "Fund Moxion, then Robyn and tell others! I'll send out the full co-investment call for Moxion early next week.".

The number of new startups in AUS is going down. More quality over quantity? The reason why Aussie VCs keep following the NZTE invites to see Kiwi startups? Read more about in the Startup Muster Report.

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Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2018#39

9/11/2018

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	9 November 2018 #39

Ralf, the champion of Kademi, has finally got a clear remit to commence DD with 80% in favour. Steve from Auckland and Alan from the UK have already volunteered to help. But Ralf would welcome another one or two brains to help examine Kademi's business model. About time you did some DD? Then get in touch with Ralf.Wittgen@fka.nz !!!

☞ Here again Kademi's pitch video

Laika was the first dog that was sent to the moon in 1957 by the Russians. Now NZ's Northland is following that lead and is picking 8 of its startup puppies to shoot for the stars.

Monday 12th November in Whangarei. BE THERE!!! ☞ Register here

Rudi is hitching a lift with NZVIF's Bridget ex Riverhead. Still room in her People Mover for more Angels.

Wow! What a busy ADI week this has been. Monday 4x founders in Wanaka, Tuesday 4x Whangarei, Wednesday 1x Takapuna, and Thursday 3x Auckland. That makes 12 founder conversations just this week!

Another cohort of GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) startups will reach its final climax in a GLAMACTIC Showcase in Wellington on Monday 3 December.

☞ Read more and register here

Debra and Rudi brought back heaps of learnings from their trip to China. One of the many things others missed out on was an opulent nine-course meal prepared by a Michelin Star chef and generously hosted by George from Zino Ventures.

Mel, the CEO of Geo AR Games and currently still held in DD suspense, was also on the trip and has written this blog on "Taking your start-up to China".

Little known fact: In China, a boy becometh a man only when he walks on The Great Wall. The Zino folk delighted in citing this proverb on the day and for days after.

A quick reminder, at the end of this month and early next month the warm-up events for the NZ Hi-Tech Awards are on. Go for a good night whether you are an aspiring Startup Founder or a seasoned Angel Investor! ☞ Register here

All mistakes, grammar, spelling or otherwise in this publication have been made by Rudi and then overlooked by Debbie, Jackie, Karl, Katheren and Masha. Same goes for the images. However, Rudi has been known to insert some after the early morning review.

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Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2018#43

7 December 2018 #43

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Please notify the Board in confidence.

PIG, not turkey this Xmas!

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2018#42

30 November 2018 #42

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2018#41

23 November 2018 #41

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2018#40

16 November 2018 #40

End of Year Celebration for 2018

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2018#39

9 November 2018 #39

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