Blog Posts

Another FKA Friday ● 10 July 2026#23

10/7/2026

«	10 July 2026 #23	»
	1,641 Readers • 49% Mailchimp • 51% LinkedIn

Steph is not so much spending from a money cannon as she is reeling in the commitments for her Bonnet round. Looking for $500-750k, she has $600k, and the round will close soon.

Nicole, the purveyor of the metaphorical glass of wine for mums, has this speed to beat for her follow-on round when it comes! □

David and Naftali are two FKA Deal Champions from Israel locked in a battle for fundraising supremacy. For now, David is winning with Bonnet. But let's not underestimate Naftali and AuraScope.

Slam! There is $100k from FKA investors. RapiDose is preventing drug dosing errors, which saves children's lives. This round is in overfunding and closing on Sunday.

Mark is caught up in self-flagellation in his personal fundraising battle. We say: $100k for RapiDose and $200k for TheiaNova is a win-win! TheiaNova remains open as it is attracting investors from Australia and Canada.

John Robson at BioOra is flexing his muscles in the fight against cancer. More about that HERE □ Credit goes to Sam for bringing his co-investment opportunity □

NZGCP are now in the Majestic Centre. Does that make James majestic? Certainly hospitable, as he is calling for the NZGCP Housewarming on Thursday, 30 July | 6.00–8.30 pm. If you are in Wellington on the day, see MORE.

Alex is a Flying Kiwi and is still working at the startup coal face with AI. This video, "How AI Became More Expensive Than The Workers It Replaced", sums up well what he is observing.

FKA picks winners, some say a keen nose, others say a lot of luck. Anyways, we hold our monthly drinks at the Sunset Bar on the 10th floor of the Sudima Hotel. Oftentimes, we end up having dinner on the ground floor at the EAST restaurant, which has just made it into the NZ Michelin Guide. □

Join us for DRINKS tomorrow, Saturday, from 4, and maybe afterwards for DINNER.

Scott's why, or simply APPLY! Bit of a lead gen too □

Another FKA Friday ● 3 July 2026#22

3/7/2026

«	3 July 2026 #22	»
	1,638 Readers • 50% Mailchimp • 50% LinkedIn

What a pairing! Not The Six Million Dollar Man and not The Bionic Woman! See Pinner's podcast and Hall's new role.

Juan is a Flying Kiwi, presently in Venezuela after returning home for family reasons. He was spared by the earthquake, but his offer to help with the rescue effort as an interpreter has so far remained unanswered. "Chronological Age", he reckons.

Naftali is a happy Flying Kiwi. It is his birthday this week, and he is excited about AuraScope, which he is bringing as a co-investment opportunity.

Charlie is a Flying Kiwi Angel of the first hour and has been instrumental in setting up FKA to become what it is today. He was a director from May 2014 until July 2020, when he moved to Wanaka. He has been a constant guardian over the quality of FKA DD but is now stepping away from that role. He will still be part of the Wanaka ADI team! Thank you, Charlie!

Brown: "For the next 100 days, I’m lending my platform to celebrating some of the best startups Auckland has to offer." HEAR, HEAR!

What “Cow Collars” Can Teach Us About Raising Your First Deeptech Round. READ!

Anthropic cries for help about the Chinese distilling Claude. After it has paid $1.5 billion last year to settle claims about pirating hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books from shadow libraries to train Claude. Hypocrisy!

Please note that our usual FKA Drinks on the 1st Saturday are being moved to the 2nd Saturday this month. We'll remind you next Friday. □

Another FKA Friday ● 27 March 2026#08

27/3/2026

«	27 March 2026 #08	»
	1,590 Readers • 52% Mailchimp • 48% LinkedIn

Hate NZ dairy for all you like, but it has spawned another NZ unicorn. MORE. It is shocking how many LinkedIn posters talk of Thiel's Founders Fund investing US$2B! That PMV is an eye watering 55x of 2025 sales, a mix of collar hardware and subs. Well done Craig Piggott and the team at Halter! □

Dan Bull is a graduate of Sprout and has just raised $1.1M for Scanabull. Did Mike our Deal Flow Manager miss that bullseye? □ Sprout has just opened for a new cohort MORE HERE.

No such bull at MOA. A new Founder Catalyst cohort, so get wings from the experts at Flightless Bird HQ. MORE HERE. Closing today! PAM is a graduate from the same stable, the Electrify variety to be precise.

Glen is the champion. He fiddled with remote controls in his earlier life; these days, he reckons there is gold in light switching. Bill and his team think so too and this week provide their pitch video! □

Five new deals pitched in the last two months, all going into DD. DNAiTEch, TheiaNova, Compostify, InnerView Insight, and ilumento. This means lots of hands to the pump. If any of the above sound interesting and you give a hand, email Mike, our Deal Flow Manager, to shoot for the bullseye □

Laurent made a living from the luxury goods sector, such a contrast to oil-rig-manic Trevor in Wellington □ Laurent has helped with ADI, DD, and drinks. David, Hugh and Mark reckon he's a good fit. So, unless anyone out there knows of a reason why he shouldn't join FKA, now is the time to tell the Board in confidence!

Boom, the future is here! Mars Bioimaging received FDA 510(k) clearance for its extremity CT scanner, the first CT imaging system developed in New Zealand to be FDA cleared. This is validating the co-investment decision with Pacific Channel ✅

How many cars does this woman need? She wants them all! Hustling...

Why is this woman dancing you may ask? □ Double Hi-Tech Awards finalist □

Tarash (Kara Technologies), Matty (Hectre), John (BioOra), and Eve (GridAKL) are also finalists in various categories, even competing in some. Their dance performances and announcements will likely follow during the course of today.

Shocking realty. Not unlike the VC-scooter-craze. Is AI totally different?□ READ

So AI agents can rewrite their own personality profiles. They change their identity without anybody knowing, including the AI agent □ Consider that!

A grandmother spent 6 months in jail for fraud because an AI said she did it. A detective wrote in court documents that she appeared to match based on "facial features, body type and hairstyle." READ MORE

It happened in Fargo but it has nothing to do with Fargo.

Katheren has booked the Sunset Bar for FKA Drinks on Saturday, 4th of April. First RSVPs are rolling in. Join us and see details at fka.nz/drinks □

Subscribe Me!

3/1/2026

You are welcome! Anybody with an interest in the NZ Startup Ecosystem can subscribe to our newsletter which comes out every Friday throughout the active angel season. You can subscribe via Mailchimp to get it in your inbox first thing in the morning or via LinkedIn to get somewhat later in your feed.

Subscribe via Mailchimp

2/1/2026

Another FKA Friday ● 14 November 2025#40

14/11/2025

«	14 November 2025 #40	»
	830 + 667

Yes, our last pitch night in 2025 is upon us: Next Tuesday at KPMG.

Raising a round is no lottery, as Debra will tell you. If it was, you'd have to say that Mindhive is totally cleaning up at Money Hive. Debra is only a few dollars off the $5m target. Celebrations are in order on Tuesday!

We knew that too much chocolate is not good for you, but little did we know that Kate from Planetary Insights would add to the chocolate lovers' regret as it is also not good for the environment.

Solve the dilemma: buy your favorite Whittaker's and invest in Planetary Insights □ Kate is hiring! She will also present on Tuesday! □

Apple monger Matty from Hectre is smiling, opening a $10m round with $5m already in the bank from a significant US investor. Hear more on Tuesday!

The Maui Summit page is up, check it out. Interesting speakers!

Josh exit-talking with Cornelius. There gotta be more value than in any Trump interview. Josh has written a book and is doing podcast interviews to figure out how he has been so lucky. HERE GOES THE DUTCH EXIT!

Chris and Komodo Wellbeing have come a long way since we first spoke in 2020. Kami is all about making students' lives better, so no wonder that Alliv and Hengjie jumped in to support this business—this time as investors. Very cool to see □

The Best Black Tie event for cat lovers in town! says Anne, a housewife from Auckland, and she knows how to party in style, most certainly with champagne. Tickety-boo!

Great initiative at GridAKL. Founders, teams have a better chance of surviving, winning, winning bigger. REGISTER

We have a few film funders among the Flying Kiwis. "The award-winning team behind Red, White & Brass, The Dark Horse, Guns Akimbo, Shadow in the Cloud and Madam present an exclusive opportunity to invest in NZ's Next Comedy Classic - SHEARING THE LOVE." Thu, 20 Nov, 19:00 RSVP

The Internet Is Now 52% AI-Generated Content And It's Training On Itself! □ MORE

<<Previous

Forward>>

Another FKA Friday ● 10 July 2026#23

«

10 July 2026 #23

»

1,641 Readers • 49% Mailchimp • 51% LinkedIn

Another FKA Friday ● 3 July 2026#22

«

3 July 2026 #22

»

1,638 Readers • 50% Mailchimp • 50% LinkedIn

Another FKA Friday ● 27 March 2026#08

«

27 March 2026 #08

»

1,590 Readers • 52% Mailchimp • 48% LinkedIn

Subscribe Me!

Subscribe via Mailchimp

Another FKA Friday ● 14 November 2025#40

«

14 November 2025 #40

»

830 + 667

Back Issues