{"id":791828,"date":"2026-10-04T16:28:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T16:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791828\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T16:28:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T16:28:05","slug":"ngai-tahu-recruits-movac-to-boost-its-40m-and-counting-investments-in-tech-start-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791828\/","title":{"rendered":"Ng\u0101i Tahu recruits Movac to boost its $40m-and-counting investments in tech start-ups"},"content":{"rendered":"

The iwi has invested $35 million across various funds in the Wellington venture capital firm\u2019s stable, including the $10m it recently put into Movac\u2019s $200m Growth Fund 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PrimaryPrimary industries and property have dominated iwi investment. \u201cThis partnership gives us exposure to high-growth, new-economy companies,” Ng\u0101i Tahu Holdings chief executive Todd Moyle says.<\/p>\n

And Ng\u0101i Tahu invested directly into a Movac Fund 4 company, Nanolayr \u2013 a nanofibre textile start-up that went bust in October last year (a reminder that while primary industries and property are steady, at least over the long term, investing in start-ups is high-risk, high-reward, with the hope that a few big hits outweigh the inevitable misses).<\/p>\n

Through its Ng\u0101i Tahu New Economy subsidiary, the iwi is also invested in Lower Hutt nuclear fusion start-up OpenStar<\/a>, e-waste recycler Mint Innovation<\/a>, Tend Health<\/a> and Zethos<\/a>, which extracts data centre-friendly zinc and copper from steel mill waste.<\/p>\n

All up, the iwi now has 18 New Economy investments, which will now be managed by Movac, Ng\u0101i Tahu Holdings chief executive Todd Moyle told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\""We've“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with Ng\u0101i Tahu Holdings as an investor in our funds, and we are incredibly proud to take this next step in managing their venture capital strategy,” Movac general partner Mark Vivian said.<\/p>\n

The Wellington venture capital firm will also sniff out new investment opportunities in areas including artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is an area where there\u2019s a lot happening in New Zealand, but it\u2019s one where we don\u2019t have investment expertise, so we\u2019ve partnered with Movac, who do bring that knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Long-timeLong-time One NZ chief executive turned Les Mills International boss Jason Paris (Ng\u0101i Tahu, Waih\u014dpai) recently joined the board of Ng\u0101i Tahu Holdings. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

Moyle said Ng\u0101i Tahu has around $40m in tech start-ups between the money it\u2019s put into Movac funds and its direct investments.<\/p>\n

That makes the iwi a notable player on the venture capital scene but it\u2019s still a modest sum in the scale of its $2.11 billion portfolio, which is dominated by property, farming and forestry.<\/p>\n

The expanded relationship with Movac will help shake up the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis partnership gives us exposure to high-growth companies that align with our values, while further diversifying our portfolio and creating opportunities for long-term growth,\u201d Moyle said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get more of a toehold in the new economy,\u201d he said. Successful start-ups would see follow-up investments. He would not give a figure for the sums that could be involved.<\/p>\n

Most Ng\u0101i Tahu Holdings profits are reinvested, but a portion goes to grants in areas like education, scholarships, housing and community schemes, plus environmental stewardship and regional development programmes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a long-standing relationship with Ng\u0101i Tahu Holdings as an investor in our funds, and we are incredibly proud to take this next step in managing their venture capital strategy,\u201d Movac partner Mark Vivian said.<\/p>\n

Movac\u2019s greatest hits include its early backing of Trade Me, before it was sold to Fairfax for $720m, Vend (sold for $455m), Timely ($135m), PowerbyProxi ($100m-plus) and Tradify ($100m-plus).<\/p>\n

Recent fast-growing investments have included Auror<\/a>, LawVu<\/a>, Crimson Education<\/a>, Dawn Aerospace<\/a> and Re-Leased<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald\u2019s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The iwi has invested $35 million across various funds in the Wellington venture capital firm\u2019s stable, including the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[260617,17054,51354,8385,84,41678,979,260618,4203,33188,1776,5353,19626,61970,219696,219698,5770,156421,260616,211441,260619,1208,219699,227,1850,56,54,55,1209,17383],"class_list":["post-791828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-40mandcounting","tag-assets","tag-biggest","tag-boost","tag-business","tag-capital","tag-deals","tag-economys","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-firm","tag-in","tag-investments","tag-its","tag-manage","tag-movac","tag-ngi","tag-player","tag-recruited","tag-recruits","tag-scout","tag-secondlargest","tag-startups","tag-tahu","tag-tech","tag-to","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-venture","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}