KEY POINTS:
The world may be in the grip of an economic crisis but Kiwi venture capital company Endeavour Capital is aiming to raise US$300 million ($505 million) to back good ideas.
Founder and executive chairman Neville Jordan would not predict a timeframe to complete the raising other than to
say it was going quite well.
"For well-placed, well-founded companies, people are still investing," Jordan said.
Endeavour recently helped to raise $8 million of private equity for zero-calorie sweetener company BioVittoria.
"These transactions are taking place because they're all based on good science and technology," he said.
Endeavour has about $100 million of managed funds with investments in the biotechnology, software and medical sectors and advanced manufacturing.
"We want now a fund big enough to make a significant difference to the economy and to be able to allow science and technology to blossom."
Some of the new capital raised will go towards a $100 million partnership with Chinese company Wuhan Huagong Venture Capital, in conjunction with local government and universities in China, in which both parties will invest $50 million.
"They're very interested in our primary industry, for example, and we're very interested in their electro-optics."
The partnership was initiated by the Canterbury Development Corporation and was a direct result of Wuhan's sister-city status with Christchurch.
It was an example of co-operation between Canterbury regional bodies and how sister-city relationships can lead to substantial mutually profitable commerce, Jordan said.
Funding would come from institutions and high net-worth individuals, with leads on overseas investors, he said.
"This is going to be big enough to make quite a difference to the local investment market."
The company expected in the early new year to be looking at science and technology in New Zealand to see what made sense to combine with intellectual property from China. It could take about three years to invest all the $100 million China partnership fund.
Jordan started his own microwave telecommunications equipment company MAS 1975, which was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 1997.
Jordan sold his shares in MAS a couple of years later and started Endeavour Capital in 1999 to invest back into Kiwi science and technology companies.
In 2003 Jordan got a license from the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund which enabled Endeavour to raise money matched by Government funding.
He said: "This is evidence of some of the initiatives that the Government took in those early days starting to pay off and multiple investment here in New Zealand."
