The three founders of Kiwi success story 42 Below have launched an investment vehicle to finance other high-growth businesses.
After the drinks company was sold to Bacardi for $138 million in 2006, Geoff Ross, Grant Baker and Stephen Sinclair invested personal funds in mobile marketing company The Hyperfactoryand Australian fragrance and candle business Ecoya.
"We think these businesses, with a little more capital, they can be taken to the next stage," Ross said.
The three have also signed a heads of agreement deal in conjunction with AgResearch to back a start-up business selling high-performance fabric. However Ross said this was not yet producing any revenue.
To raise what they term "first floor funding" for these and other opportunities, the three have formed The Business Bakery.
The Bakery will ask about 12 high net worth individuals to put up $8.5 million. Of those interested to date, many are previous 42 Below investors, and most are New Zealanders.
For the time being they are content with these three ventures, but they are looking at the opportunities which come across their desk.
"If there's a real beauty in there, we may well pick that up as well," Ross said.
They plan to be active in the businesses, and hope to apply lessons learned in other high-growth ventures.
Ross sees the Bakery as sitting somewhere between venture capital and private equity on the investment spectrum.
He said there was money available in Australia and New Zealand, despite the credit crunch. A lot of wealthy individuals had not been exposed to the sub-prime crisis in this region.
