Crown agency NZGCP on investment committee member’s tweet calling China an ‘enemy state’

Matt Ocko speaks at a TechCrunch event in San Francisco in 2018. Photo / Getty Images

Crown agency New Zealand Growth Capital Partners says a front-foot tweet about China by a member of its investment committee, Matt Ocko, was in a personal capacity.

NZGCP invests money from the $300m Elevate Fund - primarily established with capital from the NZ Super Fund - in startups.

On Wednesday evening, Ocko tweeted in reaction to a post about reports that China has threatened to block Elon Musk’s Starlink with a fleet of 13,000 satellites - with suggestions from a military-sponsored journal that lasers and microwaves could be used to shoot down Starlink satellites.

“Not hostile at all. Time to move cars, batteries, phones, EVERYTHING out of this rogue, implacably vengeful, DPRK-but-with-better-hotels enemy state,” Ocko tweeted.

Not hostile at all 🙄

Time to move cars, batteries, phones, EVERYTHING out of this rogue, implacably vengeful, DPRK-but-with-better-hotels enemy state https://t.co/EyObmaJ3jR

— Matt Ocko (@mattocko) March 1, 2023

The Herald put the post to NZGCP chief investment officer James Pinner, who said: “Matt was tweeting in his personal capacity and not on behalf of NZGCP so there is therefore no comment from us.”

The US-based Ocko is co-founder of venture capital firm DCVC, one of Rocket Lab’s key venture capital backers. He has been an NZGCP independent strategic adviser and investment committee member since June 2020.

In various social media posts, the venture capitalist was a staunch opponent of the Government’s MIQ system during the era of Covid border restrictions. He saw “cults of personality” and “propaganda machines” at work.

The director of a private fund was concerned about potential fallout from Ocko.

“China is New Zealand’s biggest export market, and New Zealand venture capital firms invest into businesses that import and export to China,” the director said.

“This sort of inflammatory comment is unacceptable to New Zealand and to our trading partner China,” he added.

“The comment shows underlying bias against certain investments and firms, risks an aggressive response from China to both the local ecosystem and New Zealand itself, and highlights how getting overseas people to make investment decisions in New Zealand is not in our best interests.

“China does not pull punches.”

Ocko’s post came after Rob Campbell’s sacking as chair of Health New Zealand, Te Whatu Ora for comments made about National’s Three Waters in a LinkedIn post.