Generate KiwiSaver invests $20 million in Movac fund to boost Kiwi tech

Sam Goldwater, Generate Kiwisaver's lead portfolio manager and executive director.

KiwiSaver provider Generate is to invest $20 million into a venture capital fund specialising in supporting New Zealand technology companies.

The move is the first time Generate, which manages around $3.5 billion in KiwiSaver funds, has invested in venture capital which means the money will be invested in private companies that require funding to grow their business.

The $20m will be invested via Movac’s latest fund called the Growth 6 Fund. Movac is New Zealand’s largest venture capital investment firm. It has raised more than $100m for the new fund in the past 10 weeks.

Movac’s past investments have included technology companies PowerbyProxi and Vend. Tech giant Apple bought PowerbyProxi in 2017 for an undisclosed sum while Vend - which makes software that allows cash registers to be replaced by iPads was sold to North American company Lightspeed for US$350 million ($455m) in 2021.

It has also invested in Tradify (job management systems), Alimetry (gastric ailment solutions), Dawn Aerospace (green propulsion technology), ZeroJet (the world’s first electric jet propulsion system for boats), and Atomic (low-code customer experience platform).

Sam Goldwater, Generate’s lead portfolio manager and executive director, said it was excited to be making its first investment into the venture capital space.

“Movac has a stellar track record of venture capital investment in New Zealand, and we look forward to our members’ funds being invested with the goal of supporting the growth of the next PowerbyProxi or Vend.”

Movac partner Mark Vivian said the core of what it did was back Kiwi entrepreneurs who had bold aspirations to build businesses that solved problems and in turn created jobs and wealth for New Zealanders.

“Historically, venture capital funds raised and deployed during economic conditions like we are currently in, have performed very well. We’ve had strong investor demand for our new Growth 6 Fund.”

It’s not the first time Generate has invested outside of the typical equities market. In 2020 it invested $21 million into social housing through the Salvation Army community bonds and earlier this year it also invested $13.7m in the Te Puna Hapori - Verdi Social Housing Bond, which provided the funding for two more social housing projects.