EA1 attracted $2.4 million in funding and, to date, has co-invested $1.25 million in 11 companies. EA2 is scheduled to be launched next year.
"Co-investors investing alongside Enterprise Angels gives us the ability to take larger stakes where warranted, giving us greater control/influence, and decreases the risk of underfunding companies," said Mr Craig.
Enterprise Angels is a key element in a mix of options for companies seeking funding in the Bay.
"Our members play an important role in adding their expertise to transaction review in due diligence and to ongoing management and mentoring of portfolio company investments," said Mr Craig.
"Furthermore, members actively investing and building their angel portfolios encourage co-investing parties."
He said, importantly, while the group was still reliant on opportunities from outside the Bay, more local transactions were coming forward.
Since inception, Enterprise Angels has made 42 investments totalling $14.3 million, with nine coming from the Bay of Plenty/Waikato.
In value terms, the total invested included 28 per cent in horticulture, 24.1 per cent in technology, hardware and equipment,17.2 per cent in food and beverages, 10.1 per cent in animal productivity, 9.8 per cent in software and services and 7.1 per cent in agriculture.
"It's good to see more companies coming forward for investment from within the region," said Enterprise Angels executive director Bill Murphy.
PE fund next step on local biz ladder
A new player is likely to be introduced to the Bay of Plenty's business funding mix this year.
Quayside Holdings, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's investment arm, is working with other parties to develop a private equity (PE) fund.
Quayside Holdings chief executive Scott Hamilton said the move was aimed at growing entrepreneurship throughout the Bay of Plenty. He noted that the Bay was already well-covered at the seed and early-stage funding level, with the well-established Enterprise Angels group, and with WNTVentures, the new technology business incubator, which taps into backing from Callaghan Innovation as well as other local investors.
"We've got strength at the bottom end, but we don't have a lot of strength in that middle space," he said. "It's an opportunity to put something into that space to grow the Bay and put it on the map."
While Quayside was helping develop options for the fund, it would not be running it or be the major shareholder, Mr Hamilton said. Instead Quayside would co-invest with others, who were expected to include local trusts, iwi groups and high net worth individuals.
"We don't have a lot of large businesses in the Bay. We've got a lot of businesses at the next level down and we see the opportunities there."
He added that it would be a private equity fund, investing into more mature businesses, rather than a venture capital fund, but that having such a fund in the region would support other parts of the economy in terms of their development and business attraction initiatives.
Bill Murphy, executive director of Enterprise Angels, said a private equity fund would help bridge the funding gap between early and later stage companies. "Ideally, we will eventually have steps that companies can take at almost every stage of the journey."
The funds
* Angel fund - provide seed capital to very early stage businesses
* Venture capital fund - provide capital to high-potential, growth start-up companies.
* Private equity fund - provide development capital for companies at a later stage of growth
* Venture capital and private equity funds often overlap in practice, but typically venture capital funds are focused on creating value from the bottom up while private equity funds are more focused on optimising existing companies
