Jones to head tech incubator

Carl Jones is taking on the role of chief executive with business incubator WNT Ventures.

Carl Jones, a former Tauranga local with a strong track record in government-led venture capital investment, has relocated back from Auckland to take on the role of chief executive with new local technology business incubator WNT Ventures.

Mr Jones, who began his career with Craigs Investment Partners, was previously investment manager for the Government's New Zealand Venture Investment Fund (NZVIF). He also played a leading role in NZVIF's Seed Co-investment Fund (SCIF), which provides matched investment alongside selected partners, including Tauranga early-stage investment group Enterprise Angels.

"Our partners are extremely important," said Mr Jones, who took up his new role late last year. He noted WNT Ventures was a collaboration bringing together virtually all of the key early stage and technology investment entities in the region.

"The WNT Ventures structure is unusual, but the real selling point for me is to be able to walk into a Crown research institute or university and say, I have this really deep and wide network of not only people and capability, but experience and capital. That's really attractive to them."

WNT Ventures was one of only three new technology incubators announced by the Government last year. It will access a repayable grant programme from Callaghan Innovation for start-up businesses based on locally developed intellectual property and novel technologies.

"There is a gap in the market I call where angels fear to tread, between post-research and where the angel investors get involved."

While angel investors may like the look of a new technology, they usually required a degree of incubation to prepare it for commercialisation, he said. "We can leverage our internal funding and our Callaghan funding and take on the risk to help the people with the technology to get to the next stage where angels want to invest."

He added WNT Venture's ability to help new companies was greatly enhanced by the experience of its partners, as well as Enterprise Angels' 150-plus members, who have invested almost $12 million in 37 early-stage deals to date.

The incubator had a goal of investing in four early stage technologies a year.