Christopher Adams: Punakaiki eyes fresh effort to raise cash

Technology entrepreneur and investor Lance Wiggs. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Undeterred by a failed initial public offering back in 2013, the Punakaiki Fund may shortly have another go at raising cash from everyday investors.

Director Lance Wiggs told Stock Takes that the fund, which invests in growth-stage technology companies, was seriously considering an equity crowdfunding campaign that could be launched within the next three months.

Should it go ahead, it will be a less ambitious affair than Punakaiki's last attempt at raising funds from the public.

In 2013 it attempted to raise up to $50 million through an IPO, with a plan to pump that cash into fast-growing New Zealand technology start-ups.

Targeting retail shareholders for a fund that invests in early-stage firms was seen as unusual by brokers and demand proved tepid.

The $3.3 million that was raised - well short of the $5 million minimum target - was returned to would-be investors.

Punakaiki eventually launched as a private fund in April last year after raising $4.1 million in three separate placements.

"We've still got a lot of people that invested in our first public round, that we had to give the money back to, who are potentially still interested in investing in us," Wiggs said.

"Why not offer them a chance to go into a fundraising exercise using a crowdfunding platform?"

He said a "relatively low" minimum raising target would be set and Punakaiki would aim to raise $2 million, the maximum allowed through a crowdfunding campaign.

It would run through either the PledgeMe or Snowball Effect platforms, Wiggs said.

Punakaiki sits at the high-risk end of the spectrum and a crowdfunding campaign would give the general public exposure to investments only venture capital funds or angel investors usually get involved in.

There will be a range of views on whether that's a good thing or not.

Punakaiki currently has eight investments include Boardingware, an app used by boarding school students and their parents, gym management app InfluxHQ and Weirdly, a recruitment app.

The fund has a net asset value of $4.7 million.