Quest for cash: Wāhine-led businesses on a mission for venture capital

NZTE's InvestHer made its international debut in Singapore this year after the programme's first run in 2019. Photo / Supplied

Seven female entrepreneurs got a chance to pitch their companies -- ranging from meat cultivation to activewear -- to 120 potential global investors this week, when they flew to Singapore with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE).

After starting in 2019 to help wāhine-led businesses receive more investment capital, NZTE’s InvestHer programme made its international debut this year.

The Singapore event featured Kiwi entrepreneurs Dr Angela Lim from Clearhead, Karnya Young from Enpot, Grace Glass from Natural Paint Co, Zarina Bazoeva from Neocrete, Opo Bio’s Olivia Ogilvie, Andrea Taimana from Organic Bioactives and RespirAq’s Sandra Grau-Bartual.

NZTE investment director Annabelle Glazewski said the eight-week programme gave the seven wāhine-led companies a platform to attract global capital.

“We help them get pitch-ready,” said Glazewski. “We give them a deal team, which includes an investment manager, an analyst and a mentor from the venture capital community.

“What we heard from a lot of the founders is that they’re busy just running their day-to-day business. Then [having] to focus on how to raise capital can be quite overwhelming.”

Andrea Taimana, founder and chief scientific officer at Organic Bioactives, said the event was “a once-in-a-lifetime experience”.

She started Organic Bioactives to find non-toxic alternatives to cosmetic and skincare formulations, using botanicals native to Aotearoa. Taimana said the company was seeking to raise venture capital to help propel further global expansion.

Olivia Ogilvie co-founded meat cultivation company Opo Bio at the University of Auckland last year. Photo / Supplied

“We have more than 19 cosmetic brands that are already using our ingredients,” she said.

Taimana said the company’s ingredients feature in local brands such as Trilogy and international products by Estee Lauder and Revlon, sourced from Māori- and female-led initiatives in Kawhia, in Waikato.

She said the team was looking for investment capital to help expand its network and attract larger investors.

“It’s crucially important that as a business, specifically in a female space, that we are present, that we have the ability to go out on the stage and pitch our businesses to such an esteemed audience,” Taimana said.

Olivia Ogilvie, a co-founder at cultivated meat company Opo Bio, said the venture started at the University of Auckland last July, and is the youngest company at this year’s InvestHer.

She started Opo Bio with co-founders Laura Domigan and Vaughan Feisst at the university, after Domigan received an academic grant.

“The goal of the overall industry is to be able to make real meat using cells but without the need for animals,” said Ogilvie. At the moment, she said, these cells, or seeds, “are really hard to come by”.

“A lot of them don’t grow that well so that’s where we identified a need. We had developed research in the University of Auckland that allowed us grow seeds, so we decided to commercialise that research.”

Organic Bioactives Andrea Taimana said it was important for wāhine Māori to be part of the supply chain at the company. Photo / Supplied

“There are a lot of [meat cultivation] companies in the US and Singapore, so when we found out InvestHer had a part in Singapore, we thought, ‘This really couldn’t be better for us’,” Ogilvie said.

She said there were 130 companies globally producing cultivated meat, however the industry faces significant challenges in scaling up production to meet consumer demand.

“There are no products of cultivated meat available today because there are some pretty big technological barriers in bringing the products to scale and making enough of it for people to eat.”

Ogilvie said cultivated meat “has the potential to significantly increase the amount of food we produce”.

“By 2050, we will need 70 per cent more meat to feed the growing population and it’s pretty clear we can’t increase livestock by 70 per cent and not destroy the planet,” she said.

Ogilvie said the opportunity helped refine the team’s pitch and investment proposition. “One thing is building confidence and delivering that pitch to investors, which I think has been really helpful for me.

“Regardless of what happens in the next couple of months, we’ve made connections that will be helpful throughout the next couple of years to build our business.”

Natural Paint Co co-founder Grace Glass. Photo / Supplied

Natural Paint Co co-founder Grace Glass also attended this year’s InvestHer.

She said she started seven years ago with co-founder James Mount. “We realised how toxic the paint industry was, so we started investigating and found no one was really tackling the industry in New Zealand and that it definitely could be done in a better way,” Glass said.

After importing paints from Germany, she said, “there’s definitely something here and it’s definitely an industry that needs disrupting”.

So Glass said the team “set out on a mission to find New Zealand’s top paint experts” to produce high-quality, toxin-free paints.

She said being part of InvestHer was her first experience seeking venture capital. “I felt very privileged to be a part of a programme like InvestHer, just to be exposed to investors in one room,” Glass said.

“Raising capital can be extremely overwhelming with where to start, who to talk to, who is the best investor to fit with your company, because every investment has a different type of fund.

“It’s been really helpful to have a network around you. None of this business journey you do alone.”

She said the biggest barrier that female-led business owners face in getting investment funds in New Zealand is “connecting with the right people at the right time for your business”.

Second, she said, was “getting in front of the right investors to share your story, the change that your company can make, then being able to demonstrate that it’s got a global application.

“Working out a plan and having a strategic plan around that, and then having people that can support you to develop that strategic plan ... about how it can actually look outside of New Zealand,” Glass said.

“It was incredible to go offshore with a cohort of supportive women. There were seven incredibly talented, intellectual, passionate wāhine. This has brought to the world what their innovations can do.”

Alka Prasad is an Auckland-based business reporter covering small business and retail.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air