Kia ora,

Welcome to our first newsletter of 2023.

Our first Investment Evening is fast approaching on 2nd March – a little later than we would normally have held it, but we wanted to fit in with the availability of our guest speaker the Honourable Stuart Nash, the Minister for Economic Development, Police, Oceans and Fisheries as well as Forestry; and until the cabinet reshuffle last month he was the Minister for Small Business, so I am very much looking forward to hearing his take on the NZ business sector generally and the start-up ecosystem more specifically.

If you haven’t yet registered your attendance, please click here – it should be a great evening as alongside the Minister’s talk, we have three good quality companies pitching.

Earlier in the month we held our first board meeting for 2023; a big welcome to our newest board members Marian Johnson, David Oliver and Craig Jakich – it’s great to have such experience and knowledge coming on to complement the current boards’ skills.

Some of the boards key objectives for the year are to raise membership numbers, increase the dollars invested through Canterbury Angels, and to find some corporate sponsors to enable us to further support the start-up eco-system in Canterbury.

If you have any friends or acquaintances who you think may enjoy becoming a member of CA, please make sure you invite them along as a guest to our next event. We currently have just under 50 members and would like to see that increase to at least 70 (there are around 800 angel investors in NZ and Christchurch is home to around 9% of NZ’s population, so on a pro-rata basis we are a bit underrepresented currently).

Additionally, we continue to be very reliant on the generous sponsorship from Christchurch NZ, who have been very supportive of CA for many years now; however, we would like to broaden our sponsorship base, so if you have any business contacts at all who may be interested in (and benefit from) being a sponsor of CA, please do let me know.

Finally, Gabby and I attended an Angel Association of NZ Strategy Day in Auckland earlier this month. Primary discussions were around the strategy and direction of AANZ, how they can support their members better and pros and cons of a potential name change. It was very beneficial to meet a few new faces and to get a deeper understanding of our national representative body.

I look forward to seeing you at the Investor Evening on Thursday.

Ngā mihi

Richard Morgan

Chair 

Portfolio Update

Dealflow has started to pick up again after a slowdown in January and we now have a very healthy pipeline of funding requests from a range of sectors.

Catalist

All members should have now received instructions on how to register or log in to the Catalist platform. Catalist provides two functions, the first will give you visibility of investments that you have made through the Canterbury Angels nominee along with any other direct investments that are on Catalist.

It also has a marketplace where you can view Public and Wholesale opportunities for investments outside of Canterbury Angels and going forward, we are looking at using the platform to display information on potential deals and also share deals with other Angel Groups in New Zealand.

Using Catalist will save a huge amount of timing tracking investments and it will also update the value of investments when new a company raises more funds or updates it valuation.

Interesting Stuff

A new business amplifier from Christchurch’s own Brianne West and the growth of Angel Investing.

• Business, But Better (businessbutbetter.co)
• 7 Key Trends Fuelling the Growth of Angel Investing | Seraf-Investor.com

March Investor Evening

We are really excited about the upcoming Investor Evening on the 2^nd of March. The event will take place at Lane Neave, 141 Cambridge Terrace, Christchurch, from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm.

As you know, we are committed to helping young companies get the investment and support they need to achieve high growth. We hold Investor evenings where local companies have the opportunity to pitch for funding and receive valuable feedback from experienced investors.

We are pleased to announce that our guest speaker for the March Investor Evening will be Minister Nash. Minister Nash will be speaking about the importance of small businesses in the start-up ecosystem, and the value of early-stage investors supporting founders to create high-value jobs and regional growth. It is an excellent opportunity to hear from someone who is an expert in the field and has a wealth of knowledge to share.

We will also be showcasing some innovative companies at the event. 

Script Sense are challenging the fundamentals of Pharmacy and Primary Healthcare systems by mitigating patient harm caused by prescription errors, which are frequently exacerbated by manual procedures relying on outdated software.

Modern Consulting Measure (MCM) is the expert in trade measurement for New Zealand trade contractors, providing measurement services on a project-by-project basis, across a variety of builds from standard residential to high-end architectural homes and commercial projects. Nitrate contamination of groundwater is increasingly becoming an issue worldwide.

HydroMetrics sensors were created by scientists at Lincoln Agritech to offer real-time groundwater monitoring, putting the right data and tools into the hands of landowners and businesses so they can be environmental guardians of our water.

Don't miss this opportunity to network with like-minded individuals and learn from the best. Register here to secure your spot. We hope to see you there!

Events

The Angel Association are kicking off their Governance for Growth programme in May and June with the Christchurch workshop being held on the 14th of June at ChristchurchNZ.

This workshop will take you through the intricacies of governance providing value for Angel Investors, Founders, and anyone who is interested in joining or establishing a board.

Register here to book your place.

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