Thanks to BNZ, the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, The ICEHOUSE, and many other organisations, Bill will be spending six months here in New Zealand as the BNZ University of Auckland Business School Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The ICEHOUSE, working on a variety of projects including running seminars for angel investors, mentoring startups, providing advice to government, working with tertiary education institutions on commercialising their intellectual property, and hopefully building some international syndication opportunities.

He has a busy schedule and will be visiting many regional centres round the country, but is keen to meet with a wide variety of people while he’s here.  Bill is a very personable, approachable, and straight-talking guy, and we caught up with him over a Skype call to find out more about how we can get the most out of him while he’s here.

In the podcast, Bill talks about his own investment interests, how to put together a deal that satisfies everyone, how the “first-to-market advantage” is vastly overrated, and obtaining follow-on investment offshore.

You can download or listen to the podcast:

You can contact bill directly on bill@billpayne.com, and you might also be interested in Bill’s ICEHOUSE blog.

Related posts:

1. Bill Payne at the NZX
2. Bill Payne presents The Power of Angel Investing in Wellington
3. Bill Payne – What angels look for in fundable deals – Part 1

NZVIF’s $4 million commitment will be alongside the Trans Tasman Commercialisation Fund – an AU$30 million investment fund established last year to commercialise research at Auckland University and four Australian universities.

The investment partnership will look at commercial opportunities emerging from UniServices – Auckland University’s commercialisation agency. NZVIF and TTCF have already invested into two drug development companies spun out of UniServices – Pathway Therapeutics and Saratan Therapeutics.

NZVIF chief executive Franceska Banga said the partnership is encouraging given the level of innovation emerging from Auckland University.

“Auckland University is New Zealand’s highest ranked research university, and UniServices is generating some exciting commercial opportunities, as we are already seeing with Pathway and Saratan.

“NZVIF’s involvement in the trans-Tasman partnership ensures that there will be a New Zealand focus to companies being developed from New Zealand generated research.

TTCF Investment Manager Craig Reilly said there are significant investment opportunities in New Zealand-generated life sciences, engineering and ICT research.

“With this partnership, we hope to see greater investment in research which has the potential to advance to the commercial stage in global markets.”

NZVIF’s partnership with TTCF is through NZVIF’s Seed Co-Investment Fund. Through the fund, NZVIF is investing $40 million into early stage companies with strong potential for high growth, alongside investments made by its partners.

This is the eleventh partnership NZVIF has entered into through the Seed Co-Investment Fund. Through these partnerships, NZVIF and angel groups have co-invested over $33 million into 30 companies.

Related posts:

1. Manawatu Investment Group and SCIF put $1m into Speirs Nutritionals
2. Wayne Mapp talks about innovation and commercialisation