Invest Early in New Zealand’s Deep Tech Revolution
Fund I closed, fully deployed, and on track for top-quartile returns.
Fund II is now open to investors ready to back the next Rocket Lab or LanzaTech.
Quidnet Ventures Fund II
Backing World-Changing Kiwi Deep Tech
Building on the projected top-quartile success of Fund I, Quidnet Fund II is now open for investment. We’re raising a seed-stage discovery fund to identify and launch the next generation of breakthrough startups from Aotearoa New Zealand.
Marama Labs
Accelerating mRNA vaccine development
Litmaps
Revolutionising scientific research discovery
HumbleBee Bio
Nature-inspired biotech for a better planet
Game-Changing Startups We've Backed
Investing in Innovation: Why NZ Leads the Way
New Zealand is early in a sustained venture up-cycle:
Venture investment hit a record NZ$587.6m (2024) and the ecosystem’s VC-backed value has grown ~6× since 2019.
Pricing remains disciplined: typical NZ seed rounds average ~NZ$2.3m (H1’24) versus a ~US$14m U.S. median seed pre-money (2024), creating room for valuation uplift as winners scale into larger markets.
NZ ranks 25th of 133 on the Global Innovation Index 2024 (≈top 19%)
All eight universities sit within the world’s top 5%
The business environment is predictable and rules-based—#1 in the World Bank’s final Doing Business 2020, #5 in Forbes 2019 “Best Countries for Business”—with strong governance (Transparency International CPI 2024: #4).
Investing in Global-Scale Potential
At Quidnet, we invest in early-stage New Zealand startups with the potential to make a global impact. From physical sciences and chemistry to agritech, medical devices, software, and financial technology, we back bold ideas grounded in deep expertise. Our mission is to help Kiwi innovation thrive on the world stage.
Backing Innovation with Proven Operating Experience
Mark Bregman is a venture strategist, GP, and technology leader with over 30 years’ experience building and investing in innovative companies around the world.
His successful operating experience has helped five global companies with a combined value of more than $150B scale and grow. With a PhD in physics and a career spanning startups, corporate R&D and global venture programs, Mark has led research at IBM, corporate venture at Symantec, Neustar and NetApp, and innovation strategy at Vista Equity Partners.
An Edmund Hillary Fellow with 30 years of ties to New Zealand, he brings both a deep, long-standing connection to the country and a global perspective on technology, science, and entrepreneurship.
The Quidnet Advantage
World-class Advisors
At the early stage, start-ups have little track record. So it is up to us to determine their viability in a larger context. We’ve gathered a world-class team with deep experience and expertise in the areas we invest in – everything from physical sciences, to chemistry, to software and financial technology. This gives us the unique capability to identify game changing opportunities early and engage critically with the entrepreneurs on the details of their technology
Focused International Network
We provide personal introductions to key people in the U.S. market — legal and IP experts, marketing and sales professionals, distribution channel specialists, enterprise customers, venture capital funds, and more. Outside the U.S, our team has spent time working in Europe, Japan, China, India, and Australia, and more than 20 years in New Zealand.
Advanced Deal Flow Access
The General Partner and several advisors are Edmund Hillary Fellows, a community that allows exceptional entrepreneurs, investors, and startups to bring their innovations to New Zealand. This provides the fund with a network across many sectors of the New Zealand economy. The GP is part of several of Return on Science’s investment committees. Return on Science is New Zealand’s national research commercialization organization. He is also a mentor for startups at Te Ōhaka’s and CreativeHQ’s accelerators.
Operating Experience Scaling Businesses
Each member of our team has years of experience with growing and scaling businesses, most being founders and executives themselves. As a result, they are able to act as crucial mentors to first time founders who may need coaching and advice as they manage rapid growth for the first time.
