In April we published our thesis and the 4 areas we’ll back with our new fund. 4 months on, those convictions have only strengthened, and we’ve made 2 new investments that map 1:1 to those areas.
What’s accelerated since April:
The AI revolution – progress and adoption have picked up dramatically; AI is compounding across product and operational models.
Global fragmentation – trade frictions and onshoring pressures look structural: companies are redesigning supply chains for resilience and sovereignty in a world beyond US dominance.
Because of that, our four focus areas feel more important than ever:
Service-as-a-Software – services delivered with software economics, supercharged by AI.
Sovereignty – on-shore, resilient industry and infrastructure (including data residency).
Human Enhancement – technologies that compound capability and wellbeing.
Robotics – autonomy and automation for the messy, physical world.
We’re running 4 great panels on these focus areas at Portfolio Day in 2 months — sign up if you want to join: https://www.aucklandstartupweek.com/programme/portfolio-day
1) Foundry Lab — Zero-tooling metal casting, on demand
Focus Area: Sovereignty
TL;DR: Foundry Lab turns short-run metal casting into a digital, on-demand workflow — parts in days, no tooling, competitive pricing.
Why we invested
Reshoring enabler: solves the high-mix, low-volume choke point across aerospace, energy, mobility, and defence.
Software-like compounding: “Foundry-as-a-Service” improves with each material, design and site — the product compounds.
Thesis fit: capital-efficient capability that materially improves national resilience.
2) Puralink — Autonomous pipeline inspectors
Focus Area: Robotics
TL;DR: Ferret — a modular robot that inspects and maps buried pipelines and is built to extend into maintenance and repair.
Why we invested
Real-world automation: ageing networks, compliance pressure and labour shortages create a clear adoption path.
Differentiated motion: modular drive and sensing designed for range, manoeuvrability and upgradeability.
Thesis fit: robotics meeting infrastructure — safety, reliability and cost benefits at scale.
Why these 2, together
They map cleanly to our thesis and collectively show what NZVC Fund 2 is trying to build: AI-enabled services, sovereign capabilities, human uplift, and robotics that pay back in reliability and cost. We’re proud of this small but growing portfolio and excited by the momentum in the ANZ ecosystem.
As always — if you want an intro, a deeper deck, or a quick call about any of these companies, reply to this email or drop us a line.
Best,
Hendrik & Mark — and the NZVC team