Tony Bishop’s Pan Pacific fund gets US$24M from NZVIF, Taiwan partner

Wednesday 30th October 2013

Venture capitalist Tony Bishop's Pan Pacific Capital venture capital fund has got funding commitments of US$12 million apiece from the NZ Venture Investment Fund and Taiwan's National Development Fund and said it's nearing a US$40 million target needed to start investing.

Pan Pacific is the first fund to win a commitment from NZVIF and NDF under a US$160 million partnership between the two bodies agreed last year. That co-fund was established for five years with a maximum US$20 million apiece for any single fund and a total funding ratio of 30 percent each for NZVIF and NDF provided private investors come up with the remaining 40 percent.

Bishop said Pan Pacific is about halfway to raising the $16 million needed from private investors. Ultimately he is targeting a fund size of US$70 million.

Bishop's links with NZVIF date back to its founding in 2002 as managing director of iGlobe Treasury Management, one of the original five venture capital fund managers selected when the fund of funds was originally set up by the government in 2002.

NZVIF now has about $200 million of funds under management including $160 million in its venture capital fund of funds and $40 million in its seed co-investment fund.

"With New Zealand and Taiwan recently concluding a trade agreement, a joint New Zealand-Taiwan venture capital fund will be attractive to growth companies looking to expand into Taiwan and from there into Asia," NZVIF chief executive Franceska Banga said.

Bishop is listed as the sole shareholder of Pan Pacific although he said he was in effect holding the shares in trust while the final structure is put in place.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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