Venture capital fund · 8 deals
Every published round K1W1 took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyades | Pre-seed | Jul 2026 | $910k | Participant | aistartupsnews.com, ontargetish.com, SmartCompany | |
| Appetise | Series A | 20 Feb 2026 | $7m | Participant | Startup Daily, SmartCompany, Ten13, Forbes Australia, OIF Ventures portfolio, Ten13 portfolio | |
| Excellent | Pre-seed | 13 Sep 2022 | $2m | Participant | Blackbird Ventures portfolio, Startup Daily, Blackbird Ventures portfolio | |
| Foundry Lab | Series A | 3 Dec 2021 | $11.3m | Participant | SmartCompany, Blackbird Ventures portfolio, Startup Daily, Blackbird Ventures portfolio | |
| SafeStack Academy | Seed | 18 Oct 2021 | $2.3m | Participant | Cut Through Venture, Startup Daily (Mon 18 Oct 2021), Startup Daily (Mon 11 Oct 2021) | |
| Portainer.io | Seed | 25 Oct 2020 | $1.2m | Participant | Startup Daily, Black Nova Venture Capital portfolio | |
| Spoke Phone | Series A | 16 Jan 2020 | $6.4m | Participant | SmartCompany, Startup Daily | |
| Sunfed Meats | Series A | 20 Nov 2018 | $9.4m | Participant | Startup Daily, SmartCompany, Women's Agenda |
Companies K1W1 has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appetise | 20 Feb 2026, Series A | 1 | 0 | |
| Excellent | 13 Sep 2022, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Foundry Lab | 3 Dec 2021, Series A | 1 | 0 | |
| Hyades | Jul 2026, Pre-seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Portainer.io | 25 Oct 2020, Seed | 1 | 0 | |
| SafeStack Academy | 18 Oct 2021, Seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Spoke Phone | 16 Jan 2020, Series A | 1 | 0 | |
| Sunfed Meats | 20 Nov 2018, Series A | 1 | 0 |
Fund closes reported for K1W1, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies K1W1 has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal K1W1 did.
Stories naming K1W1. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Roundup of four trans-Tasman raises: First Table, Metacognition AI, Dela and GoTroppo secured a combined $21.5 million for restaurant discounting, robotics software, scam-safe payments and flexible internet plans.
Roundup of seven raises across the Tasman spanning fintech, marine tech, agtech, defence and AI, plus a first close for an ACT venture fund.
Roundup of three early-stage AI raises: BlueNexus's $2 million seed, Hyades's NZ$910,000 pre-seed plus a research grant, and ESGAgent's undisclosed round. All three companies are pre-revenue.
Roundup of three ANZ raises: BlueNexus' $2m seed led by M31 Capital, Hyades' NZ$1.1m pre-seed with Icehouse Ventures plus an R&D grant, and ESGAgent.ai's $725,000 seed led by DNX Ventures.
Roundup of the week's Australian startup funding: fresh raises for five companies, Startmate's Summer '26 accelerator intake of 19 startups, and Affinda's acquisition of Pathfindr.
Also Startup Daily
Ten13's post sets out its reasons for backing Appetise's A$7 million Series A with OIF, Icehouse, NZVC and K1W1, highlighting the grocery platform's shopper dataset and growth.
New Zealand customer messaging startup Atomic.io closed a Series A led by Movac, with several Xero figures investing, and is expanding into Australia with a Melbourne base.
Diagnostics firm Pictor raised $6.1 million led by Marko Bogoievski and K1W1, and unveiled a partnership with US laboratory provider Mobility Health to launch its COVID-19 antibody test across several markets.
New Zealand forest-carbon assessor CarbonCrop has banked a NZ$1.9 million top-up before its planned Series A; Jo Blundell takes the CEO role while co-founder Nick Butcher shifts to CTO.
Icehouse Ventures has made a first NZ$5 million close toward a $20 million second ArcAngels fund for women-led startups, with Gattung, Rowsell and K1W1 among backers; its predecessor fund backed 31 ventures.
New Zealand microphone startup Dotterel Technologies raised NZ$3 million (A$2.8m) led by Icehouse Ventures, with Peter Beck, K1W1, NZVC and private investors backing production and expansion of its long-distance Konos microphone.
HEAL Partners led a US$10 million round in Crimson Education at a US$460 million valuation, with earlier backers topping up; the post also recalls Crimson's 2019 Series C and other companies HEAL has backed.
Profile of Auckland electric boat propulsion startup ZeroJet, which raised a round from several investors, joined Startmate's New Zealand accelerator with a $75,000 investment, and aims to replace petrol outboards.
New Zealand container management startup Portainer.io closed a US$1.2 million seed round backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Black Nova Group, K1W1 and AmpliPHI Ventures to grow its open source and commercial products.
Also Startup Daily
Telecom startup Spoke Phone raised a $6.7 million Series A led by Marbruck Investments, with Icehouse Ventures and K1W1 supporting, to improve its product and expand in Australia and the US.
Also SmartCompany
New Zealand chatbot platform Ambit has raised NZ$1.75 million from Lewis Holdings and K1W1 to grow into Australia and the US. The piece also covers UBank's new AI assistant Mia, built with FaceMe.
New Zealand plant-based meat company Sunfed raised a NZ$10 million Series A led by Blackbird Ventures, with NZVIF, Chris Hadley and K1W1 also taking part, after an earlier NZ$1.5 million raise.