Punakaiki Fund – The end for now

We sent the below to investors on Friday. Thanks are due not just to investors, but also to everyone who supported us.

In particular though are our suppliers. We were amazed at the excellent support in particular we received from Buddle Findlay (Sacha Judd), Lee Ter Wal Design (Baruch Ter Wal), Pursuit PR (Paul O’Leary) and COrr Communications (Catherine Orr). 

The website, prospectus documents, events and communications were superb thanks to these folks, who all understand early stage companies as well as the bigger end of town. You would do very well to send work their way.  

Dear investors

Wayne, Sandy, Chris and myself are grateful for your support.

However we regret to advise that we will not be proceeding with the capital raising and allotment of shares in the Punakaiki Fund Limited as we have not raised the minimum amount of $5 million.

As a result of the fund not going ahead, we will return all application monies to investors. A payment advice for the refund is enclosed.

We received, in the end, 368 subscriptions for a total of just over $3.33 million, well short of our $5 million minimum, let alone the $20 million target. I am still confident in the demand from emerging companies for smart funding, and very disappointed that we are unable to help any of the very long list of high quality companies who were attracted to our fund.

We crafted a company and management team to be expert at doing the job of finding, investing in and helping early stage and growth companies.

We were raising money strictly in accordance with the FMA’s public offering rules, so we could not identify any targeted investments, as doing so would mean providing full financials, often well before a deal was done.

We also could and did not say that I estimate my own, largely unrealised, returns in the sector at over 900% since 2007, at a rate of over 70% per annum. Nor could we say that under 5% of that capital invested resulted in absolute loss. These figures are dramatically different from venture capital and angel club norms, and would have helped show just how different Punakaiki Fund might have been.

In a public offer like this it’s critically important to only say things that are verifiable, as it means things are clearer and fairer to investors. But that makes it hard to get our message across.

Our thanks again. Perhaps we can continue this journey in another form at another time.

Lance Wiggs
Punakaiki Fund Limited