Bringing intelligent, founder-focussed capital to New Zealand
“The Village represents the entire Hillfarrance community and how we support our portfolio companies beyond just capital.”
EHF Cohort 6 Fellow, Rob Vickery, is an entrepreneur-turned-investor who is working to invest in great people who are solving hard problems that matter. His venture capital firm, Hillfarrance, is addressing some of the challenges in New Zealand’s fast-growing entrepreneurial sector by investing in seed-stage businesses and developing the next generation of VCs. He has observed that CAP tables here are often misaligned with investors taking too much ownership and early-stage VCs picking up questionable habits early in their journeys. Some New Zealand start-ups also have a hesitation towards going global with some seeing the Australian market as their last and biggest leap out of Aotearoa New Zealand. “I like to encourage NZ entrepreneurs to think a little bit more audaciously about the international markets they want to enter and, hopefully, dominate,” he says. But Rob cautions using a prescriptive approach to investment in Aotearoa.
Rob Vickery
“This is not a market that needs to mimic or serve Silicon Valley. This is a market that can stand on its own and develop its own unique identity. Some investors may come here with baggage from their previous lives. They need to be prepared to come here and be open to leaving some of that behind. They need to come here and listen. I spent a year and a half listening before making conclusions.” As an arrival point in New Zealand, South Auckland has provided Rob with a lot of opportunity to listen and learn, in particular through his work with Ngahere Foundation in Manukau, nation-wide educator Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and the Kōkiri Accelerator in the Waikato. All three are working to create better outcomes for Māori and Pasifika people through the power of education and entrepreneurship.
While diversity and inclusion have always been a priority for Rob – his investment portfolio features an industry-impressive 50% female founders and he built entrepreneurial academies in two of Los Angeles’ worst performing high schools to support their marginalised communities – he was delighted to find such a strong passion in indigenous founders in New Zealand.
“Building a deep understanding and appreciation of the cultural tapestry of this country and uncovering synergies with that of my own is an essential journey for me.”
He is now exploring ways of weaving traditional Māori principals into the development of his venture capital philosophy and working to create a holistic support network for his founders. “When a founder receives capital from Hillfarrance, they also get access to our Village to help augment their business: top lawyers and the best banks, creative agencies, technical support, talent coaches and wellness advisors.” He has also established a $1m venture scout fund to help cultivate the VCs of the future and invest in new sectors that we have previously overlooked. “I wish I had something like this when I started out in this industry. I went through a some mistakes and pain – and a lot of joy, of course – and I could have benefited greatly from a defined programme like this.”
Rob grew up in the UK and started his career as a tech and data science entrepreneur (or, indeed, INtrapreneur) through Lloyds Banking Group. In collaboration with a team, he helped build and launch a successful new division within Lloyds. It was an unusual introduction to entrepreneurship, he says, as he effectively built an entity for which he didn’t have to raise any capital but which still required a successful minimal viable product. As a recognition for his contributions, Lloyds offered him a role as Regional Director of their North American division in Los Angeles. From there, Rob went on to work with Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics, perhaps an unexpected step at first glance but, as Rob says, “A big part of the role of a VC is managing talent and I learned from one of the best with Dave. Over the years that followed, Rob launched Stage Venture Partners, a leading seed stage venture capital firm in Southern California, before he began exploring a future in NZ.
“There’s so much opportunity here to help move the New Zealand startup economy into its next phase. I have been able to welcome some fantastic investors into the fund and invest some of that capital into four of New Zealand’s most promising companies. We like to call ourselves ‘ego-free venture capital’. It’s not my fund. It’s New Zealand’s fund.”
But it’s clear that Hillfarrance, named for Rob’s ancestral village in England’s West Country, is very close to his heart. His investments typically manifest as business-to-business AI, software and robotics. Of the four investments he’s made so far this year, two were to Māori- and Pasifika-owned businesses.
The fundraising for Hillfarrance has been successful thus far but, as the fund enters its next phase of growth, Rob is continuing to search for “smart, interesting people to invest, advise and help with our growing family of portfolio company founders and the overall direction of the fund. We’re in scaling mode; building our platform which allows our founders and the businesses they are building to maximise their potential.” He’s working to increase his total investments to 20 over the duration of the fund which align with his diversity and inclusion priorities.