Wholesale investors typically qualify under one (or more) of four different options, which can be broadly described in two categories:

‍(1) Investors have appropriate experience to understand and accept the risks involved in the investment they are making, or;(2) Investors have sufficient wealth to either afford appropriate professional advice or to withstand the losses they could incur.

‍The four qualifications our investors typically rely on are:
‍
‍a) Being a "Large Investor", where that investor (and the entities they control) owns net assets or has consolidated turnover of $5m or more in each of the last two financial years.
‍
b) Being an "Investment Business", where that investor's principal business (especially where the investor is a company) is one or more of a few categories including investing in financial products (i.e. fund managers), providing financial advice, or trading in financial products on behalf of others (i.e. brokers or wealth managers).
‍
c) Meeting "Investment Activity" criteria, where an individual is either;(1) An investor that owns or has owned in the last 2n years a portfolio of specified financial products (i.e. shares, bonds, derivatives etc) in excess of $1m in value, or(2) An individual that works in an investment business and materially participates in that business' investment decisions and has done so for at least 2 years within the last 10 years.
‍
d) Being an "Eligible Investor" where an investor has previous experience investing in financial products that is relevant to the investment they are making such that they can assess the merits and the information they need to make decisions, provide a declaration that they understand the consequences of being an eligible investor, and have that declaration confirmed by either a lawyer, accountant or financial advisor.These descriptions are intentionally in layman's terms and should not be interpreted as advice regarding whether or not you are a wholesale investor or not. If you are unsure whether you may qualify, we recommend discussing this with your accountant, lawyer, or financial adviser.

Given the nature of venture capital, all Icehouse Ventures funds have a recommended minimum timeframe of 7+ years.

Venture funds are investing in early stage companies and as such, their lifecycle is in line with how long it takes for those companies to build a significant company and create an according amount of value. A fund could expect to have the majority of its portfolio companies to have liquidity events before ten years, but it would not be unusual for companies to still be creating value at that point.

Venture capital funds do not pre-select underlying companies before raising capital. Instead, the fund invests over time as our team finds and secures allocation to New Zealand’s most ambitious scale-ups.

Not all capital raised for Growth Fund 3 will be allocated to new companies; a portion of the funds will support follow-on rounds in existing portfolio companies. For example, as seed-stage companies from our earlier funds scale, Growth Fund 3 may have the opportunity to invest in them in later rounds.

When you invest in Growth Fund 3, you’re backing the Icehouse Ventures team’s 20+ years of experience and proven track record in identifying New Zealand’s most ambitious growth-stage companies.