The people behind brand health startup Tracksuit have set up a studio capable of founding multiple startups a year.
New + Improved Ventures (N+I ) is a venture studio dedicated to coming up with marketing technology business ideas, testing them, and bringing them to market, before recruiting a team for development.
The venture studio formalises several years of work between TRA (The Research Agency) and Previously Unavailable, with the formation of New + Improved Ventures.
“Over the last 3-4 years of working together we’ve learnt a lot about how to start and set companies up for success with the venture studio model, and how to partner with venture capital to help these companies achieve meaningful scale,” said Simon Pound, co-founder of New + Improved Ventures.
"We’re excited to be going deeper into partnership with this team to help make some more great companies, with some great people."
New + Improved Ventures has $6 million in investment from the founders of the new business, TRA, Previously Unavailable, and Icehouse Ventures.
The investment will fund N+I to build one to two new startups a year.
Co-founder Antony Ede said the business will be a proving ground for a fresh way of building businesses in New Zealand.
“We’ve raised investment to fund the operations of the studio and allow us to continuously build great startups,” said Ede.
"We’re focused on building a valuable portfolio of exceptional companies. If we are successful we believe that this could help strengthen the tech sector in New Zealand by seeding it with great startups and prove out a different model for company formation."
Connon Bray, Chris Paykel, James Hurman, and Phoebe Devine have also joined as co-founders, formalising a venture studio working relationship that has existed for years among the group. The six founders bring a breadth of experience across brand, marketing, data, and company building.
In New Zealand, the concept of venture studios is relatively new, but New + Improved Ventures co-founders have already enjoyed industry leading success in the startups they have produced.
In 2021, they set into motion a new brand tracking company Tracksuit, which this year received $22 million in new investment and reached hundreds of global customers, while a year on from the launch of Ideally, the company has raised $8 million and rapidly added clients around the world.
Icehouse Ventures’ CEO Robbie Paul described the early trajectories of Tracksuit and Ideally as “two of the fastest growing SaaS companies New Zealand has produced".
A key differentiating factor for New + Improved Ventures is its intention to work with venture capital from the beginning, which underscores Icehouse Ventures’ investment in the venture studio, says partner Barnaby Marshall.
“We’re significant shareholders in both Ideally and Tracksuit, where it was immediately obvious how much both companies benefited from hitting the ground running with a product concept the world wants,” said Marshall.
"The founders of New + Improved Ventures have developed a formula to test ideas and find early product market fit. Given the success of prior ventures they are attracting ever more high quality talent to join the companies they form, which we expect will increase the chances of future spin out’s potential.
“Nothing is ever guaranteed in startup land, but we’re very confident in their ability to continue producing NZ’s highest potential, venture-ready martech startups.”
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