"New Zealand's venture capital scene saw 95 deals last year as a record $160 million was invested in early-stage companies despite the pandemic. Or perhaps it was because of Covid-19, given the tech-heavy nature of startup opportunities and the way the outbreak has accelerated the digitisation of business." - Chris Keall, NZ Herald

Founding and Co-Managing Partner Chintaka and Vignesh came in at number ten.

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GD1 team members blurb can be seen below.

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10. Chintaka Ranatunga, Vignesh Kumar

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"Global From Day One (GD1) managing partner Chintaka Ranatunga won the University of Auckland Business School Emerging Leader gong at the 2020 INFINZ (Institute of Financial Professionals) awards on the back of investments in startups like Shuttlerock, Spotlight Reporting, the rebooted StretchSense and Tauranga electric motorbike maker Ubco. Last year saw Rantunga joined by Vignesh Kumar, who returned to NZ in 2018 following senior roles with Apple in Cupertino, with Silicon Valley money bulging in his pockets and immediately began to sniff out local investment opportunities - starting with Formus Labs, before becoming a GD1 partner, which he balances as a director at KiwiNet, which helps pre-commericialisation research-based companies raise funding, and as a member of the investment panel for Auckland University's commercialisation arm, Uniservices. This year is also shaping up to be a strong one. Last month GD1 received $45m from  Elevate - the Crownfund's largest investment to date - for its Fund 3, which is set to total $139m. Elevate investment director James Pinner said he was impressed at how GD1 "has matured into an
institutional-grade VC manager with Fund 3." - Chris Keall, NZ Herald

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For the full write-up and breakdown of the people amongst venture capital here in New Zealand click here.

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