Script from the launch of the Icehouse Ventures mobile application at the Annual New Zealand Startup Showcase at Spark Arena on 21 August 2025. We had some tech issues on the night, but it was great to share what we’ve been working on with so many people, and so far the reaction from users has been great.
Good evening everyone. My name is Peter Thomson, and I’m the CTO at Icehouse Ventures. I have what I think might be one of the best jobs the country because I get to spend my time with all of these great startups we’ve heard from tonight and all of you as investors. It’s like Showcase all year round.
I’m particularly grateful to our early adopters many of whom are here tonight like Maurice Maclaren, Richard Reynolds and Ian Holland. Who’ve given us such great feedback over the years.
At Icehouse Ventures, our greatest strength has always been our community of investors, founders and operators. The great startups coming out of New Zealand can become even more unstoppable with a large & engaged network backing them.
But to be engaged, you first need to be informed. And that’s what we’ve been working on for the last five years with our custom-built Investor Portal. When we started on this journey, there wasn’t any software available that could connect a large network of investors with a diversified portfolio of startups, to deliver an immersive experience, while maintaining institutional-grade reporting and security. It didn’t exist, so we had to build it.
But now it’s time to take things up a notch. We want to supercharge your ability to support these great companies. And to do that, we’re going mobile.
Tonight, we’re proud to introduce the Icehouse Ventures Mobile App (available now on iOS and Android). This new app is your window into the people, ideas, and companies building the future of New Zealand. We’re putting the brightest New Zealand companies in your pocket. With a host of new features, you can be engaged with these great companies, not just at Showcase, but all year round. Let me walk through just a couple of the features before I hand back to Robbie.
First, Discussions and Co-Investment. Imagine getting to tap into the experiences & connections of 3,000 fellow investors. With this app, you can now read Investment Memos on the go, ask questions of the founders and participate in due-diligence discussions. It’s the professional investing experience that we’ve always delivered, made portable.
Second, Notifications. These days, startup investing can move fast. Whether it’s a new round opening up, or a capital call. You don’t want to miss out. And recently, Halter’s follow-on round was over-subscribed within a matter of days. The app will help keep you in the loop.
And third, Show & Tell. If you’re in this room, you already know that there are great companies, doing great things here in New Zealand. But not everyone sees what you see. We want to give you a window into their world, one that you can share with your family, your friends, and your colleagues. We want to bring you short, sharp videos direct from the startups so you can stay up-to-date and share their stories.
What I love most about this asset class is how it can inspire the next generation, Our seven year old, Isabelle has recently started getting interested in tech companies and it’s not because of the TVPI or the IRR, it’s because she and I started watching videos together about what the companies are up to. She saw when OpenStar first sparked plasma in Wellington. And she came along for the ride along as Dawn Aerospace took off for space. This isn’t doom scrolling, it’s a front-row seat to history.
Our growing tech platform is built to give New Zealand an unfair advantage. And pursue our mission of making investing in Kiwi startups: transparent, engaging and rewarding. The mobile app was built in-house by our Principal Engineer, Ian Patel and it runs on same core system that powers our main Investor Portal. So we all benefit from the years of hard work by Harry Fakir, Logan Gubb, Nikita Deva, and the rest of the Icehouse Ventures team.
So tonight, we invite you to download what we believe could be a world-first: The chance to have an entire VC firm in your pocket. Please, use the app to amplify the stories of these great companies within your own networks, because the startups are already doing great things, and with your backing, they can be truly unstoppable.
You can watch a clip from the live stream of the presentation on stage here (5 mins):
