Led · Seed · Feb 2026

Teacher's Buddy provides educators with automated tools that generate customised lesson plans, student assessments and report-writing drafts, aiming to cut workload and reduce burnout. Founded by Auckland advertising veteran Matt Abraham and Melbourne-based Ben Sze, the service is offered as a free basic product with a Pro tier priced at $155 per year and bespoke packages for schools. In its first 18 months, the platform has attracted 12,000 teachers across 130 countries, demonstrating early global traction. The startup currently employs 10 staff out of Melbourne and is finalising an upgraded version of its platform that the founders say will significantly extend functionality for teachers, schools and students. Although still in a very early commercial phase, the company recently secured new funding at a $12.7 million valuation, underscoring investor confidence. Teacher's Buddy differentiates itself from generic AI tools like ChatGPT by offering domain-specific, pre-tested prompts and templates tailored to educational tasks. Management emphasises that the forthcoming product enhancements will “amplify” the existing feature set and drive broader adoption.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2024

Starboard Maritime Intelligence is a New Zealand startup focused on maritime security. Its platform analyzes over a billion maritime data points daily — including ship tracking, satellite imagery, radar, oceanographic data and autonomous sensors — to detect suspicious activity and issue real-time alerts. The platform is already used by governments, defense agencies and commercial operators in over 30 countries. The company plans to expand its presence in North America, Europe and the Indo-Pacific region. Starboard raised A$20.7 million in a Series A to support that global expansion and further develop its technology. CEO Trent Fulcher says the platform protects maritime borders, infrastructure and commercial supply chains, and the financing will help set the standard for real-time maritime intelligence. Jonty Kelt (King River Capital) and Vu Tran (OIF Ventures) will join the company’s board. Starboard Maritime Intelligence is a Wellington, New Zealand–based SaaS startup founded in 2019 that applies machine learning to maritime data to detect suspicious vessel activity. Its software platform combines AIS, satellite imagery and scientific models to enable maritime activity monitoring and analysis. The company supports governments, border security authorities, NGOs and fisheries inspectors in prioritizing which vessels to focus on and inspect. In April 2024 Starboard raised A$4.6M (NZ$5M) in seed funding. The proceeds will be used to strengthen support for a growing number of analysts in the Pacific region and to expand the company’s go-to-market function into other countries and industry verticals. No operating metrics (revenue/users) were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2023

Rice Robotics is a four-year-old Hong Kong company that builds autonomous indoor delivery robots and a line of disinfection robots. Its delivery robots carry up to 30 kg, offer internal storage of 39 x 27 x 34 cm, run for 12 hours and can recharge within one hour, navigating with SLAM. The robots have a starting market price of $9,000 and have been deployed since January 2021 delivering 7-Eleven products to SoftBank staff; Japan is now Rice’s biggest source of revenue. Rice counts clients in Japan including SoftBank, Toyota, Japan Post and Mitsui Group. The company moved production to a new 13,000-square-foot plant in Hong Kong, which increased annual production capacity from 500 to 2,000 robots. A portion of its recent funding has been deployed to scale manufacturing in Hong Kong and to push further into the Japanese market.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2022

Gemie operates a celebrity-focused metaverse and premium NFT marketplace that connects celebrities and fans through customized virtual planets and digital collectibles. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate development of its marketplace and an entertainment-themed metaverse. Gemie has formed partnerships with several high-level artist management firms and movie production houses across Asia. With additional resources the company intends to broaden discussions with more players in the entertainment industry. Gemie expects to announce its first onboarding celebrity in early 2Q22. The company was founded in 2021 by John Fung and is headquartered in Hong Kong.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2020

Linear Finance is a DeFi protocol that bills itself as the first cross-chain compatible, decentralized delta-one asset protocol for creating, trading and managing synthetic assets. The team is developing both a testnet and a mainnet and plans to use new funding to accelerate those efforts and promote the platform. Linear has begun integrating with Binance Smart Chain as a layer-two solution to address challenges faced by existing synthetic asset protocols. The protocol is also working with other DeFi projects, including a recently announced partnership with oracle network Tellor for off-chain data. Linear expects a public sale of its tokens in mid-September. New investors are reported to bring experience in financial innovation, market expansion and paths to institutional liquidity, and two investor partners will join Linear’s advisory board.