Start-up investment more than doubles, but the number of new companies getting funded hasn't moved
New Zealand start-ups raised $775.7 million in the first six months of 2026, more than double the same period last year. They did it across fewer deals. The figures come from the Young Company Finance report by NZ Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP) and the Angel Association, as summarised by B2B News.
Funding rose 114.5%, while the number of deals fell 6.8% to 68. The half-year total alone beat all of 2025, which NBR reported in April had produced 166 deals worth $754m.
One company accounts for a large share of the increase. Agritech firm Halter raised $277m in March, in a round led by Peter Thiel-backed Founders Fund. That is more than a third of the half-year total.
B2B News says the first half would still beat full-year 2025 even without Halter. That doesn't fit the 2025 figure it cites from NBR. Take out Halter's $277m and about $499m is left, well short of $754m. The report may use a different figure for 2025, but the summary doesn't say.
Overseas funds led the other big rounds too. Christchurch-founded Partly raised US$50m in June at a US$500m valuation, in a round led by DST Global Partners. Dawn Aerospace raised US$25m at a US$195m valuation, led by Balerion Space Ventures.
Further down the market, Auckland and Melbourne-based SupaHuman raised a $1.56m Series A led by Wellington's Movac, with Ecliptic VC, K1W1 and Snowball also investing, nstartup reported. The company uses AI to automate parts of designing, checking and delivering workplace training. Movac partner David Beard will join its board. The money will help it expand in Australia. Halter's round was nearly 180 times bigger.
NZGCP chief executive James Pinner says the market is "heading in a positive direction". He points to large rounds led by offshore venture capital at the top of the market and a strong early-stage pipeline below them.
The number of new companies getting funded doesn't show that pipeline growing. Rod McNaughton, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland Business School, says only 47 new companies were funded in 2025. The figure was 46 in 2024 and 51 in 2023. In his view, New Zealand is "improving at financing companies already inside the venture system, while doing less to widen the pool entering it."
He says start-ups are "one of the few places where genuinely new growth paths are created", and when fewer new companies come through, "the long-run opportunity cost is borne well beyond the venture market."
A different count gives a smaller number. Dealroom analysis, cited by the mean.ceo blog, says New Zealand produces around 300 new start-ups a year and only about 20 raise their first venture capital round. The two figures measure different things. Both put the number of new companies getting backed in the dozens.
Angel investors are doing more deals with less money each. RNZ reported in February that angel deals rose 34% to 167 in 2025. Capital rose only 2.7%, to $13.9m, and the average investment per angel fell 8% to $12,446.
NZGCP's Autumn 2026 report had already shown the shift: Early Expansion and Expansion rounds were 49% of deals but 83% of capital.
The Angel Association's Bridget Unsworth says "larger rounds are no longer the exception. They are becoming a defining feature of the market." She says the next challenge is to keep backing founders "at their earliest and most uncertain stages", and that "a renewed flow of new companies is the best indicator" the pattern can continue.
A New Zealand company with traction and an overseas lead investor can raise more than it could a year ago. One looking for its first cheque is chasing about as many first rounds as in 2023: 47 last year, against 51 then. And the angels who write those cheques are putting in less each.
NZGCP's answer is its "5x5s" goal: 5,000 start-ups, 50,000 jobs and $50 billion of value. B2B News reports this would need about $5 billion of investment, which is under 5% of KiwiSaver assets.