The Snowball blog

It's been 6 years since we launched, becoming New Zealand's first private equity investment marketplace. Co-founder and CEO Simeon Burnett reflects on highlights from this time.

Launching a public company offer can take several months of planning and preparation for both the company and Snowball Effect's team. Throw into the mix a global pandemic like COVID-19, and you have t…

We regularly see first-hand the inconvenience that companies go through trying to locate missing or incomplete company/investor data and legal documents. The lack of a unified company and stakeho…

Will your business need additional funding or working capital to make it through the aftermath of COVID-19? Will you be ready to jump on new opportunities that suddenly emerge?  It is very no…

Why are so many New Zealand companies still choosing to manage their Share Registry in an excel spreadsheet instead of spending a fraction of the reparation costs to outsource it?

Quarterly reports are one of the most important, yet overlooked pieces of information that New Zealand companies should be preparing for their shareholders. Here is our guide on how to prepare one.

The final part of our investor series on direct private equity investing looks at diversification and portfolio construction.

In the second part of our investor education series, we analyse private equity investment returns, and take a look behind the numbers at some complicating factors, including the 'power law'.

Part 1 of 3: We look at different methods for calculating returns on private company investments.

The FMA has recently released their annual data insights into NZ’s fintech space for June 2018. Of particular interest to us at Snowball Effect is how the online equity investment industry is continuing to develop.

Capital raising information memorandum template in Google Docs and Microsoft Word format available for download.

ArchiPro capital raising advisory services case study. The case study covers offer materials, independent director placement, and ongoing investor relations support.

2018 has been a record year for Snowball Effect. We have now been operating for 4 years so we wanted to share a recap of our first 4 years. So far we have raised $42 million across 54 offers.

Keeping a share register is an important legal obligation for all New Zealand companies because the register is the official record of who owns what portion of a company.

Allocating appropriate amounts to alternate asset classes enhances return potential and reduces risk via diversification benefits. In a world where growing companies are staying private for longer, some Kiwi funds are being left behind international counterparts with their public-markets-only approach.

The quality of your offer video can make or break an investor’s perception of your capital raising offer. It will often be the first impression you get to make on an investor who visits your offer page.

Our sovereign wealth fund, the NZ Superannuation Fund, released a report at the end of last year covering its investment view on the market for expansion capital in New Zealand.

​Snowball Effect members were recently treated to a presentation from independent financial advisory firm Private Wealth Advisers, as part of Snowball’s Investor Masterclass series.

For the last Snowball Effect investor master class of 2017 we invited Lance Wiggs of Punakaiki Fund to repeat his popular early-stage portfolio investing workshop from 2016.

Over the last three years, Snowball Effect has raised $29 million across 35 offers. 25 of these offers were made available publicly to retail investors and 10 were only made available privately. The public offers generated $23.1 million in investment and the private offers generated $6.1 million.

In every business we need to be searching for effective directors and spreading the search to a diversity of age, culture and gender is part of that.

Successful New Zealand exporters prioritise markets for development growth and take as much responsibility for growing the export market as their partners do.

We have moved to new offices at 1 Faraday Street, Parnell, Auckland. It's a great neighbourhood with lots of interesting companies in the area.

Welcome to the March 2017 Quarterly Company Progress Report. This report covers details already reported to shareholders on the progress that companies have made since our last update. There’s also …

A nominee is an entity that is nominated to hold assets on behalf of another entity. In the world of early-stage investing, the nominee’s role is to hold shares in a company on behalf of the underlying investors in the business.

Industries that our investors are looking at in 2017 In the past couple of years we’ve seen successful offers from a wide range of industries including financial services, food and beverage, hardwar…

Our team is expanding in 2017. We're hiring in several areas of the team. We've launched a new careers page to keep people up to date.

Welcome to the December 2016 Quarterly Company Progress Report. This report covers details already reported to shareholders on the progress that companies have made since our last update. There’s al…

Holiday gifts from companies that have raised capital on Snowball Effect.

Over the past two years, Snowball Effect has raised over $21m of equity capital for 24 companies. An infographic showing some of the key statistics from our first two years can be found here.Over this…

​Snowball Effect's ambition is to be more than just a marketplace for capital. We're keen to help connect exciting Kiwi growth companies with the right people, so that they have access to the capabilities they need in addition to the capital. If you're interested in any of the roles below, or know of any exciting Kiwi companies with senior roles that may fit the bill, please get in touch with Josh at [email protected]

New Zealand's first equity crowdfunding offer kicked off on 11 August 2014. Below we've compiled an infographic showing some of the key statistics from the first 2 years of offers through Snowball Effect.

​G3 Group is raising up to $3m through Snowball Effect. This is the first time that a listed company has used an “equity crowdfunding” marketplace to raise funds in New Zealand. Here’s a summary of the key parties involved, and why this is an interesting development for New Zealand’s capital market.

Welcome to the September Quarterly Company Progress Report. This report covers details already reported to shareholders on the progress that companies have made since our last update. There’s also a…

Over the last two years I’ve been lucky enough to launch a startup subsidiary of Fonterra called MyMilk.Over this time I’ve spent a lot of time at kitchen tables, out in the paddock, and over the …

Here is a high level view on investment trends across Snowball Effect's offers to date, and the factors that tend to have a positive impact on the successful ones. We look particularly at pre-committe…

Some offers are restricted to “wholesale investors”. If you certify your wholesale investor status, you'll get access to a broader range of deals. The wholesale investor criteria are described below.

Definition of an eligible investor in New Zealand

We’ve been based at The Icehouse in Auckland for the best part of two and a half years – since before we launched, and it’s a location that’s served us well. When we moved in back in 2013 The …

Welcome to the June Quarterly Company Progress Report. This report covers details already reported to shareholders on the progress that companies have made since our last update. There’s also an upd…

A short story about the Beer Jerk journey so far, challenges faced and a few thoughts for other start-ups based on our experiences to dateMad about great beer? Join the club. That’s what Luke White …

New Zealand implemented relatively liberal equity crowdfunding regulations in 2014. This was a bold approach. Equity crowdfunding markets around the world were either non-existent or in their infancy,…

Equity crowdfunding is undoubtedly here to stay. It’s an excellent way for SMEs to access growth capital from both retail and wholesale investors. Having even a rudimentary intellectual property (…

Snowball Effect's success in our first 20 months has exceeded our expectations - over $16.5 million of equity capital has been raised for growth oriented Kiwi companies through our marketplace (over 7…

We're a marketplace that connects investors with high growth companies.But we're keen to do more than that. It's not just funding that's holding back many Kiwi companies from reaching their potential …

When we launched Snowball Effect in August 2014, there were a couple of key things that we wanted to achieve in our first 12 – 18 months. The first one was to provide companies with an efficient way…

As a founder of a startup, your to-do list will get longer every day, despite how hard and long you work. There simply aren’t enough hours in each week to achieve everything that you want to. So you need to ruthlessly prioritise your to-do list. The problem is that most people will unconsciously drift towards tasks that they enjoy, or tasks that they’re good at, or tasks that other people say are important, or tasks that pop up in their inbox. I battle this unconscious drift every day. Here’s what I’ve learnt about ruthless prioritisation.

Our offering has evolved to include public offers, private offers, wholesale investor offers, and bespoke capital raising assistance. This article provides a brief summary of these options.

You’ve got a clear strategy for growth, and have just raised capital through Snowball Effect to execute the plan. You also (probably for the first time) have a large number of shareholders who want …

Good communication is key to any successful equity crowdfunding campaign, from your offer document to your social media activity, your media plan to your database marketing. And telling a compelling s…

Snowball Effect is proud to provide access to early stage equity investments for everyday Kiwis. We’re passionate about improving financial literacy in New Zealand and increasing investment into wealth-creating assets. However, it’s crucial for you to understand the characteristics of financial products offered through this marketplace.

Grant Anderson, the Head of Accounting at Xero, will lead attendees through the following at Wellington's second Investing Master Class: Understanding essential terminology. Interpreting the fin…

We're pleased to announce that Paul Davies, Head of Intellectual Property at EveredgeIP will be presenting Auckland's fourth Investing Master Class: Intellectual Property & Investing. This will outlin…

New Zealand is a great place to live and do business. That’s not just an assertion, it’s something borne out by objective measurements – Auckland and Wellington both appear towards the top of th…

Snowball Effect sets high standards for the way we go about our business. We want to be known for our superior quality and professionalism. This blog post outlines a mistake that meant we fell short o…

Here’s a quick update on companies who have made successful offers through Snowball Effect.Renaissance:Renaissance, the first company to equity crowdfund in New Zealand, celebrated its 10th birthday…

In today’s economy, it’s vital to promote entrepreneurship as a means of generating income, creating jobs, and achieving social change. We need to support young entrepreneurs who have the desire a…

Investing Master Class in WellingtonDue to strong demand, we're pleased to announce that Snowball Effect is bringing its Investing Master Class series to Wellington for the first time. Bevan Wallace f…

We’re always working hard to make sure companies can source capital as efficiently as possible. To achieve this, our focus has been on investing to deliver an efficient digital channel for Kiwi entr…

Offer content is the key information that potential investors use to find out about your company, your team and the investment proposition. Offer content may be readable on a website, or downloadable …

New Zealand's first equity crowdfunding offer kicked off on 11 August 2014. With the first year under our belt, we thought it was time to compile some key statistics from the offers on Snowball Effect…

We’re excited to announce the second session of the series.Investing Master Class #2: Building & managing a portfolioLance Wiggs from Punakaiki Fund will cover the following ground in the second Inv…

Wynn Williams and Bellingham Wallace Accountancy have recently teamed up to prepare a high level information flyer on the basics of employee share schemes. Employee share schemes can be a great way to…

It’s that time of year. Not quite christmas, but it would certainly feel like it if your businesses wins a prize in one of these competitions - yep, it’s business awards season!Entrepreneurs Chall…

Introducing Snowball Effect’s Investing Master Class series: an engaging series of monthly workshops designed to hone your investing skillset. The series is targeted at knowledge relevant to investi…

There is no doubt about it: Crowdfunding is booming. In 2014 around 12.5 billion euro (approximately 18.7 billion NZD) was crowdfunded worldwide1. Compared to 1 billion euro in 2011, these numbers in…

Calling all businesses with revenues under $5m!Westpac has recently launched an initiative called growth grants. The aim is to identify and support up to 10 SMEs that have clear growth plans.The overa…

Many countries around the world (including the US and Australia) are developing regulatory frameworks to support equity crowdfunding markets. Malaysia has recently introduced such a framework, and the…

Thanks to all who completed our survey over the last few days. It was humbling and energising to receive the quality of responses – we’re very lucky to have an engaged community that genuinely car…

Equity crowdfunding is one of the latest trends to hit the world. After the immense success of rewards crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and IndieGogo, there was a surge of pressure on the idea …

We recently caught up with the girls from Just Kidding Babysitting (JKB), winners of the 2014 Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES), to learn a bit more about their winning idea and their expe…

Interested in dipping your toes in the higher risk investment water? Already familiar with investing but wanting to collaborate with others and dabble in a broader range of investments?Forming or join…

The crazed looks when we asked the teams about passing the halfway mark of Lightning Lab’s Auckland 2015 accelerator said it all. It’s been a hectic 7 weeks, but the thought of having to squeeze e…

Here’s a different way for young people to think about their career –Start at the top – Be Your Own BossSelf-employment, and the entrepreneurship on which it is based, is a continuous adventure,…

1. Google gets aggressive on mobile-unfriendly sitesMobile, Tablet, and Smartphone traffic accounts for 30-50%+ of all search traffic for the majority of business websites, yet there are still a massi…

Second consultation on changes to the Takeovers Code.

The oldest equity crowdfunding market in the world is the UK. That market began in 2011, and has grown with an average annual growth rate of 410%.It took until 2013 for angels and VCs to take much not…

With around $4 billion being invested in KiwiSaver funds each year, for most New Zealanders their KiwiSaver account balance represents a large part of their retirement savings, if not the largest.For …

Who are we?Avenir Registrars is excited to be associated with Snowball Effect. In a way we feel a close connection to Snowball as we too are a new company seeking to break the mould in financial mark…

The Takeovers Code helps to protect shareholders in takeover situations, but the wide ambit of the Code unintentionally hamstrings small, high growth companies in the process. The Takeovers Panel is l…

Snowball Effect has now successfully closed its first 3 equity crowdfunding offers, raising just under $2 million for those 3 Kiwi businesses. This is a fantastic result not just for the businesses, b…

Nearly all forms of crowdfunding have been greatly pigeonholed. Too many a platform and consultant in crowdfunding has oversold the market on the idea that crowdfunding is purely for startup businesse…

It appears as though everything is starting to come together in the New Zealand startup ecosystem. At one end of the scale we’ve had several exits recently with M-Com, Zeacom and most recently Green…

Here's a brief analysis of Snowball Effect investors thus far.Age of investorsAs you can see, the highest rate of investment is during the 30s and early 40s. However the amount invested really starts …

An intimate moment with the team making waves at wearable tech company, I Measure U. I Measure U’s point of difference comes through fusing sensor data with physics-based computational models…

An intimate moment with the team at Little Lot. Little Lot is a cool Kiwi startup which is changing the way individuals connect with the brands they love and give back to the causes they care about. …

Renaissance Brewing made history on 23 August by successfully closing New Zealand’s first ever equity crowdfunding offer. The Marlborough-based craft brewery was seeking up to $700,000, reaching tha…

There are few things that excite me more than learning of an emerging technology that has the potential to change the way we live or our world around us. Be it nanoparticles with the ability to clean …

You’ll often hear “we need to do some PR” bandied around the office, but the reality is that many people don’t actually know what public relations really is, let alone how it works and what it…

Crowdfunding is an ancient concept, but with the development of web based portals for easy, safe participation, this new market has exploded over the last five years. With blockbuster successes making…

The Financial Markets Conduct Act (FMC Act) made equity crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending possible.This is an exciting development for both start-up businesses and investors. New Zealand is leadin…

Snowball Effect is going live in mid August!You’ll have the chance to invest in the first ever equity crowdfunding offers in New Zealand.This is the beginning of a new market, and a new era for Kiwi…

Equity crowdfunding will have an immediate impact on New Zealand SMEs by making capital markets far more accessible to those raising funds. This new process expands the size, constitution, and capabil…

You’ve got a promising business model, the resources to make it work and somewhere along the way you’ve created intellectual property rights through innovation, branding and an earned reputation. …

Stephen is a principal of Franks & Ogilvie, and former Chair and Partner at Chapman Tripp. He is recognised nationally as an expert in company and securities law. Stephen has also been a Member of Par…

There’s a lot of talk these days about the need for more large-scale, global companies based in New Zealand. Certainly, there are a number of examples to inspire young entrepreneurs. Firms like the …

In a few weeks time, subject to the Financial Markets Authority’s licensing process, we will launch Snowball Effect to the market. Investors will have access to a new class of equity investments - h…