Ukrainian in NZ raises millions, reveals two new investments
Summary
Over the past few months, NZVC has also put money into a range of local startups including Wellington electric ferry technology startup Seachange, Pyper Vision - an early-stage Christchurch firm that is developing a spray that can absorb moisture from the air quickly, clearing fog from an airport runway in as little as 10 minutes - EasyCrypto, Auckland-based subletting startup EasyRent, drone tech turned audio specialist Dotterel and hospitality online ordering startup Upstock.Pavlyukovskyy revealed the two new NZVC investments as his firm geared up for a Portfolio Day in Wellington featuring an in-person appearance by one of the funds US-based partners and investors, former Disney COO and CFO and current Spotify director Tom Staggs, plus US-based NZVC partners Glen Anderson, who led Googles machine-learning group for a decade, and Ajay Gupta, an ex Merrill Lynch head of equity trading,When the Herald last caught up with Pavlyukovskyy, he was based in Queenstown having arrived in NZ on the verge of the pandemic on an Edmund Hillary Fellowship.While some of his peers on the programme decided to return to their home countries, Pavlyukovskyy decided NZ was "probably the best place to stay for the time being".Now, he plans to stay long-term, and has applied for permanent residency. His plan is to stay in NZ and keep moving around the country, in keeping with his post-pandemic thinking that the venture capital hub of San Francisco and neighbouring Silicon Valley are now more of a state of mind than geographic location.Pavlyukovskyy was born in Ukraine, but moved with his family to the US when he was 9.After studying molecular biology at Princeton he travelled to Ghana in 2010 on a health scholarship, where he developed a game to help teach children about malaria.He then became a doctoral fellow at Oxford University, studying in-vivo cancer imaging and machine learning. "A down market: best time to invest," Pavlyukovskyy says.Theres the obvious benefit for any VC: If you do have money, you can now buy a larger slice of a startup at a lower valuation.But more broadly, the Ukranian sees a downturn as a proving ground. "The best companies are built during the bear markets and resilient founders work best in chaos," he says.He reels off a list of tech firms founded in a trough, from Microsoft during the oil shocks and stagflation of the late 1970s to Google and Facebooks rise during the post-2000 "tech wreck" to Airbnbs launch in 2008, just as the GFC hit.Pavlyukovskyy also sees an upside for NZ in the current global chaos.He sites the example of Skype co-founder and NZVC investor Jaan Tallin (who will be among the lineup for the Portfolio Day in the capital. "Its a great time to be in New Zealand and great companies will emerge during this time," he says.Disney alum and Spotify director Saggs - who is usually based in LA but was in Wellington this week to headline NZVCs Portfolio Day - already had a feel for the lay of the land before putting money into the new fund.The American was named a director of Weta Digital in December 2020 until the Sir Peter Jackson-founded firm sold its technology division to US-based Unity Software in November 2021 in a $2.3 billion deal.