Wellington, Nov 17 NZPA - A new $5 million "angel" investment fund is targeting new investors and will increase the capital available to seed and start-up companies, says the Crown-owned New Zealand Venture Investment Fund (NZVIF).

Seven angel investment groups from throughout New Zealand and the NZVIF are launching the Halo Fund -- to be managed by NZVIF.

NZVIF chief executive Franceska Banga said it was an ideal way for new benevolent investors -- those wanting to provide capital to new businesses -- to enter the market and become familiar with such investing.

"At present there are limited opportunities for New Zealand investors to access the early stage investment opportunities that exist in the New Zealand market place," she said.

"The fund's investment objective is to provide investors with qualified access to a diversified portfolio of 15 to 30 plus investments over the lifetime of the fund."

The fund will invest alongside NZVIF's Seed Co-Investment Fund and its active investment partners.

Investors will need to belong to one of the fund's partnering angel groups.

The minimum investment for an investor is $25,000, it will be a closed fund -- once the fund closes there will be no further opportunity to invest in the fund, and operate for 10 years.

Maximum investment in any eligible company is $125,000 first round and a maximum of one follow up round of another $125,000 matching co-investors' investments on a 1:2 basis - the fund will invest 50 cents for every dollar invested by the co-investors.

If an angel group committed to invest $250,00 into an eligible early stage company, the Halo Fund would invest $125,000 - putting in 50 cents for every dollar invested by the angel group.

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