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Sparkbox Venture Group is New Zealand’s leading early stage investor and has been investing in New Zealand innovation companies since 2001. We are committed to a strategy of specialising on pre-seed and seed investment where we see attractive investment opportunities.” “We are seeing a lot of promising start-up opportunities needing investment to research, design and develop technology based products and solutions with the aim of taking them to international markets. When that is combined with the private angel investment, we can expect that the renewed partnership should see around $10 million of investment into start-ups over the next four to five years.”Īndrew Duff welcomed the partnership renewal, saying Sparkbox’s focus is on early stage investment to back entrepreneurs in sectors including information and communications technology, material science, cleantech, and medical and diagnostic technology. “In order to maintain the momentum of investment into start-up companies, NZVIF is committing to invest a further $4 million with Sparkbox. That has so far seen us combining to invest nearly $7 million. “Through our initial investment partnership, NZVIF committed to co-invest $4 million with Sparkbox. They are clearly committed to continuing to be an active part of the seed and early stage venture investment market in New Zealand. “Sparkbox is a very active private group which has been investing for over a decade. NZVIF chief executive Franceska Banga said the initial investment partnership had seen NZVIF and Sparkbox invest around $7 million into over a dozen companies, helping to fund the growth of promising young technology companies like Mesynthes, BigLittleBang and Booktrack. Building successful innovation companies is about identifying the right person and providing them the necessary support and investment.” The key to turning these ideas into commercial success comes down to entrepreneurial abilities. “There are some superb ideas and innovation emerging from our universities and research institutes. With the investment partnership with NZVIF, we want to help find the next generation, and our objective is to back around 20 entrepreneurs over the next five years. “We have previously backed entrepreneurs, like Rod Drury of Xero and Grant Ryan of YikeBike, as well as the new breed of successful Kiwi entrepreneurs, like Brian Ward of Mesynthes and Paul Cameron of Booktrack.

Sparkbox ventures how to#

They know how to leverage networks, but are creative and can think outside the box and follow a strategic plan to a successful exit. “The traits of this new form of ‘extreme entrepreneur’ are people who are capable, knowledgeable, quick to adapt, able to listen, and can learn from the experience of others. Sparkbox chairman Andrew Duff said they are looking for a new type of entrepreneur able to get Kiwi innovation successfully onto the world stage. The co-investment partnership should see Sparkbox Ventures and NZVIF combining to invest around $10 million in start-up companies over the next five years. Smith’s Happy Again, a YA romance novel, is also available now on the LBYR Booktrack page.īooktrack CEO and founder Paul Cameron said the deal will allow LBYR to add “a totally immersive, enhanced experience to the Hachette titles we’ll be offering in our library.National angel group Sparkbox Ventures plans to back 20 entrepreneurs over the next five years, following the renewal of its investment partnership with the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund.

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Garcia and Stohl’s Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories (a series of six novellas) are available now on Booktrack. Titles will include “It’s Just a Jump to the Left,” an original short story by Libba Bray ( The Diviners), which will be available on Booktrack on August 15.

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With the San Diego Comic-Con opening this week, Booktrack has a Comic-Con promotion, offering three free music-enhanced e-books to users who sign on to the service by the end of July.

among others, will be released on a monthly basis throughout the summer.

New original Booktrack-enabled LBYR titles, including works by Jennifer Rush, Virginia Boecker, and Emily Lloyd-Jones. The titles will include works by such bestselling LBYR authors as Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Rebecca Serle, Libba Bray, Jennifer E. The soundtrack enhanced e-books from Novl, LBBYR’s digital-original imprint, will become available today though a branded Little, Brown Booktrack page. Hachette’s Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is partnering with Booktrack, a technology platform offering customizable soundtracks and sound effects for e-books, to supply movie-like soundtracks for its popular e-books for teens.