blog | kindrik.co.nz

having a say on directors protecting their residential addresses

in a nutshell Submissions are now open for a bill that would allow directors of New Zealand companies to keep their residential addresses private if they have concerns about their…

post-money convertible notes

Back in 2018, Y-Combinator (YC) updated their core investment instrument and launched what is now known as the post-money SAFE. We analysed the post-money SAFE back in 2020 – see…

10 questions to ask before taking investment from an “eligible investor”

Below you’ll find a checklist of 10 questions that you should be asking, if you are raising capital from NZ investors and are intending to rely on the eligible investor…

economic downturn and startup term sheets

The global economic downturn has inevitably hit the startup and venture capital ecosystem. Investors in startups, like everyone else, are impacted by falling stock prices and fund valuations, distracted from…

Welcome to the 2022 graduates

Kindrik Partners hires 5 graduates in 2022.

Kindrik Partners advises Orbica on its $2.8m seed round

Kindrik Partners advises geospatial and AI company Orbica on its $2.8 million seed round led by Pacific Channel.

kindrik partners advises quantifi photonics on series C raise

Kindrik Partners advised Quantifi Photonics, an emerging leader in high-density photonics test and measurement, on recent series C capital raise.

Your End of FY To-Do List: Opting out of default financial reporting requirements

This is the second in a Kindrik Partners series on company admin to be thinking about when 1 April comes around each year. In this blog, we’ll introduce the default financial reporting requirements that apply to many companies under the NZ Companies Act 1993, and help you navigate opting out of them if you wish to.

Your End of FY To-Do List: AGMs

This is the first in a small series that Kindrik Partners is working on, pulling together company admin to be thinking about when 1 April comes around each year.

Kindrik Partners advises Appboxo on series A financing

We’re delighted to have advised Singapore-based Appboxo on its US$7 million series A funding round led by RTP Global. Existing investors, Antler and 500 Global, together with new investors SciFi VC, Gradient Ventures also participated.

kindrik partners advises blackbird ventures on series B investment into first AML

We’re pleased to have advised Blackbird Ventures on its recent investment into First AML, an Auckland-based digital ID authentication and anti-money laundering startup.

kindrik partners advises reg-tech startup APLYiD on $7m series A round

The round was led by UK-based Octopus Ventures, with Australian firm Tribe Global Ventures also participating.

kindrik partners advises blackbird ventures on pre-series A investment into partly

We advised Blackbird Ventures on its recent investment into automotive parts data startup Partly.

kindrik partners advises agritech startup Hectre on its $3.5 million pre-series A round

We’re pleased to have advised Hectre, a New Zealand-based orchard management and fruit sizing software company, on its recent $3.5 million capital raise.

2021 half year capital raising numbers and trends

Our lawyers have had a busy first half of the year, as VC funding for tech businesses continues its growth despite the tumultuous last 18 months.

introducing our latest guide: top 10 legal templates for startups

We’ve created a new guide to help founders find their feet. Here's a roundup and explainer of our 10 most essential templates for startups.

Kindrik Partners advises Fruitometry on $2.6m round

Our corporate team has advised startup Fruitometry on its recent $2.6m investment from Seeka, New Zealand’s largest kiwifruit grower.

hope when dealing with fickle counterparties?

Canada’s highest court recently confirmed a duty to act in good faith when exercising a contractual discretion.

kindrik partners advises starnow on acquisition by backstage

We’re pleased to have advised StarNow, a New Zealand-based talent platform for actors, models, influencers and musicians, on its sale to US-based talent broker Backstage.

Kindrik Partners advises Portainer.io on US$6m series A round

We’re pleased to have advised container management startup Portainer.io on its recently completed series A funding round.

Kindrik Partners advises PropertyNZ on its acquisition by Trade Me

We’re thrilled to have advised PropertyNZ (Homes.co.nz) on its acquisition by Trade Me.

what happened in 2020 for our commercial team

Like every business, we had fears that COVID would slow both us and our clients down. But putting aside the amount of time we spent on Zoom and Teams meetings, that’s not what the stats suggest.

Māori & Pasifika startup Kwotimation raises pre-seed round for online tradie platform

The venture capital firm Hillfarrance led the $500,000 round, followed by investors including Flying Kiwi Angels, Angel HQ and Humi Group.

2020 capital raising transactions

No one could have predicted the events of 2020, not even the trend-spotting venture capitalists.

a summary of the changes in the new privacy act

NZ’s privacy laws are about to undergo their biggest transformation since the Privacy Act became law in 1993.

disclosing personal information outside New Zealand – what you need to know

The new Privacy Act introduces a new privacy principle requiring NZ businesses to ensure privacy protections apply to personal information sent overseas.

don’t just rely on the companies office for your share register – here’s why

Scratch a little deeper and there are some compelling reasons why a company should put in place, and maintain, a share register.

ask an accelerator: startmate

We’re speaking to accelerators to find out more about them and what they’re looking for in kiwi companies. This week we’re speaking with Michael Batko from Startmate.

safe harbour from insolvency duties to expire on 30 September 2020

If you are a director of a company having financial difficulties, the expiry of the safe harbour is a good time to take stock of the company’s prospects, and your own appetite for risk.

updated shareholders’ agreement template for product companies

We’ve updated our shareholders’ agreement template for product companies as part of a recent spring-clean of our governance templates.

what you need to know about mandatory privacy breach notifications in the new privacy act

This blog post is the first in a series of blogs on recent and upcoming privacy law changes.

constitutions are part of record keeping for startups and companies

updated constitution template

We’ve updated our template constitution. It’s one of our top 20 most popular templates, and has been accessed almost a thousand times this year alone.

post money safe, it's a safe do you get it

a primer on ‘post-money’ SAFEs in new zealand

We look at Y Combinator's new post-money SAFE and how this impacts founders.

all aboard? : a warning for managing minority shareholders

The recent case of Dold v Murphy shows how important good governance arrangements are where minority shareholders are involved.

fiona mackinnon appointed director

With immediate effect, the board of Kindrik Partners has appointed Fiona MacKinnon as a director of the company.

2020 half year capital raising numbers

Our capital raising lawyers in New Zealand and Singapore have had a busy first half of 2020, even as Covid-19 impacts globally on fundraising.

new employee share option plan templates

We’ve added a new set of templates, giving companies more choice for putting an ESOP together.

simmonds stewart to change name to kindrik partners

From Thursday 16 July 2020, Simmonds Stewart is changing its name to Kindrik Partners.

hello to our new staff

We’re excited to welcome a new senior solicitor and two new graduates to Kindrik Partners.

more tech company investments to be subject to OIO approval

Typically, NZ tech company investment transactions would not have triggered OIO requirements. Now under new rules investors must notify the OIO before the transaction can go ahead.

covid-19 wage subsidy scheme extended to help certain pre-revenue NZ startups

The extension is available to all Kiwi companies subject to meeting the eligibility criteria, which now includes some pre-revenue startups.

kindrik partners advises the last pickle on acquisition by datastax

We’re thrilled to have advised kiwi database consultancy The Last Pickle on its sale to US-based data management company DataStax.

kindrik partners once again recognised as leader in legal innovation

We’re thrilled to be named on NZ Lawyer's Innovative Firms list for the second year in a row.

impact of covid-19 on the nz startup ecosystem

Kiwi startups are unsurprisingly feeling the strain of the Covid-19 impacts but are continuing to soldier on, according to our recent Kindrik Partners survey.

NZ startup survey: impact of covid-19

Are you a kiwi startup? Click here to take part in the survey. We want to know more about how the kiwi startup ecosystem is being impacted by the Covid-19…

lockdown tips: signing docs and passing resolutions during the covid-19 crisis

Update as at 24 July 2020: Since this blog first went up in April 2020, legislation has been passed confirming (among other things) that parties to security agreements containing power…

help for startups in financial difficulty during covid-19

We cover the new safe harbour provisions for directors around insolvency and what they mean for startups and businesses.

investor directors’ duties and managing conflicts during covid-19

Many of New Zealand’s startups have an investor director on their boards. We’ve looked at areas for investor directors to think about in respect of portfolio companies experiencing financial difficulties.

covid-19 – can’t perform your commercial contract?

We’ve been fielding calls from several businesses who are worried they are breaching a commercial contract, including major supply contracts on which their business relies. Here's a few things to think about if that's you.

how covid-19 could affect your startup’s fundraising deal

If you're in the middle of a fundraising round, you might be left wondering what the Covid-19 situation means for your startup. We've done a quick round-up of things to consider.

an update from us regarding covid-19

Kindrik Partners operates in the cloud and will continue to fully function through the COVID-19 crisis. Our staff are now working remotely. This is to ensure our staff and local…

auckland office on the move

We’ve loved our time in Vulcan Lane but our expanding staff numbers mean it’s time for a move.

boost for NZ startups with launch of NZGCP’s Elevate

The New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (formerly NZVIF) officially launched its $300 million Elevate Venture Fund.

Takeovers Code updated to exclude small unlisted companies

Small cash-poor companies with over 50 shareholders rejoice. New changes to the Takeovers Code mean that it’s now easier for smaller companies to manage their shareholdings without significant administrative and regulatory burdens.

2019 capital raising numbers

It has been another incredible year of deal activity for the team at Kindrik Partners. For the first time, we closed more than 100 deals in a calendar year - 116 deals to be exact across our New Zealand and Southeast Asia offices, up from 92 in 2018.

calling all auckland tech companies looking for interns

We’re about to kick off the application process for our techlaw intern programme in 2020 and we’re looking for Auckland-based technology companies who would like to participate.

Kindrik Partners advises soul machines on US$40m funding round

We helped Soul Machines complete its US$40million series B financing round. As far as we’re aware, this is the largest VC round completed by a NZ company.

venture series: partners for growth

We’re speaking to funds to find out their thoughts the startup and venture ecosystem. This week we’re speaking to Karthi Sepulohniam at Partners For Growth.

techlaw profile – nick goldstein

The techlaw internship programme places law students with fast-growing tech companies. We caught up with Nick Goldstein to talk about his techlaw internship experience.

dealing with data in contracts

If you provide SaaS products or services to your clients as part of your business, this guide is for you. We’ll cover what you need to know if you handle…

Venture Capital Fund Bill

This year’s Budget announced $300m of new Government funding for NZ’s fledging venture capital industry, and Minister Parker wasted no time introducing a Bill to set up a new fund…

Surgical Design Studio raises $4.3m

We are delighted to have advised Surgical Design Studio on its recent capital raise of $4,300,000. Icehouse Ventures led the round, followed by investors including UniServices, Eden Ventures, NZVIF and…

an update from our techlaw 2019 programme

A couple of weeks ago we caught up with our 2019 techlaw interns at our Auckland office. It was a great chance for the interns to share their experiences so…

lessons from British Airways’ massive fine for GDPR breach

The UK’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office announced earlier this month that it intends to fine British Airways £183.39 million following a cyberattack against its systems last year. The…

convertible notes on the rise in NZ startup capital raising

Traditionally the vast majority of NZ startup investment deals have been structured as share (equity) investments. NZ angel investor groups, the most active investors in the NZ startups, were wary…

announcing the launch of our new southeast asia website

We are excited to announce the launch of Kindrik Partners’s newly-designed website for Southeast Asian tech companies and startups. We believe in empowering entrepreneurs and tech companies by giving them…

nz technology startup firm capital raising numbers

2019 half year capital raising numbers

Our venture capital lawyers in New Zealand and Singapore have been extremely busy for the first six months of 2019, helping clients close 50 capital raising deals by the end…

Atlassian’s M&A term sheet

Atlassian made a splash in the tech M&A world recently by publishing their term sheet for strategic acquisitions. So why has Atlassian gone public with its terms, when acquisition terms…

new series A funding for NZ startups

Last Thursday’s budget included $300m of funding for the NZ tech sector, targeting the country’s venture capital gap. $240 million of the new funding will come from contributions earmarked for the New…

echelon is a massive startup event in singapore

meeting tech companies, founders, and investors at echelon 2019

We’ve recently staffed our first booth at Echelon, one of Southeast Asia's largest technology and startup events. It was exciting to chat with hundreds of startups, founders, investors, and venture builders over two jam-packed days.

meet the VCs – bringing VCs and founders together at techweek19

We were stoked to have a full house at the inaugural Meet the VCs event at the Generator as part of TechWeek19. It was standing room only for the 100…

kindrik partners announces new partner

We are proud to announce the appointment of long-term team member Chris Wilson as a partner of the firm from 16 April 2019.

angel association NZ template financing documents

Following a consultation with law firms working with startups (with Kindrik Partners representing founders' perspective), the NZ Angel Association (AANZ) have released new template cap raising documents.

three’s company – our new graduates

We're thrilled to welcome three new grads to the Kindrik Partners team.

meet the VCs investor line-up

We’re super excited to announce the line-up of international VCs who’ll be attending the Kindrik Partners, Balgarnie van Rooyen and ATEED meet the VC’s event on Wednesday, 22 May at…

reflections on 2018 from our commercial team

As will be clear from our recent blog on financing deals completed in 2018, we like to collect data on the work we do for our tech company clients to…

companies participating in techlaw intern programme 2019

In January we asked tech companies interested in participating in our 2019 techlaw intern programme to contact us. There was lots of interest, and we’re happy to announce this year’s…

meet the offshore VC’s with kindrik partners and balgarnie van rooyen at tech week 2019

Last year, New Zealand saw a big increase in direct foreign investment into our early-stage companies. Some exciting international funding rounds were completed by the likes of Rocket Lab, Soul…

research and development tax credit bill

The R&D tax credit bill (introduced to Parliament in October of 2018) will replace the existing system of Callaghan Innovation R&D grants with a tax credit system. Under the Callaghan…

2018 capital raising numbers

We’ve crunched the numbers and confirmed that 2018 was by far our busiest year for capital raising activity. In total we helped clients close 92 deals. This is a big…

seeking companies to host techlaw interns

Our 2019 techlaw intern programme is getting underway, and we’re looking for Auckland based tech companies who would like to participate. A quick recap on how the scheme works: we…

launching our free GDPR privacy policy tool

Earlier this year, our intrepid commercial lawyers were inundated with increasingly panicked enquiries from Kiwi tech companies about GDPR compliance. This got us thinking that there had to be a…

sale of swipedon to smartspace software

Our Auckland team, led by Julie Fowler, has advised the shareholders of SwipedOn Limited on the sale of their shares to Smartspace Software Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Smartspace Software Plc, for $11m in cash and shares.

capital raising numbers – the year so far

2018 has been a bumper year so far for our capital raising lawyers.

the techlaw intern programme in review

We launched the techlaw intern programme this year, which paired law students from the University of Auckland with NZ tech companies for some hands-on work experience. Jude, UniServices, Endace, and 9 Spokes were our hosts.

antworks completes US$15m series A round with softbank

Our Southeast Asian team is pumped after helping Singapore-based artificial intelligence company Antworks complete its series A round in late July.

employee share schemes for nz tech companies [webinar]

We recently held our very first webinar on employee share schemes for nz tech companies.

experian leads $28million series C investment in c88

Our Kindrik Partners Southeast Asia team is thrilled to have advised fintech leader, C88 Financial Technologies, on its $28 million series C investment round led by Experian. The deal represents one of the largest fintech investments ever in the region.

bambu deal

Our lawyers Chris Wilson and Sarah Yen recently advised Singapore-based fintech Bambu on its S$3 million series A round, which closed earlier this month. The round was led by Franklin Templeton Investments, a US…

new southeast asia startup templates

We’re excited to release eight new, free legal templates for Southeast Asian startups: a startup shareholders’ agreement a SAFE a KISS term sheet an advisor share agreement an m&a term…

australian venture debt investor hunting NZ deals

In NZ there is pretty much just private equity between venture capital investment and bank financing. And securing meaningful bank financing is extremely hard for most NZ tech companies - until now.

Kindrik Partners advise on the sale of grinding gear games to tencent

Julie Fowler, assisted by Sarah Yen and Sam Kaelin, has advised the shareholders of New Zealand’s largest game development studio, Grinding Gear Games, on the sale of a majority interest to Tencent, the world’s largest online games company.

new tax rules from 1 april 2018 for employee share schemes

Companies will no longer be able to structure share purchase schemes to have the economic effect of options, while treating increases in the value of shares issued under those schemes as tax free capital gains.

cap tables

We had a great response to the SaaS cap table survey in our April newsletter, so we've decided to create two of our own template cap tables.

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GDPR is coming

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect on 25 May 2018 and represents a big change to current EU data protection laws. The GDPR expands the…

collaboration with company works on a SaaS capitalisation table solution

We're doing some research. If a SaaS cap table solution sounds like something you’d be interested in, please take some time to complete this survey.

caltex startup accelerator open for entries

Slingshot, an Australian accelerator program that connects large corporates with startups via tailored accelerator programmes, recently announced the Caltex Spark 12 week accelerator. The accelerator will run from May 7 to August 1 in Sydney.

AoG – back in the saddle

We’re delighted to have been appointed to the Gen 2 All of Government external legal providers panel to advise public sector agencies on their IT projects and related issues. In…

ICO update

We are receiving a lot of enquiries from NZ startups, and more established tech companies, about the legalities of NZ companies raising investment via an ICO.

2017 capital raising numbers

We’re happy to report that 2017, while not quite reaching the heights of the previous year, was still a great year for our corporate lawyers advising on capital raising deals.

NZ regulator updates its guidance on ICO’s and cryptocurrencies

Late in October New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) released guidance on the regulation of initial coin offerings (ICOs) under NZ securities law.

doc makers upgrade

We’ve been super busy upgrading the Kindrik Partners website to make our doc makers more awesome. There are two main changes: users can now access the doc makers (and Word…

conservative guidance on ICOs from NZ regulator

NZ’s Financial Market’s Authority recently released guidance on the regulation of ICOs under NZ securities laws – in particular under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMCA).

launch of techlaw intern programme

As we see it, there are a couple of issues for law grads and the tech sector that need to be fixed fast. The first is that most law graduates…

let’s be clear – negotiating contracts

Howls of outrage in the @techlawnz office generally mean one thing – the other side to a negotiation has not properly marked up the contract. Of course, we follow the…

new templates for NZ angel deals

Kindrik Partners has inspired an Angel Association working group that is aiming to produce a new set of template investment documents for use in NZ angel deals.

SEC initial coin offering (ICO) report

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has just issued a report warning that Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) may be deemed to be securities, making them subject to United States' securities laws. But what does this mean?

LION startup accelerator open for entries

Slingshot are running the recently announced LION Unleased 12 week accelerator, and are seeking applications from Australian and New Zealand tech startups and scale-ups.

employee share schemes – new IRD reporting requirements

As part of this year’s changes to the tax treatment of employee share purchase schemes, the IRD has introduced new obligations on employers to report benefits received by employees under…

2017 capital raising numbers so far

After our bumper year of capital raising in 2016, we’ve been keeping an eye on the level of capital raising activity amongst our clients as 2017 progresses.

constitution document generator

We are stoked to have completed the automation of our template tech company constitution, using the SaaS platform of Aussie doc automation company ZumeForms.

taxation of employee share schemes for startups

The IRD has released its much-anticipated issues paper on taxation of employee share schemes for startups. This is the third part of a substantial review undertaken by the IRD of…

reflections on 2016 from the commercial team

Each year, while our corporate team releases its stats on capital raising deals and sums involved, the wallflowers of Kindrik Partners (aka the commercial team) simply do what they always…

tax overhaul for employee share purchase schemes

Last week saw the introduction to Parliament of an IRD Bill that will overhaul the tax treatment of employee share purchase schemes. The aim of the IRD’s new rules is to…

2016 capital raising numbers

Our 2016 capital raising numbers are in and we’re pleased to report a big increase in activity over 2015. In total, we helped our clients complete 83 capital raising transactions, up from 43 in 2015.

kindrik partners legal templates now available free of charge to NZ lawyers

Three years ago, we released a suite of 20 free legal templates for download by NZ tech companies. This was a first for a NZ law firm. Since the launch of this free service we have been overwhelmed by the positive response from the tech and wider business community.

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