Goat Ventures

Goat Ventures

Goat Ventures was founded in 2015 by Sam Morgan, who made his fortune through Trade Me, New Zealand's dominant online auction and classifieds platform, sold to Fairfax Media for NZD 700 million in 2006. Morgan, who served as Trade Me's CEO until 2007, set up the family office to redeploy that wealth into emerging Kiwi technology companies. The firm invests equity primarily across early-stage technology ventures, with known holdings including cloud fintech firm Vend (acquired by Lightspeed POS in 2021), property data platform Valocity, and logistics software company Weft. Sector focus spans SaaS, marketplace platforms, and data analytics, with the majority of deals concentrated in New Zealand's North Island corridor. Goat Ventures also maintains a small portfolio of direct corporate investments, including a minority stake in the New Zealand arm of grocery chain FreshChoice. Total AUM is not disclosed; available data suggests total deployment at several hundred million New Zealand dollars. The team is lean — Morgan works alongside a small number of investment professionals and advisors, with no other offices currently identified. Philanthropic work, run separately through the Morgan Foundation, focuses on environmental and social causes. A structural differentiator is Goat Ventures' deep local sourcing network: rather than competing with international VCs on pricing, Morgan relies on years of relationships built through Trade Me and ecosystem ties in Auckland. The firm's willingness to co-invest alongside institutional VCs on larger rounds has also positioned it as a bridge capital partner for Kiwi startups scaling internationally.