Hillfarrance Venture Capital

Rob Vickery is the founder and managing partner, and he leads investment decisions alongside co-founder and general partner Jonathan Bell. Vickery relocated from Los Angeles, where he ran a growth-equity firm and had early exposure to companies like Dollar Shave Club and SpaceX. The firm operates a concentrated partnership model rather than a large analyst-driven team.

The firm draws deal flow from New Zealand's accelerator ecosystem, university spinouts, and direct founder referrals built through Vickery's decade-plus in the US venture ecosystem. Its Austin office, opened in 2022, provides an additional sourcing node for founders expanding into the US. Hillfarrance also co-invests alongside Australian VCs like Blackbird, which creates shared deal flow in the trans-Tasman ecosystem.

Hillfarrance targets pre-seed and seed stages, typically writing initial checks between NZ$500,000 and NZ$2 million. The firm reserves capital for follow-on participation into Series A rounds, often alongside US co-investors. It does not participate in growth-stage or Series B and beyond.

Hillfarrance makes direct equity investments into startups and does not operate as a fund of funds. Its model is built around hands-on, board-level engagement with early-stage founders, particularly as they prepare to raise capital from US-based Series A investors.

Hillfarrance has not publicly excluded any sectors, but its portfolio concentrates on B2B software, AI/ML, fintech, digital health, climate technology, and agritech. It has shown less interest in consumer social, deep biotech, or hardware-intensive companies — consistent with a capital-efficient SaaS and IP-driven thesis. No cryptocurrency or blockchain-only plays have been publicly disclosed.

Hillfarrance from inception structured itself to bridge New Zealand startups to US capital markets. It encourages portfolio companies to incorporate in Delaware, and Vickery's personal network in Sand Hill Road provides a structured path to Series A and B funding from US VCs. This is distinct from most New Zealand seed funds that focus on the domestic or Australian venture market. The Austin office, opened in 2022, reinforced that trans-Pacific posture with an on-the-ground US presence for portfolio support.

Hillfarrance's limited partners have not been publicly disclosed in detail. The firm has operated from a base of private institutional and family-office capital, and Vickery has been a vocal advocate for reforming New Zealand regulations to make it easier for KiwiSaver funds and other domestic institutions to invest in local venture capital.