Nuance Capital

Managing Partner Ngaio Merrick leads investment decisions, supported by General Partner Mitali Purohit. Merrick previously managed Sir David Levene’s investment portfolio; Purohit led New Zealand’s $150 million Technology Incubator Programme at Callaghan Innovation. Financial strategist Matthew White handles fund management and M&A oversight.

Sourcing leverages Merrick’s governance networks across the New Zealand deep-tech ecosystem and Purohit’s public-sector connections from her Callaghan Innovation tenure. The firm targets ventures that need beta customers and distribution partners offshore. Adviser Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins extends deal-origination reach into Silicon Valley.

Nuance operates as a private equity asset manager, not a single-family office. Its hybrid LP base includes a multi-family office (Alvarium) and a sovereign fund-of-funds (Elevate), but investment decisions are made independently by Merrick and her team.

It makes direct venture investments across seed, Series A, and Series B rounds. The firm does not disclose fund-level commitments to other venture managers, and its public portfolio shows only company-level positions.

The core fund targets Series A and B rounds, with a fixed 20 percent allocation reserved for seed-stage companies. Portfolio data shows active seed positions in Zenno Astronautics and Wellumio alongside later-stage deployments in Kry10, Hectre, and Formus Labs.

The firm’s portfolio concentrates on advanced engineering, AI and machine learning, photonics, space technologies, and climate-related hardware. No disclosed positions fall into biotech therapeutics, consumer software, or conventional fintech outside of crypto infrastructure (Easy Crypto).

Elevate, managed by New Zealand Growth Capital Partners, is a cornerstone LP in Nuance’s fund. The two are commercially separate; Elevate provides capital as part of its mandate to fill the Series A and B gap for New Zealand tech firms, but does not control investment decisions.