Previously Unavailable Venture Fund 2

Previously Unavailable Venture Funds are a Sequential Fund Series providing investors the opportunity to invest alongside PU in the high-potential early-stage ventures we choose to work with and invest in during each fund's season.

PU Venture Fund 2 - the second of these venture portfolios represents PU's investment opportunities between 1st April 2023 and 31 March 2025.

Previously Unavailable Venture Fund 2 is now fully invested, but remains open to new investors in the PIE. Please get in touch if you are interested in the opportunity to invest in this portfolio.

Current Investments

Accelerating first-home buyers to their deposit, faster Aera uses developer commissions and new builds to help first-home buyers reach a deposit and homeownership faster.
World-first green CO2 and heat technology for commercial greenhouses Aplenty converts wood waste into clean CO2 and low-cost heat for greenhouse growers — increasing crop yields by up to 10%, reducing emissions by 90%, and giving growers full control over heating costs. Proven technology, already operating at the first customer site, and ready to deploy at scale.
The venture fund that backs companies where brand defines the winner Brand Fund 2 is a continuation of the partnership between Previously Unavailable and Icehouse Ventures, built on a single conviction: in the right company, brand isn't a cost - it's the compounding advantage that separates category leaders from the rest.
The employee benefits platform Extraordinary makes employee benefits, rewards and transport simple, serving more than 50,000 people across leading businesses.
The AI business management platform built for recruitment agencies Kamal gives recruitment agency leaders a 360-degree view of performance across financials, gross margin, fill rates, and consultant productivity - all in one place. By replacing manual reporting and external advisors with automated AI-powered analytics, it helps agencies identify where money is made, cut inefficiencies, and build a measurably more profitable business.
The future of marketing performance Lumos combines OOH and digital media planning and buying, and has more than doubled revenue since our first investment.
Tracking work in the AI age Manifest tracks time, tools and tokens for creative businesses, helping agencies understand how work gets made.
The venture studio creating the martech stack of the future ‍New+Improved Ventures is a venture studio focused building B2B SaaS marketing technology companies from the ground up. The team behind Tracksuit, Ideally, Aether and Drumbeat, they combine deep marketing expertise with proven startup commercialisation skills to find the next category-defining opportunity.
The New Zealand fusion energy company making abundant power possible OpenStar is commercialising the levitated dipole - a uniquely stable, simple, and modular approach to fusion energy inspired by Earth's own magnetosphere. Founded in Wellington, the team achieved first plasma in just two years on a lean budget and is targeting commercial fusion within five years, with a world-class scientific team led by the global authority on levitated dipole research.
Orchestrating modern insurance operations Simfuni is building a platform to change how customers and businesses deliver and experience insurance.
Regulated industry communications Spoke uses AI to help large international businesses improve communications, compliance and performance.
Making solar work after dark for Kiwi homes and communities SUPA builds large solar and battery systems on schools, farms, and businesses, then sells the surplus power directly to New Zealand households. Site hosts earn revenue, buyers get stable clean energy, and the profits stay local. A smarter, decentralised energy network built for the country's future.
One platform uniting Tech Business Management and FinOps for the AI era Yarken gives CIOs and IT finance leaders complete visibility across cloud, SaaS, infrastructure, and AI spend, unified into a single source of truth. With agentic AI, no-code workflows, and finance-grade analytics, it's the platform recognised by Gartner for helping enterprises move faster, invest smarter, and stay ahead of technology cost complexity.

Investment Committee

Portrait of James Hurman, bearded man in glasses with arms crossed
James Hurman Chair & Founder
Previously Unavailable
Portrait of Simon Pound in an olive shirt
Simon Pound GP Brand Fund.
Co-CEO Previously Unavailable
Portrait of Chris Paykel
Chris Paykel Co-CEO
Previously Unavailable

Get in touch

We take on select projects, working with companies who are inventing or reinventing. If there’s a project you’d like to talk to us about, please get in touch.

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Shop Future Demand

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Future Demand Vol. 2

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How marketing to tomorrow’s customers will break your brand out of the performance trap

Social Updates

LinkedIn

22 Oct

Helping Partly build the future of repair

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Instagram

01 Oct

Our creativity and innovation scholarship with AUT is back.

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Instagram

25 Sept

We took to the 'skies' for our annual mid-winter Christmas party.

Where in the world is James Hurman?

Auckland
36.8485° S, 174.7633° E

By The Numbers

$500m+

Launched
Companies

40+

Equity
Companies

4

Venture Funds

Weekly Whakatauki

Ko te pae tawhiti whāia kia tata, ko te pae tata whakamaua kia tīna
Seek to bring distant horizons closer, and sustain and maintain those that have been arrived at

Bookshelf

Perform Under Pressure – Dr Ceri Evans

AUX

Sorceress – Jordan Rakei

Overheard at Previously

“Walking is actually good for you”

Studio Snaps

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Clients & Partners

Icehouse Ventures
Westpac
AF Drinks
Ārepa
Fonterra
Emma Lewisham
MedWorld
DB Breweries
Education Perfect
Torrens University Australia
OnBoard
Shuttlerock
Pylot
Lion
Mānuka Health
Ideally
Tracksuit
Breast Cancer Foundation NZ
Helius
Brothers Beer
ASB
BNZ
Melodics
Sunfeld
Contact Energy
Simplicity
Futurity
PieFunds
WOOP!
Hawker & Roll
Stolen Rum
21C Skills Lab
Ascential
Heineken
Clearhead
Stuff
Spark
The Comfort Group
NZ Trade & Enterprise
Serious Food Co.
Toothcrush
Timely
Compostic
Growbright
Sanford
Goodman Fielder
TVNZ
PĀMU
New & Improved
Kiwibank
Humankind
Blunt
Deloitte
Hancocks
Genesis
Cannes Lions
Jade Software
Bankwest
Dentons
NeuAudio
Nibblish
Media Design School
Skyline
ZURU
ECC
Caffeine
Jade
Blackbird
NZME
Outset Ventures
Private Wealth Network
Special Group
TRA
The Tuesday Club
Lume
Aera
Abroad
Sharesies
KPMG
Constellation
Tika
Soul Capital
Scholarship
Rev.Social
Friends That Invest
Hiraya Ventures
Appetise
Icehouse
Manifest
Lumos
Simfuni
Levno
Kamal
Re-Leased
Extraordinary
Yarken
Nevam
Aglow
Abodo
Spoke
Andfoods
Marloo
Anthony Harper
Aplenty
Bustle