GD1 Secures $56.7 Million for Core Fund II Amid Growing Interest in New Zealand's Space Sector

Auckland-based venture capital firm GD1 has closed its first round of fundraising for its new Core Fund II, securing NZD $56.7 million in commitments. The fund aims to reach a final close of NZD $150 million within the next year and will invest in early-stage companies across five themes: frontier energy and industry, space economy, human health re-engineered, AI software, and financial infrastructure.

The first close was anchored by returning investors and included offshore investment from executives and employees of major tech companies such as Google, Apple, NVIDIA, and TSMC. The firm said that 20% of the committed capital came via New Zealand's Active Investor Plus programme.

GD1 has already deployed capital from the first close into four investments, with two remaining in stealth mode. Publicly announced investments include Outlier Space, which is developing reusable orbital manufacturing vehicles, and Atomic Tessellator, which uses machine learning and quantum simulation to design new alloys and rare-earth-free magnets.