The New Zealand Venture Investment Fund has renewed its investment partnership with national angel group Sparkbox Ventures which should see them combining to invest around $10 million in start-up companies over the next five years.

NZVIF chief executive Franceska Banga said Sparkbox is a very active private early stage investment group, helping to fund the growth of promising young technology companies like Mesynthes, BigLittleBang and Booktrack.

“Through our initial investment partnership, NZVIF committed to co-invest $4 million with Sparkbox. That has so far seen us combining to invest nearly $7 million into over a dozen companies, but is now almost fully committed.

Founder of Sun Microsystems and the name behind Khosla Ventures, Vinod Khosla, plans to follow up several New Zealand companies’ investment pitches.

The billionaire venture capitalist was founding chief executive of Sun Microsystems, and later joined Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, building Nexgen/AMD.  In 2004 he founded venture company Khosla Ventures and currently has a 51% stake in New Zealand-founded company Lanzatech,reportedly a $3.5 million investment.

LanzaTech, founded in 2005, produces fuels and chemicals through a gas-liquid fermentation process from gas resources that include waste gases from steel mill flues, oil refining and biomass such as municipal solid waste.

Auckland boffins are in the money with an electrifying deal worth about $70 million for technology which allows electric cars to be charged without cables.

A joint-venture firm established by Auckland University has been bought by US firm Qualcomm after inventing the "Inductive Power Technology" device.

Cars simply drive over a pad, which transfers electricity to the vehicle.

In video demonstrations, the device sends the owner a message when the charging is complete.

The Science and Innovation Minister Wayne Mapp and Mayor Len Brown today announced a new Auckland facility for high-tech companies.

Called the Wynyard Quarter Innovation Precinct, it will house business incubators, research and development institutions, and business development providers.

The minister said in a statement that the precinct would connect entrepreneurs and businesses to international investors and partners.

“It will also be a landing pad for overseas investors looking to connect with New Zealand knowledge-intensive companies.”

New Zealand's economic engine needs a jump start - and for a chorus of commentators it is innovation, entrepreneurship and high-value exports that hold the key.

Business incubator The Icehouse argues the country needs 3000 new internationally focused companies by 2020 to remain competitive, lift wages and stimulate economic growth.

But talking the talk and saying New Zealand needs more start-up companies is easy.

The difficulty, as always, is walking the walk.

One of Wellington's most promising software start-ups, Aptimize, has been bought out by a multibillion-dollar United States competitor in a deal likely to be worth tens of millions of dollars.

More than 20 of the city's technology investors are among those who will share the spoils.

Companies Office records show Aptimize, which took out the Cyber Gold prize at the Gold Awards this year, secretly changed hands on Thursday and is now wholly-owned by Californian company Riverbed Technology, which is valued at US$6.1 billion on the New York Stock Exchange.

Start-up tech firms need to repeat modest successes, says US Icehouse visitor.