Global From Day One (GD1)
Status
ACTIVE
Global HQ
Auckland, New Zealand
Countries of investment
- New Zealand
- Australia
Investment stages
- Seed
- Series A
Industries
- SaaS
- Deep Tech
- Healthcare
About
GD1 (Global From Day One) is an institutional-grade venture capital firm headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, established in 2012. It writes first cheques at pre-seed, leads rounds at Series A, and follows on through Series B, pairing capital with hands-on operating support across product, growth, and human resources, and an international network spanning Silicon Valley, the United States, and Europe. A signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment, GD1 is raising its Core Fund II, targeting approximately $150 million.
GD1 (Global From Day One) is an institutional-grade venture capital firm headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, established in 2012. It writes first cheques at pre-seed, leads rounds at Series A, and follows on through Series B, pairing capital with hands-on operating support across product, growth, and human resources, and an international network spanning Silicon Valley, the United States, and Europe. A signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment, GD1 is raising its Core Fund II, targeting approximately $150 million.
Investment Thesis
GD1's investment thesis is that New Zealand can generate outsized economic value by commercializing science, engineering, and intellectual property for global markets, and so it backs technically ambitious founders building globally competitive, category-defining companies from day one. The firm invests with high conviction across deep hardware, vertical software, agentic infrastructure, climate technology, and aerospace.
Manager's Experience
The managing partners bring extensive experience from investment banking (Deutsche Bank, Macquarie), private equity, and corporate finance. The team is complemented by partners with deep operational expertise, including a former VP from global tech company Rocket Lab and a successful founder with Silicon Valley experience. Their collective expertise covers finance, M&A, product management, and operational scaling for global-from-day-one companies.
Team
John Kells - Co-Managing Partner
Vignesh Kumar - Co-Managing Partner
Chintaka Ranatunga - Founding Partner & Co-Founder
Nawaz Ahmed - General Partner (Crypto)
Aaron Small - Investment Principal
Doug Bohaboy - Go-To-Market Principal
Heather Gadonniex - CMO & Operating Partner
Catherine Young - Operations Manager
Jonathan Tan - Senior Investment Analyst
Tracy Han - Operations Coordinator
Portfolio
Dawn Aerospace
Auror
Ivo
Alimetry
JunoFem
Runn
Basis
Flowingly
VXT
Foundry Lab
Formus Labs
Simfuni
Caruso
StretchSense
Zenno Astronautics
Wellumio
Kry10
NanoLayr
Ubco
Vesper Marine