Q&A with Neal Gupta of KiwiTech
CO-Founder and Chief Investment Officer
Principal Series:
KiwiTech is a U.S. technology firm based out of NYC. The company provides technology development services to a number of startup and enterprise clients in exchange for equity. Kiwi also has 25 events a quarter including VC & Family Office panels where investors and entrepreneurs can meet on a double opt in basis. Kiwi has equity stakes in over 330 technology startups in the U.S. by leveraging a unique model of software services for equity. Kiwi has 450 employees worldwide, and helps investors with quality deal flow in the tech space. KiwiTech http://www.kiwitech.com
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Team ?
The same founding earlier scaled a technology services company called Aptara to 5,000 employees. After selling that business and investing in tech startups, the team developed a unique model of building tech for a cash and equity spilt. The founders and investors at the holding company level have the upside of a diversified portfolio and the downside protection of a tech services business.
Traction ?
KiwiTech has a deal funnel of 40,000 startups an year, and is adding 1-2 portfolio firms per week via its unique model of acquiring equity for software development services. This enables us to build in stakes using arbitrage and aligns us with our portfolio firms. The top-line at KiwiTech is growing at 35-40% annually, and the firm will be cash-flow positive this year. Therefore, our equity stakes will result in no cash outflow, and KiwiTech partners receive distributions from exits of portfolio firms. The goal is to sell KiwiTech at $40-55 per share in the next 3 years. Presently, we are at $8 per share.
Vision ?
The vision for KiwiTech is to leverage a differentiated method of investing in the tech space, while offering additional value add to our portfolio. We help our portfolio firms by hosting demo days with investors, startup workshops, industry expertise, enterprise intros, and more. We believe that being on the same side as the table as our startups and family office investors will deliver good results in the long term.
Neal Gupta of KiwiTech
Profession
Investor – Neal and his siblings invest in startups where they have an inside track and informational edge. They then open their network to the startup’s management team for the business, management, and financial connections.
Entrepreneur – KiwiTech – Neal Gupta co-founded a unique investment platform KiwiTech, which holds a portfolio over 210 technology companies. These seed-stage startups are located coast to coast, from KiwiTech’s HQ in New York City to Los Angeles, and are in many different industries from healthcare to financial to sports tech. KiwiTech actively collaborates with other investors to share deal flow. Neal is Chief Investment Officer at KiwiTech. He is responsible for growing the company’s network of HNWI, family offices, and fund investors, while playing matchmaker between KiwiTech portfolio firms and investors.
Prior Venture – Aptara – The largest content services company in the world, the Gupta’s founded Aptara in 1988. The firm scaled to 5,000 employees. A couple of interesting projects were annual processing of 35% of the EDGAR financial filings in the US, populating the Medline medical database used by every doctor, and digitizing the Oscars Playbook which is still used in Hollywood today.
Education – MBA (Finance) from Columbia Business School & University of London, and Bachelor’s in Economics
Contact Neal: neal@kiwitech.com