For over two decades, Invest South’s role as a regional growth investor has been to provide unwavering support to businesses located in the Community Trust South region. This unique investing model, supported by Community Trust South as 100% shareholder, provides a lasting and meaningful impact in our community.
Invest South’s fundamental objective is to make impactful investments within our region. Its goal is not only to generate substantial returns for Community Trust South, but also to collaborate with innovative local businesses, fostering their connectivity, success, resilience, and dynamism in alignment with the Trust’s Community Economic Development pillar.
Invest South’s passion is elevating regional businesses and optimising their pathway to growth, believing in the strength of the region, its people, and the impact they can have on a national and global scale. Invest South is working with a strong pipeline of investment opportunities and is highly optimistic about the growth prospects within the region.
A highlight for Invest South in 2022 was the investment in prominent Queenstown hospitality software business Loaded Reports. Following a $3.25m capital raise, Loaded launched its global expansion, with initial entry into Australia in 2023.
Hospitality is one of the largest industries in the world and is a significant contributor to the New Zealand economy – even more so in the Community Trust South region. More than any other industry globally, hospitality has been significantly challenged by the global pandemic.
Added to that, with restaurant and bar managers typically being time poor and not financial experts, it is challenging for them to take control of the financial performance of the business, particularly in 'real time'. They often use multiple platforms or tools to manage their key variable costs, resulting in additional costs, complexity and time. To address this problem, Loaded Reports has developed an integrated platform to manage revenue, labour, and cost of goods, and drive improved profit margins.
Invest South Chief Executive Officer Prue Halstead said the organisation was delighted to lead Loaded’s capital raise in 2022.
“We are excited by their growth strategy and the impact it could have on diversifying the local economy, driving economic growth and new, higher paying jobs for the region,” she said.
Loaded is looking to recruit up to 25 new staff to work in Queenstown over the next 24 months and is expected to be a pivotal player in the region’s growing technology industry.
“Our experience partnering with Invest South since October 2022 has been great. With 900 customers at home who have demonstrated significant profitability and efficiency improvements when adopting Loaded and very few competitors in the market globally, we’re pretty excited about the opportunity ahead. Crossing the Tasman is the first step in Loaded’s global expansion and Invest South’s support through the injection of capital, networks and governance expertise has been valuable in terms of catalysing our momentum and traction. This is a collaborative effort where relationships matter. Their understanding of the challenges and opportunities unique to our region has been invaluable. Their involvement as investors goes beyond capital, showcasing a genuine commitment to our success and that of our community and region.” - Richard McLeod, Founder and CEO of Loaded Reports.
