To make it onto the NBR Rich List, your net worth needs to be at least $50 million. This year we have identified some rising stars who are likely candidates in future years.
It seems only a matter of time before self-proclaimed “serial entrepreneur” Cecilia Robinson and her marketing and IT husband James graduate to the NBR Rich List following their dual success as founders of Au Pair Link and My Food Bag.
Launched in 2013, My Food Bag has rapidly captured the wallets of 50,000 time-poor consumers whose demand for home-delivered food parcels bumped up revenue streams to more than $130 million within five years. Despite warnings that giving New Zealanders a recipe and ingredients was doomed to failure, Robinson says “we took something that so many people thought wouldn’t work and made it scalable.”
With celebrity chef Nadia Lim and former Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung on board as shareholders, and a high-powered board including Gattung and former Saatchi boss Kevin Roberts, My Food Bag has also captured the attention of the capital markets. In 2016, private equity company Waterman Capital snapped up a 70% stake, which valued the business at $120m, and meant that the Robinsons 36% holding was theoretically worth $43m.
With two young children to raise, the Robinsons stepped down from their management roles in early 2018 after former Tourism NZ boss Kevin Bowler was appointed as chief executive to advance plans for a proposed IPO that could reward the owners even further.
Recognised as the EY Young Entrepreneur of the year in 2013, Cecilia’s first success was with the early childhood education provider Au Pair Link, which had 650 children enrolled by the time it was sold to Evolve Education in 2014. The sale price wasn’t disclosed but Evolve later revealed that it had bought Au Pair Link and the Porse childcare and education companies for a combined sum of $14.6m.
Declaring that startups are in their blood, the Robinsons enjoy inspiring belief in others and have reinvested some of their wealth in the new photo/video app Phable as well as the interactive transmedia project Zingoshi Chronicles.