Our Team

Our team has global experience in the biotech, healthcare and medical devices industry. We have a highly desired blend of skills in early stage company development, intellectual property commercialisation, global expansion, science, finance and mergers and acquisitions.

Matthew McMahon

Chief Investment Manager

Matthew has twenty years’ experience with high growth industries in New Zealand as advisor, investor, operator and entrepreneur. Highly skilled operator and analyst. Foundation team at NZ’s first venture capital fund, No 8 Ventures. At BioDiscovery NZ Ltd raised $20m US venture finance over 3 years.

Matthew led and oversaw >$10m new investments into some of NZ’s leading innovators and technology companies as Investment Manager at Callaghan Innovation.

He has a history in impact investment and development, including developing a major Sub-Saharan African project to bring telemedicine to remote African communities via satellite connectivity and energy infrastructure rebuilding and economics in Sri Lanka.

At WaikatoLink for 4 1/2 years he led the commercialisation team to identify commercial opportunities at University of Waikato and take them through to translation to commercial development – late research, prototyping, building teams, investment, licence and spin out. The role covered all research areas at Waikato with projects from healthtech device development and marine bioactives through to machine vision AI and hardware cyber security. He created First Watch from adjacent University tech in cloud data provenance into a 20+ engineer industrial cyber security startup and securing two rounds of equity investment and government grants.

He loves working with hi tech opportunities and their investment challenges – and working with business owners on strategic challenges, finance, management, and business development.

Molly Yang

Investment principal

Molly has 18 years of international experience in the venture capital industry. She brings deep expertise in direct investments, fund of funds, portfolio management, divestments, and governance.

Molly first worked with Cure Kids Ventures in June 2014 and rejoined in February 2025. During this period, she progressed her career at a New Zealand government-backed fund, where she oversaw a large portfolio and led divestment activities.

Passionate about healthtech, Molly has spent the past decade supporting ventures across medical devices, life sciences, digital health, and biotech—helping companies raise capital and bring innovative solutions to market.

Beyond her professional work, Molly is a strong advocate for female and underrepresented founders. She contributes as a mentor and coach through programmes including Founder Catalyst Incubator, Electrify Accelerator, Tupu Toa, the University of Auckland Investment Club, TechWomen, KiwiNet’s Emerging Innovator Programme, and the EmpowerHer Women in HealthTech mentoring programme.

Our Board

Franceska Banga

Chair of the Board

Franceska is a recognised CEO, Chair and Director who has held board roles on many prominent New Zealand organisations. She brings extensive governance experience, spanning finance, technology and health sectors.

While typically known for her financial and investment expertise, Franceska also has a strong background in health. She originally trained as an occupational therapist where she spent much of her time working in paediatrics. Later, she was appointed as Director of Health at NZ Treasury, overseeing the Health Budget.

As the founding Chief Executive of the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, Franceska managed $300 million of funds under management, overseeing an investment into a portfolio of 200+ high growth New Zealand companies and catalysing over $2 billion of public and private investment into those companies.

Franceska’s governance experience includes roles as Trustee and Chair of Audit Committee of Fred Hollows Foundation NZ, Director Continuity Capital NZ, Independent of Director Constellation Capital, Chair Fab Group (Caci NZ), Independent Director Frogparking, Future Director appointee, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED).

In 2016 Franceska was made an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit, for services to business and the community.

As Chair of Cure Kids Board, Franceska is committed to helping the organisation address some of the big health issues affecting kiwi children. This includes providing governance to Cure Kids Ventures for the successful commercialisation of research and technologies with the potential to benefit child health.

Howard Moore

Director

Howard has been a Board Member at Cure Kids Ventures since 2008. Howard’s breadth of experience spans multiple industries including venture capital, agritech, foodtech, and biotech. His career is hallmarked by fund raising, technology commercialisation, early stage company development and sales and marketing.

Howard had previously co-founded Tercica, an Auckland based biotech company which he relocated to the US and later went on to float on the NASDAQ.

After returning to New Zealand, Howard took a position as Executive Director of BioPacific Ventures, a $100 million Direct Capital life science fund. Howard is currently CEO of Pictor Limited, a CKV investee company, commercialising a diagnostic testing system.

Howard graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor of Food Technology and maintains an avid interest in improving the profitability of the life science sector.

Matthew Payton

Director

Matthew has spent more than 20 years in the global medical device industry. Over that time he has held a variety of roles in research and development, commercialisation and general management, including eight years in the senior leadership team at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare.

He remains passionate about science and commercialising it to positively impact society. Previously he has been involved in research on nenonatal care and in adult patients with chronic lung conditions. His current research interests include improvements to anaesthetic techniques for both children and adults.

He is a current board member of Ossis Orthopaedics and a member of the TiTenz industry advisory panel.

Matthew holds a masters degree in physics and a post graduate diploma in business administration from the University of Auckland. He is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.

Merryn Tawhai

Director

Merryn Tawhai graduated from the University of Auckland with a PhD in Engineering Science in 2001. She leads a research programme at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) in applied computational physiology of the respiratory system. Merryn is the Director of the ABI and sits on the Board of Directors for Cure Kids Ventures. She was ABI’s Deputy Director for 10 years, Director of the Medical Technologies Centre of Research Excellence (MedTech CoRE), and an independent Director for Izon Science. Merryn was awarded the 2016 MacDiarmid Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) Te Apārangi, is a Fellow of the RSNZ, and a Fellow of IAMBE and AIMBE.

Contact Us

Please feel free to contact us, we would like to hear from you.