Bootstrapped NZ Edition #2
🐝 News from the Beehive 🐝, a bloc party Ξ and a surplus of funding fun 💰
Hello team 👋 welcome back for edition #2! Thank you to all 227 of you who have signed up to stay in the know about the NZ startup ecosystem - you rock ✨
Lets get into it 🚀
🐝 News from the Beehive 🐝
The beehive has been busy announcing initiatives to boost kiwi startups and innovation:
💰 Grants, grants everywhere
There will be two new grants available from mid-September 2022
The New to Research and Development Grant: To help businesses in the early stages of R&D to establish an R&D programme and build R&D capability
Ārohia the Innovation Trailblazer Grant: To support non-R&D innovation activities not covered by the Research & Development Tax Incentive (RDTI).
Fill out the expression of Interest form to stay updated on the application process.
*If you’re still learning startup language like me, Research and Development basically means activities companies undertake to innovate, create new products/services, or improve existing services. Our tax incentive is only for R&D activities that meet specific criteria e.g. seek to resolve scientific or technological uncertainty.
💺 A seat at the table
The Government has announced a new Startup Advisors’ council. The all-star lineup includes: Phil McCaw, Suse Reynolds, Marian Johnson, Grant Straker (Ngāti Raukawa, Mike Carden, Imche Fourie and Carl Jones (WNT Ventures).
This dream team will advise the government on how to create the conditions for startups to thrive in New Zealand 🙌
🚗 The future of transport
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency also announced a new $15 million innovation fund for projects in the transport sector. Read the full write-up by NZ Entrepreneur here 👐
⚡ Electrify ⚡
Ministry of Awesome and Blackbird brought together over 400 ambitious female founders for Electrify, the inaugural female founders conference. And it was, well, electrifying.
Why female founders? As Marian explained, only 21.6% of Kiwi startups have at least one female in their founding team. In 2018, women led ventures received 18% of angel investment in NZ and made up only 20% of the angel investor community.
As Hon Dr Megan Woods said, this presents one of the largest sources of untapped potential in the New Zealand economy.
🔥 Check out the highlight reel here.
💵 Funding
This time around, funding earned its own section 💰
Advemto, closed a $1.05M pre-seed round led by Matū Karihi Fund.
Helico closed a $2.1M seed round led by Icehouse Ventures
TamoRx closed a $15M Series A round led by Brandon Capital
MenuAid closed a $1M pre-seed round led by Sprout Agritech
Onside secured $4M funding over 4 years from the Ministry of Primary Industries (They are also in the running for Hi-Tech Startup of the year 🎉)
*If you’re new to startup funding, check out this explanation of how funding rounds work
🖋️ Noteworthy
Bloc Party Aotearoa was an epic day of all things crypto put together by Māori entrepreneurs leading the Blockchain technology and NFTs space (EagerBeaver NFT, Manaaki.io and Blockchain Navigators). Listen to the full kōrero here Ξ
Blackbird announced their second dedicated NZ fund targeting a final close of $100 million AND the return of founder festival Sunrise (presales now open!) ☀️
Hnry were nominated for Fintech Organisation of the Year and People’s Choice Award at 2022 Finnies Awards! 🎉
Reseller News celebrated their innovation awards: congratulations to Blacklock Security, Delta Insights, Mindshift and Ankita Dhakar (Security Lit) who won in the startup categories.
📚 Worth a Read or Listen
Futurology list the 24 most innovative NZ based AgTech startups 🍃
Unpack alt-protein with Dr Georgina Dowd
Check out Manzana, the new creative space for female entrepreneurs
🎧 Seeds Podcast: Listen to Founders’ stories with Hannah Duder, Elliot Taylor, Chris Bacon and Jack Wood for an honest conversation about their entrepreneurial journeys.
🎧 Business is Boring: Going Global With Laura Bell, SafeStack Academy. A hilarious and fascinating conversation about Laura’s journey with SafeStack Academy and exporting digital products.
🙋🏼♀️ Cool people doing cool things: Meet Lucy from Onyou
Hi Lucy! What’s your story?
I've been lucky enough to spend the first 20 years of my life in some incredible cities, including Khartoum, Dar es Salaam, and Berlin.
My first role out of university was as an online journalist for a car mag. A highlight was covering the world's first autonomous flying vehicle trials here in Christchurch.
After that, I started working for a start-up as a marketing manager - this was a game-changer. I was surrounded by go-getters who took risks and experimented. I think that’s where the confidence to start my own business came from.
How was Onyou born?
As shoppers, it's almost impossible to know whether sustainability claims are fact or marketing fluff. Now, just 20% of shoppers trust sustainability claims.
After immersing myself in online sustainability communities, I discovered that shoppers don't want to see certifications. They want to access transparent impact data—factory names, addresses, audit reports.
I learnt to data scrape and built (a very clunky) prototype of a potential solution. A marketplace where shoppers can buy from the best ethical brands and get reliable information about their supply chains right on product pages.
In just a couple of months I made $8k for some incredible brands that were struggling to gain awareness - such a cool win!
How’s it going?
A number of prototypes later and after some key learnings, we’ve built our latest platform along with a universal checkout. We hit the insane milestone of 15,000 people signing up for early access to our platform last month.
We are currently completing user testing and interviews, before we go public in the next couple of weeks.
We’re currently gearing up for our first capital raise, with our incredible financial manager Sarah, putting in the hard yards to get our financial model and capital strategy ready to rumble.
What’s your dream for the future?
That one day that every great product will come with easily accessible information about who made it, where it was made, how it was made and its social and environmental impact. I want Onyou to power that future.
Do you have an ask for the community?
We’re looking for a data engineer who is passionate about sustainability and supply chains. Connect with me for more info.
We’d love some feedback on our platform, click here to sign up for our waitlist and be part of our user trials.
I'd love to connect with those who are interested in our journey or just want a quick kōrero.
💼 Cool jobs
Komodo are looking for a Business development manager
Kernel are looking for a Customer Success Specialist
Dawn Aerospace are looking for a Supply Chain Manager
Want more? Check out the Matchstiq, Icehouse Careers of the Future, HIRE HER and AirTree job boards.
🤩 Funding, Accelerators and Incubators
If your startup is reimagining the future of farming, apply to pitch at the 2035 Vision Investment Pitch Platform in October.
The free AWS Hāpori Wāhine She Builds CloudUp Program starts June 13th
Te Ōhaka are looking for early-stage startups with global ambition for their incubation program
Applications for SODA’s RISE UP and SheEO ventures close on Friday
📆 Upcoming Events
👯 Hybrid
E Tipu: The Boma Agria Summit (21-22 June) Ever wondered about the future of food and fibre? E Tipu is an action packed two days exploring exactly that 🥦
🖥️ Virtual
Phase One Ventures Female Founders Forum (June 14) A space for NZ female entrepreneurs to come in and share their stories, network, and support one another
👱🏻 In Person
Blackbird Aotearoa Roadshow (May-July) The team at Blackbird are hitting the road and want to meet you 😎
Ko Māui Hangarau (16 June) A high-powered summit featuring some of the best Māori Tech Innovators and Entrepreneurs from around the country 💫
NZ High Tech Awards: Finalists Celebration (15 June) If you’re based in Auckland, come along to celebrate the NZ Hi-Tech Awards finalists for 2022.
Coffee & Jam with Founders from EggAcademy and MoneyTime (28 June) Come hang out with Kane Stewart (EggAcademy) and Neil Edmond (MoneyTime) and learn more about disruption in EdTech
HealthTech Week (27-30 June) A four day HealthTech extravaganza at Auckland’s Cordis Hotel 💉
Check out Techstars Startup Digest New Zealand for more events coming up this month 🌟 And watch this space, something exciting coming soon 👀
📣 Have your say on the future of business 📣
MBIE are seeking submissions on the future of business in Aotearoa. If you have some thoughts, get your submission in before 24 June.
We made it! Thanks for reading - you guys are the best 🥳
As always, I’m always keen to hear from you - would love to learn more about you through this cheeky one-minute survey, LinkedIn DM or a reply to this email.
See you next time!
Izzy 👩🏽💻