Bootstrapped NZ Edition #3
๐งฌ The State of the Ecosystem , ๐ฟ a spotlight on food and fibre and more funding fun ๐ฐ
Hello, old and new friends ๐๐
Thank you for welcoming me into your inboxes for edition #3!
Itโs been a whirlwind 28 days since the debut of edition #1. Iโm super stoked that 275 of you have come on board since then and opened up Boostrapped >3000 times ๐คฏ It Looks like the NZ startup ecosystem is most certainly not dead ๐
Without further ado, letโs get startedโฆ
๐ฐ In the News
I was personally stoked to see kiwi startups and discussion about the NZ tech/startup ecosystem featured in the mainstream news:
The legends at Medsalv and their mission to save up to $100 million per year in healthcare waste were featured on the evening news ๐ฅ
Stuff explored how to increase diversity in our tech workforce and the rise in young entrepreneurs interested in purpose-led business ๐ค
๐ฟ The Future of Food & Fibre
E Tipu: The Boma Agri Summit kicked off yesterday! The conference brought together delegates and speakers to explore the future of food and fibre in New Zealand. Why all the fuss about food and fibre?
The food and fibre sector is a cornerstone of the New Zealand economy. As the Rt Hon Jacinda Adern said in her address, โThe food and fibre sector is set to reach revenues of $50B into 2023โฆ We are already world-leading, but we know that we have to continue to adapt to maintain that brand proposition on the world stage."
Delegates heard from a range of incredible speakers, including Hannah Tucker, Jenny Cameron, Ramez Naam, and Wayne Mulligan.
Day 1 wrapped up with the top 12 ventures from the Food, Fibre, and Agritech Supernode Challenge, pitching for $70K in cash and other prizes!
There is still another day of action left, so watch this space - check out the programme here ๐
๐ฐ Funding highlights
Back by popular demand, here is a quick rundown of the kiwi funding news you should know about:
Climate VC fund led the oversubscribed $2.34M seed round for Cleanery, a Kiwi eco-cleaning and personal care products company
Upstock announced over $5M in an oversubscribed capital raise left open on Tuesday due to investor interest, with a new date set for the end of August aiming to raise $6M
GD1 Crypto Fund 1 announced their first investment into Syndicateโs $6M USD strategic investment round
๐งฌ The State of the Ecosystem
Startup Genome dropped their annual Global Startup Ecosystem Report! Itโs a whopping 388 pages of data from over 3 million companies across 280+ entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems (us included ๐). Some notable points were:
New Zealandโs ecosystem has doubled in value since 2020 to $4.6B
There were seven exits over $50M
Funding for early-stage investors increased by 63%
The NZ government allocated more than $50M in funding to lowering agricultural emissions, developing a national farm planning system, and helping farmers meet freshwater and greenhouse gas requirements by 2025
There were some specific shout-outs to Farmote, Vend, Alimentry, and ArchiPro ๐
Find the full report here (skip to page 288 for all the kiwi content)
๐ And the winner isโฆ
It was a great fortnight for celebrating kiwi startup excellence.
๐ The Chia Sisters were recognised amongst the top female entrepreneurs in the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge
๐ The Wellington Gold Awards finalists were announced
๐ The NZ Hi-Tech awards finalists were announced. There is an epic lineup of kiwi startups in the running, including Hnry, Kara Technologies, Kami, Hectre, and Halter. There are also some incredible leaders like Dr Elizabeth Berryman and Imche Fourie nominated for individual awards ๐
Check out the full list of nominees here!
๐ Speaking of winnersโฆ
Nominations are open for the Reseller News Innovation Awards 2022! There is a dedicated startup innovation section with awards for product, sector, customer value, and entrepreneur. Get in there and nominate your fave kiwi based startup (s) or founder(s) ๐
๐Worth a Read or Listen
๐จโ๐ Unpacking deep tech: The term deep tech gets thrown around a lot, but what does it actually mean? This explainer by Dr Olivia Ogilvie is an oldie but a goodie
๐ Web3 and the future of startups: Explore how Web3 could create a world of new opportunities for the next generation of entrepreneurs
๐ง business is boring: Simran Kaur on Changing the face of investment. Listen to kiwi icon Sim talk about how she created the #1 investing education podcast worldwide and helped thousands of women enter the world of investing ๐ฐ
๐๐ผโโ๏ธย Cool people doing cool things: Meet Elina from Storyo
Storyo is a platform that shares stories of women, gender diverse, and other minority groups in Aotearoa, New Zealand, with over 30,000 unique visitors per year, redefining what success looks like and celebrating everyday people and their stories
Hi Elina! What's your story?
I came to New Zealand 11 years ago, all the way from Kazakhstan, to study Biomedicine. After finishing my Honours and working in a research lab, I went on to do many different roles in government, startups, tech, and consultancy. Everywhere I've been, I could see how equity and diversity issues influence how we build products, teams, and services. So here I was, a passionate youngster who wanted to make the world a better place...
How was Storyo born?ย
After doing some interviewing for his marketing agency, my partner saw how the media narratives are consumed by the "success" stories of, mainly, white males; he said: why don't we try and share different kinds of stories? Stories of women and other gender-diverse folks, more real and vulnerable stories to show a different side of contribution and success, not through a capitalist lens. So here we are, over the last 3 years, we interviewed 170+ people, run events like poetry nights, story exhibitions and talks, made mini-video series and documentaries. Recently I started doing talks and workshops with organisations on storytelling and DEI too.ย
How's it going?
Some recent endeavours include #PassTheMic podcastย about 15 migrant and former refugee background folks and our beautiful mini-documentary for Autism Awarenessย - so freaking grateful for our collaborators, storytellers, and Storyo volunteer team for making all of this possibleย ๐
What's your vision for the future?ย
Ha, big question! There are two sides to what I want to see more of:
1. Community uplifting community through celebrations, relating to one another, sharing stories (which has been most of the Storyo's focus) and also
2. A shift in structures and systems that uphold racism, sexism, ableism, and all other 'isms'.
Organisational leadership needs to take more responsibility for positive action to actually DO something, instead of just talking about how important diversity is for them. We have so many amazing initiatives to support and educate people through structural change - just take a pick and get on this train!ย
Do you have any ask for the community?
I am launching a course on Equitable Product design and development - inviting some of my most amazing friends who work in data ethics, indigenous co-design, and accessibility to build a 6-week course for product practitioners. We just finished a landing page with COLAB cohorts - and if you think this is something you might be interested in or know someone, check it out!ย
Also, just go and check out any of the stories we shared - our storytellers are amazing ๐
๐ผ Cool jobs
Melodics are looking for a Chief Marketing Officer ๐น
Halter are looking for a Head of Design ๐ฎ
SquareOne are looking for a Customer Experience Lead ๐ถ
Want more? Check out the Matchstiq, Icehouse Careers of the Future, HIRE HER and AirTree job boards.
๐คฉย Funding, Accelerators, and Incubators
Applications for the CreativeHQ GovTech accelerator close in early July ๐
Te ลhaka are looking for early-stage startups with global ambition for their incubation program (now offered virtually!)
If youโre based in Canterbury, check out the ThincLab Growth and Pace programmes
The Distiller Incubator is an incubator programme for all my Dunedin-based startup friends!
๐ย Upcoming Events
๐ฅ๏ธ Virtual
Kลkiri 2022 Showcase (23 June) Tune in to celebrate some of the epic startups to come out of the Kลkiri 2022 programme.
Stripe Startup Bootcamp (27-30 June): The Stripe Startup Bootcamp kicks off next week with an epic lineup of virtual events
Climate Response Accelerator 2022 Virtual Showcase (30 June) Listen to the ten teams from the Climate Response Accelerator pitch at the virtual showcase!
๐ฑ๐ปย In Person
Blackbird Aotearoa Roadshow (July) The team at Blackbird is hitting Tauranga, Wellington, New Plymouth and Hamilton to wind up the roadshow and want to meet you!
Stripe x Startmate speed friending (28 June) Friends, friends, and more friends! If youโre in Auckland, come and make some new friends in the startup space
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 Aucklandโs Cordis Hotel ๐
Pitch Coaching workshop (1 July) Join the Stripeย team and Phoebe and James from Blackbird's Aotearoa-based investment team for the tips and tricks around pitching to investors
โจ If you missed her debut, make sure to check out the Kiwi Startup Supercalendar! Sheโs a subscribable google cal pulling together all the events in the NZ startup ecosystem โจ
Thanks for reading, friends! I would love to hear your thoughts via this cheeky one-minute survey, a LinkedIn DM, or a reply to this email ๐
See you next time!
Izzy ๐ฉ๐ฝโ๐ป