Bootstrapped NZ Edition #9
Local and international partnerships 🤝 Is New Zealand's aerospace sector ready for takeoff? 🛫 And re-imagining the future of work 💼
Happy Friday, my friends!
What better way to kick off the long weekend than reliving our ecosystem highlight reel (bonus points if done with a beverage of your choosing ☕)
🤝Better together
Collaboration is clearly the flavour of the fortnight (or so my google alerts tell me) and we absolutely love to see it.
🥝 Local Partnerships
🛒Supie and MenuAid joined forces to offer Kiwis affordable recipes AND ingredients to match
🌊 Tussock innovation partnered with Farmlands and launched their Waterwatch product into the retail market for the first time
🌎 International Partnerships
📚 Komodo announced their new partnership with British Schools in the Middle East (BSME)
🐟 Newfish have joined forces with Amsterdam food-tech company Sophie’s bionutrients to unleash the power of microalgae in developing dairy alternatives
🍄 Off-Piste Provisions will work with Singapore University to develop the next generation of fungi-based meat-mimic products
🎤 Kiwa Digital and Silicon Valley AI-powered translation company XL8 have combined their tech to create a product that can accurately translate scripts in minutes (rather than manual translation which can take days)
🛫 VC on tour
14 representatives of the Aotearoa Venture Capital community are currently in the middle of a one-week intensive experience in the United States, led by NZTE.
While in New York City, Hon Stuart Nash launched a new global investment campaign, “Do Good, Do well”, promoting New Zealand’s values-based business culture to encourage overseas investment into kiwi businesses.
🍃 Callaghan and the Agri-tour
The Callaghan Innovation agritech team are currently touring around the UK and Ireland, to foster more international collaboration in the agritech space.
🚀 Is New Zealand’s space sector ready for takeoff?
The inaugural New Zealand Aerospace Summit took off in Ōtautahi Christchurch, celebrating the fast-growing industry and exploring what the future might hold.
Our space sector is bigger than you might think - contributing $1.69B to the economy and employing 12,000 FTE roles in 2018-2019*
The government used it as an opportunity to:
Open the new aerospace strategy for public consultation AND
Launch a review of New Zealand’s space policy
We’ve already produced aerospace leaders Rocket Lab and Dawn Aerospace. Given roughly 50% of aerospace companies in New Zealand are less than 10 years old, the best is (probably) still yet to come.
*Stats taken from report by Deloitte Access Economics - New Zealand Space Sector: Its value, scope and structure
🚀 Speaking of launches….
🤗 Chillsy launched their app that enables 400+ young people to connect and plan activities
🚀 Aleks and the Sahha team launched on Product Hunt
🖥️ Ianeta and ExplainDev team also launched on Product Hunt
🎵 Other cool stuff
🖥️ Hon Dr David Clark announced the release of the government’s Digital Strategy for Aotearoa
🧪Marama Labs were invited to participate in the exclusive TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco
💉 Douglas Innovation, a new $50M Medical R&D facility, opened in West Auckland
🏠 Westpac NZ Government Innovation fund announced $1M for innovators working on getting New Zealanders into quality homes
🐝 Buzz Club opened their first Taproom in Christchurch at Riverside Market Alleyways
🌊 AgriSea and Scion won a Primary Industries Award at the Kudos Awards, New Zealand’s most prestigious regional science awards for the Waikato and Bay of Plenty
🍄Mushroom supplement startup OtherNature were featured in the Herald (premium) in the lead-up to their official October launch
💺 Henry from Vanteks shared his story in the Otago Daily Times
💰 Funding News
🏠 Green-tech startup Critical. is raising a $750k-$2M crowd equity round. They transform hard-to-recycle plastic into 100% recycled plastic panels. If you’re keen to jump on board as an investor, head here (you don’t have to have millions in the bank to join the journey, investment options start at $100)
😊 Excellent raised $2M in a pre-seed round led by Blackbird Ventures
🍼 Kindello (also known as the Air BnB of childcare) raised $400,000 in their seed round
🔒 Authsignal announced the completion of their $1.5M seed round
📚 Make sure to read about…
💡 The advice that innovators from around the country would give to first-time founders, in NZ Entrepreneur’s 500 Founders project
✨ The awesome work that Māori-led startup accelerator Kōkiri are doing, and read about some of the legends who have come through the programme (like Ezra from Nau Mai Rā and Maxwell from Green Light Escrow)
🙋🏼♀️ Cool people doing cool things: Meet Jo from FutureWork Studio
Hive by FutureWork Studio is a SaaS which unlocks new ways for people to work and learn together, ensuring organisations build a more connected and engaged culture, and upskilling employees through real-time experiences.
Hi Jo! What’s your story?
My journey in entrepreneurship came later than many in the startup environment – I spent the first 20+ years of my career in executive roles for large organisations in New Zealand and different parts of the world. I reached my mid-forties and decided I wanted to make a career change to do something completely different, and so started to explore what that could look like. Having led large scale businesses, building something from scratch, with impact, really appealed….
How was FutureWork Studio born?
My (now) business partner Vincent Vuillard and I were working together at the time and could see that organisations were grappling with how to best prepare for the future of work – leaders could see change on the horizon but knowing where to start was the challenge. We wanted to create an easy way for organisations to make those first steps to work differently. We set up the business in 2019, so at the time the conversation was very early. Then Covid hit, and all of a sudden hybrid and flexible working, and new ways of connecting, became critical and catapulted organisations into the “future of work”.
How’s it going?
We are working with a number of large New Zealand and Australian organisations, including an ecosystem of 15 organisations in Canterbury and are just finalising our first North American customer. We’ve doubled our growth every year, and have developed the platform from a core talent marketplace to also incorporate new and innovative ways of learning and connecting, such as a Mentor module, Coffee Connect (randomised coffee catch ups), QuickHelp for knowledge sharing, and we’re about to launch an agile development module.
It’s been really exciting to grow with our customer’s needs, and to hear the stories about how Hive is making a difference for people.
What’s your vision for the future?
Our vision is to democratise access to opportunities and skills for all employees – so people can bring their full selves to work, and be engaged in areas they are passionate about. Over time this could mean working beyond their current role and organisation – a concept we call ‘extra-lancing‘. The great thing is we see this as a global trend, with our next focus areas being North America and Europe.
Do you have an ask for the community?
If you know of organisations grappling with how to adapt to the changing world of work, and keen to explore new ways for people to work and learn together, we’d love to talk.
🤩 Cool programmes and resources
Kōkiri have opened registrations for the pre-accelerator program
If you’re working on a Web3 Solution, get in touch with Callaghan Innovation for support and add it to the AirTree Web3 Market Map
💼 Cool jobs
Halter are looking for a Business Development Executive
Partly are looking for a Talent and People Ops Manager
Groov are looking for a Head of Design
📆 Upcoming Events
Coffee & Jam with Grater Goods and Leaft (27 September) If you’re a plant food startup, this one is for you!
Startup Council Meetups - Dunedin (28 September)
Startup Breakfast Club October: Raising Capital for startups (6 October) Make sure to bring all your capital-raising questions
Startup Weekend Tairāwhiti (14-16 October)
Making a delicious difference: how three local entrepreneurs have embraced sustainability (19 October) How can we make our everyday tasks more sustainable? If you’re in Porirua, join the Solid team and two other local businesses to find out
✨ If you want to keep up with the latest events, make sure to check out the Kiwi Startup Supercalendar - a subscribable google cal pulling together all the events in the NZ startup ecosystem. If you’re an event organiser, make sure to add your event to Pauli’s event excel spreadsheet and I’ll include it on the calendar✨
I would also love to hear your thoughts via this cheeky one-minute survey, a LinkedIn DM, or a reply to this email 🙌
Ngā mihi nui,
Izzy 👩🏽💻