Hey everybody,
It’s time to get excited about the NZ Hi Tech Awards 🏆 Wellington reps PAM, Starboard, and BioOra have five nominations between them!
Sometimes innovation comes in unexpected forms… sometimes it looks remarkably like a crash pad. Hey, if it brings more collaboration, we’ll take it ✈
This week we have a reminder that it’s not all wins, all the time, and that’s ok: 🫡 to Mevo for bringing urban mobility to Wellington over the past ten or so years. It was a beautiful project that kept on going despite all the headwinds. Go well.
Rule #1 - Celebrate the Wins
Advemto is a finalist for the CYTO 2026 tech showcase, this is the world’s biggest stage for Flow Cytometry, a medical technology Welly is particularly good at.
Evithe goes “from lab to commercial scale in 2 years” on their quest to combat chronic inflammation that is moving to further trials. Welly, are we good at biotech or what.
Our local neighbourhood AI philosopher Andrew Lensen won the Critic and Conscience of Society Award (alongside Rod McNaughton) for his public campaign to discuss how advancements in AI will actually change society, away from maximalist hype and dismissive bubble talk.
Andrew Mayfield’s new book, Thickening Time, which is free to read online, explores “why the years compress and what the science says we can do about it”.
More PAM news, in the form of a Q&A with founder Nicole Retter: From Panic Attacks to App Store Charts.
Atomic.io partners with Volley.nz to deliver a new in-app bank payment system.
Last week I missed the big celebration at Te Matapihi ki Te Ao Nui, Welly’s refreshed library, for Parts Trader’s success. It’s good to see city officials celebrate another massive win for our innovation ecosystem. Keep on forgin’, Welly!
Rule #2 - Understand Your Environment
Wellington is the place to be for Cybersecurity, so let’s see some of our top firms join newly established Cyber Tech NZ 🔐
Over 30,000 people are employed in STEM-related roles in Welly that generate $5.88b in GDP, says WellingtonNZ CEO in reaction to this inspiring think piece on The Press.
Tech New Zealand joins global call for a permanent WTO moratorium on e-commerce tariffs: stub and full report.
…and also publishes a Tech & Innovation Manifesto 2026, advocating for a “commitment to long-term thinking and national alignment”.
New Extraction Tech Will Help New Zealand Capture More Value From its Marine Sector—more fishy business involving Vic Uni, by which I mean cool moves on NZ’s unique Bioeconomy advantage 🐠
“Universities generate more research than any traditional system can fully track’, says a new Kellogg School platform that aims to [Find] the Innovators Hiding in Plain Sight. It’ll be good to see a paper and the actual platform online soon.
Lights, camera, Wellington: Building a film capital for the future is Alex Matthews’ take on the next phase of one of our strongest industries (paywalled).
Reminders:
MBIE want researchers to talk to them re commercialization, Suse Reynolds is chairing the group designing guidelines to implement the new national IP policy, and MBIE is wanting researcher perspectives to inform this group's work.
Rule #3 - Nothing Falls Thru The Gaps
Nothing falls into the harbour 😬 now that the new safety mat is installed at Wellington Airport. Any engineers out there loving a simple solution to a wicked problem? Let’s see if the airlines bring more long haul biznizzzz to town.
BioTech NZ launches a Member Hub, an online community to connect innovators with the people who fund their endeavours. Sounds familiar, love it! Sign up here.
Reminders:
KiwiNet Research Commercialization Awards for 2026 are open to April 17th.
Applications to MBIE’s New Zealand–China Strategic Research Alliance 2026 round open on 4 May.
Rule #4 - Get Inspired, Meet the Locals
Highlighted entries are new from last week.
Coming week:
Wed Apr 1st, 5.30–7pm, “Drug discovery inspired by peptide natural products”, Ferrier Public Lecture by Prof Richard Payne.
Wed Apr 1st, 6–7pm, “AI past, present and possible futures: It’s not rocket science!”, talk at the Royal Society by Bruce Aylward.
Coming eight weeks:
Thu Apr 9th, 10–2.30pm, Pitching & Being Trusted, workshop at Victoria run by Callum and David from Hardwired.
Thu Apr 16th, 2pm, FinTech Festival, Shed 6, celebrate the founders graduating from Fintech Lab 2026.
Mon Apr 20th, 10–4.30pm, Governing for Growth, run by the Angel Association.
Tue, Apr 21st, 5–8:30pm, Cracking the U.S. Market with TaxStudio and Studio Leonelli.
Wed Apr 29th, 5–7:30pm, Aurora Climate Lab launch at Creative HQ.
Sat May 2nd, TEDxVUW, with a theme of THRESHOLD, hosted at Victoria in Kelburn. all speakers announced and tickets are now on sale.
Wed May 6th, AI and Creativity Summit, Wellington edition at Datacom.
May 7th–8th, ANZ Digital Twin 2026 somewhere in Wellington.
Wed May 14th, 5:15–7:30pm, AI for Good New Zealand at The Atom—Interested in speaking? Register your interest here.
Fri May 15th, NZ Tech Rally brings all devs together at Tākina.
Mon May 18th to Sun May 24th, Techweek26 all over Welly
Tue May 19th, 12–6pm, Hutt Valley Manufacturing & Innovation Expo.
The May 21st, 2:00pm, Movac Growth Jam, details and location coming soon
Recurring events:
The Atom at Victoria is open for any unfunded Founders (Students, Early Stage, Idea Stage) and is run by Entrepreneur in Residence, Parisa Shademan - Email [email protected], or join the Facebook community.
Mondays 8–9am, Atom - Founder Mentoring ON-LINE
Weds 12–1pm, Atom - Founder Support Drop-In Hour
Thursdays (every other), 26th Mar 8am, Kapiti Start-Up Network Meet-Ups
Fridays (every other), 27th Mar 5pm, Founders Meet Up at Southern Cross hosted by Jack Shennan, Alistair St Pierre and Adiraj Gupta.