Hello Everyone:
See you all tonight at another sold-out Undercurrent for WellyForge7, or before at the KiwiSaas drinks at Mean Doses. Thank you to Ariane Tuapola and Rare Diseases NZ for sponsoring the event tonight.
This is the last weekly newsletter hand-crafted by Ralph, we have plans underway for what’s next, but please help us by filling out the WellyForge survey form and communicating directly with Hercules, Kevin, Ipshita and Maddie tonight or via email (first name @ wellyforge.nz).
Okay, let’s get going: PolicyCheck (“Document Intelligence for Insurance”) has been added to the EcoSystem Map:
Rule #1 - Celebrate the Wins
FinTechNZ Audience Choice = Feijoa - (their website)
Volition Showing the Love for Do AI (one of the 40 Taranaki Crew)
MRINZ show stroke intervention works, one of Wellington’s hidden gems, Medical Research Institute of NZ looking at the “Take Charge” intervention. They follow that up showing paracetamol and ibuprofen are both safe in the under 1s.
VEX Robotics World Champs - award-winning Whitby kids part of KiwiBots have been selected to compete over in Missouri later this year (and need help getting there! If you can help, let [email protected] know).
Toast Electric hits 3,000 customers, NZ’s only not-for-profit electricity retailer.
Woolchemy finalist in INDEX Nonwovens Awards, our local wool experts
And other recent media coverage of local interest:
Tasmanion’s founder Dr Shalini Divya profiled by CreativeHQ.
AI in Game Development - experts including Mario Wynands from PikPok weigh-in
NZ Post’s Data Pipelines with Catalyst, optimized and scalable.
Revolut set up HQ in Wellington - “the world’s fastest-growing fintech”
Rule #2 - Understand Your Environment
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:
NZGCP to trial a new pre-seed fund, Scout - NBR story about NZ Growth Capital Partners plans to write the first commercialization cheques for promising start-ups.
Bridgewest Ventures Fund first close $55.3m, much of it apparently from the Active Investor Plus programme. Let’s get that money, Wellington.
Poland now in top 20 largest economies, this caught my attention because of the way they talk about educating the kids, investing into universities, and “climbing up that ladder of added value. “
Rule #3 - Nothing Falls Thru The Gaps
CreativeHQ is launching a Scale Up Wellington program, fast growing companies apply by 27th March
Wellington Gold Awards entries are now open, deadline is March 31st.
Royal Society, Research Honours 2026, deadline 31st March 2026
KiwiNet Research Commercialization Awards for 2026 are open to April 17th.
Rule #4 - Get Inspired, Meet the Locals
Highlighted entries are new from last week.
NEXT 10 DAYS:
Wed Mar 18th, 4pm, KiwiSaaS “Summer Sunset Drinks” at Mean Doses
Wed Mar 18th, 7pm, WellyForge7 at Undercurrent, ticket & full details
Thu Mar 19th, 8-9am, Cafe Complexite at the Atom
Thu Mar 19th, 5-8pm, Tech for Good with the French Embassy - Liquium, Kelvius, Farm Medix and along with Pierre Malou, CEO of Vic Univentures.
Thu Mar 19th-22nd, Wellington Animation & Film Festival at the Roxy in Miramar
Thu Mar 19th, 5.30pm, Professor Pamela Bell inaugural lecture “Learning by doing: five lessons from failure in life, university and the built environment”, this is at Vic’s Design School.
Thu Mar 19th, 7-8pm, “Active plate tectonics on early Earth” a GSNZ meeting being held in Old Government Buildings at Vic.
Fri-Sun Mar 20-22, Industry Dayz at Miramar Creative Centre, From Dream to Reality, how do ideas become viable projects? how do you collaborate??
Fri Mar 20th, 3pm, Rare Beer Challenge at The Malthouse, this is a fun event, and about raising awareness and funds for people living with rare disorders.
Sat Mar 21st, Code Camp Wellington hosted at Xero and Trade Me.
Mon Mar 23rd, 6.30pm, Antarctic Film Festival with Alexander Hillary at Victoria (repeated on the Tuesday in Paekakariki)
Tue Mar 24th, 7.50-9.30am, British High Commission - Frontier Technology Event at Te Papa. Dr Gabriel Bioletti from OpenStar and other guests celebrating UK/NZ collaborations and the UK’s frontier tech priorities. [email protected] (this is essential).
Tue Mar 24th, 5-7.30pm, AI Engineering MeetUp at Hnry - personal AI assistants, security swarms and automated code reviews.
Wed Mar 25th, 5.30-7.30pm, AI in Action with Google & TradeMe, includes pizza…
Thu Mar 26th, 6-8.30pm, Co-Founder Hunt Meetup at CreativeHQ
KNOWN EVENTS NEXT 4 WEEKS
Mon Mar 30th, 9am-2pm, Quantum Discovery Workshop, Tech NZ and the NZ Institute for Advanced Technology want your input.
Tue Mar 31st, 3.30-5pm, MedTech iQ meets Taiawa, MedTech IQ aims to foster med tech innovation across NZ, this is the Wellington branch hearing from Taiawa’s various biotechs (Evithe, UunaFit, Inhibit) - this will be at Taiawa, Level 5 Rutherford House.
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.
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
Sat May 2nd, TEDxVUW, with a theme of THRESHOLD, hosted at Victoria in Kelburn
Tue May 19th, 12-6pm, Hutt Valley Manufacturing & Innovation Expo
RECURRING EVENTS
The Atom at Victoria is open for any unfunded Founders (Students, Early Stage, Idea Stage) and is run by Entrepreneur in Residence, Adiraj Gupta - 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.