Hello Everyone:
Big shout out to the Startup Weekend Wellington team, AngelHQ, MOVAC, CreativeHQ for putting on a veritable feast of startup activity over the last week. Truly inspiring, and some incredible speakers and collaboration at all levels. Check out:
This week is another huge week in Wellington with international conferences on AI at Victoria, and synthetic biology (SynBio) at Te Papa, along with first meet-ups of new Digital Health and FinTech groups.
Welcome to Velara (surgery scheduler) and Altitude (hotel management) to the ecosystem map, which should now be directly clickable just below:
Tickets are going fast for:
WellyForge6 (The Christmas Edition) on Weds Dec 10th. The second main speaker is a combo: Prof Rob Weinkove from the KiwiNet award winning Malaghan Institute along with the CEO of BioOra, John Robson, who are commercializing the Malaghan’s technology to basically cure certain types of cancer.
Rule #1 - Celebrate the Wins
PAM - Personal Admin Manager is post-revenue! Exciting times for PAM and the very entertaining Nicole Retter as they hit an important milestone.
Troy Hammond’s Talent Army won Agency of the Year at the Seek SARA Awards
Vic Professors Patrick & Tejada license biosensing tech to Winechek, it allows simple, on-site fermentation monitoring tests.
Last week also saw the annual info security awards (iSANZ) with several Wellington winners (in fact, this looks like a clean sweep):
Jonathan du Preez from Meridian Energy being Chief Information Security Officer of the year, and Meridian for best security initiative. (“Working Together”)
CyberTeam is best new business of the year, launching the Specula platform to cut compliance costs and pioneering threat-informed defence strategies.
OutFox is best security company of the year for making info security accessible and inclusive, and launching NZ’s first Cyber Resilience Certification.
Abdullah Al Mamun from Education Payroll is up & coming cyber-security star
Natural Hazards Commission Info Security Team is best Security Team of the Year for building a strong, modern system to protect NZ’s disaster response platform.
Summer of Tech inducted into the Hall of Fame for the tech talent pipeline over the last 19 years.
And other recent media coverage of local interest:
Wellington-based Rabble Evan Henshaw-Plath launches vine-like social video app - diVine.video
Blackpearl to raise further $11.8m and join ASX reports Business Desk. Blackpearl is a SaaS company based in the CBD which uses AI to help small businesses find new customers and is currently just NZX listed.
Starboard Maritime Intelligence open new offices with Chris Luxon, they are now on Brandon St (map updated!).
The Wellbeing Protocol major product upgrade and hum.community brand, they are on a mission to shift power to communities.
Clare Capital have issued their SaaS Metrics 2025 Cheat-Sheet, worth reading because even science companies often have a SaaS component to what they do, and this is the common language to talk to investors about.
Rule #2 - Understand Your Environment
New MBIE IP policy adjusts commercialisation rights for publicly funded researchers. University researchers can commercialise independently; PRO researchers may do so only if their organisation declines first right of refusal. University equity is expected to be limited to ~5–10% if involved. Starts 1 July 2026. KiwiNet is cautiously optimistic, contingent on funding and ecosystem capacity. This is effectively a Kiwi version of “the Waterloo model”.
Rule #3 - Nothing Falls Thru The Gaps
The Fission Project - 8 weeks over summer to get your idea moving by working collaboratively with the team that’s made the Atom such a pumping community - last few spots available!! Make sure you check out the video.
TedX Studio Ideas Wanted! Contact Alex Matthews, this is where they film you professionally giving a TedX style talk for distribution.
Rule #4 - Get Inspired, Meet the Locals
Highlighted entries are new from last week.
NEXT 10 DAYS:
Sat Nov 8th-21st, 10-4pm, Massey Exposure Exhibition, showcase of work in design, arts, screen and music. Check out the multiple events going on as part of the exhibition, and some of the world-class facilities they have access to.
Mon-Fri, Nov 17th-21st, Pacific Rim International Conference on AI (PRICAI) is being held at Rutherford House with plenty of input from the AI people at Victoria
Tue-Fri, Nov 18th-22nd, ANZ for Extracellular Vesicles Conference at Harbourside
Wed-Fri, Nov 19th-21st, Synbio (synthetic biology) is at Te Papa, organized by Mark Calcott
Thu Nov 20th, 5pm, Digital Health Meet-Up - Volition, re-arranged talk, being held at Level 4, Featherson House.
Thu Nov 20th, 6.15-9, Climate Future Film Festival, hosted at the Bhakti Lounge on Vivian Street.
Fri Nov 21st, 10-12, AI and Cybersecurity with international speakers being hosted at Victoria University.
Fri Nov 21st, 6pm. Wellington Regional Business Excellence Awards 2025 in Lower Hutt
Fri-Sun Nov 21-23rd, Kiwi PyCon (Python!) at Shed 6
Mon Nov 24th, 5-7pm, Experience Rapid Learning Cycles, a new project management approach for innovation, interactive session from world leaders being hosted at CreativeHQ.
Mon Nov 24th, 6-7.30pm, Guardians of the Ocean Premiere, being hosted at EarthScienceNZ in Lower Hutt.
Thu Nov 27th, 4.30-6.30pm, BioTech ‘n’ Beers Speaker Series, with WellyForge’s own Ipshita Mandal-Johnson. This seems to be in conjunction with Women in HealthTech.
Thu Nov 27th, 5-7.30pm, TechWomen and CyberCX End of Year, panel discussions, and previews of the year ahead
KNOWN, MAJOR, FUTURE EVENTS
Tue Dec 2nd, 1-3pm, Entrepreneurs Organization Lunch & Learn at QT Hotel
Tue Dec 2nd, 6.30-9.30pm, Game Developers of Wellington - Pitchmas! Turn up and pitch your game, 2 minutes, no slides, I like it.
Tue-Wed Dec 2-3rd, One Health Aotearoa Symposium, being run at U Otago in Wellington covering a wide range of themes (antimicrobial, infectious diseases+)
Thu Dec 4th, 11-12, What is Quality in Healthcare Improvement? Lecture by Prof Vikki Entwistle from Aberdeen talking at Otago in Wellington.
Wed Dec 10th, 7-9pm, WellyForge6 Christmas Edition
Wed Dec 17th 5pm+, Wellington SaaSmas Party Tickets, hosted at Dockside
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), 20th Nov, Kapiti Start-Up Network Meet-Ups
Fridays (every other), 28th Nov, Founders Meet Up at Southern Cross hosted by Jack Shennan, Alistair St Pierre and Adiraj.