Hello Everyone:
WellyForge5 Halloween Edition on Oct 29th is a sell-out, if you cannot now come, please let me know asap, we have a big waiting list. The after-party, “Dead Startups Halloween Party” at Mean Doses on Tory St starting straight-afterwards run by Lane Litz does still have some availability. And I’ll note here that Ruth McDavitt is running an after-after-party, with coffee at CreativeHQ on Dixon Street 8-9am on Oct 30th for anyone in the community that wants to talk about innovation-life with her and others.
The Wellington Ecosystem Map welcomes MyTrove for dealing with post-death paperwork in Kelburn and HELPP Vet, a tele-vet company founded in Island Bay by Katie Barton-Ginger.
Lots of activity up north this week, but planning for Capital Capital is well underway for Nov 13th followed by the WellyForge sponsored Startup Weekend Wellington. Capital Capital will feature morning investment workshops, afternoon will be the high energy Movac Growth Jam - Capital Edition, then in the evening is the annual AngelHQ Showcase with pitches from exciting early-stage companies. WellyForge is sponsoring 10 student tickets for Capital Capital!
And please note (keep safe) and:
The MORGO game event on Thursday has two spaces left, come along and face and solve real-world start-up problems.
Wellington Start-Up Collective on Thursday Nov 6th at 4.30pm - founders talking, absolutely no advice given. None. Registration vital!
A new NZ Cleantech Report is being prepared, please contact [email protected] if you were not in the last report.
Rule #1 - Celebrate the Wins
CEO of Blacklock Security, Nilesh Kapoor, wins Start-Up Entrepreneur at the 2025 Reseller News NZ Innovation Awards. Blacklock are based at Taiawa and offer advanced security testing to over 150 organizations.
Two Wellington Climate-Techs in Aurora Climate Activate, well done to Mela Greeslade, SwellGen and Sarah Shiella Skillen and Jake Nash of WasteXChange, that’s a program being run out of CreativeHQ.
And other recent media coverage of interest:
Hayley Horan appointed CEO of Business Central and Wellington Chamber of Commerce, former Microsoft, NZTE and involved in AI, so should be good for the tech sector.
Marama Labs to raise E10m - they are a Victoria spin-off which has technology to analyse cloudy liquids, and operates out of Wellington and Dublin. This will be a win when they announce they’ve raised that money!
StartUp World-Cup video released by Business Kapiti, looks an awesome event.
Gracefield business case started by KPMG, a Post article about the process underway and the uncertainty it’s causing businesses already established at Gracefield. This is a site in Lower Hutt where local deep tech companies have often move to or start out from. Hard to invest & grow if you might have to leave the area.
Parrotdog set to “list” on Catalist, according to the NBR, the Lyall Bay brewer is going to offer shares to qualified investors on the Catalist platform to provide liquidity to shareholders.
Notion visit to Wellington, express interest! Notion software is increasingly being used by start-ups & others around town, they are planning to visit but are asking for topics to be covered,
Malaghan Institute FY2425 Annual Report, how lucky are we in Wellington to have such as world-class institute as the Malaghan in our mist? This report covers recent findings as well as explaining in basic language some of the amazing science they are doing, some of which is being commercialize by BioOra.
Rule #2 - Understand Your Environment
NZ Institute for Advanced Technology’s AI Platform Plan, the Govt is looking to seed fund 5 major AI projects (up to $250k) based around academic/industrial collaborations. Proposals need to be in by 20th Nov. Not clear if all those 5 projects eventually get funded, or if just 1 does.
NZVC raising $50m fund for early-stage investing [NBR] “aim to back another 50 to 60 founders across NZ and Australia”, NZVC’s first fund has investments in Petone-based Foundry Lab and Vic spin-out Marama Labs (see above)
Rule #3 - Nothing Falls Thru The Gaps
Applied Doctorates in energy research now open for industry & academic partners, apply by Oct 27th
TedXWellington is back and seeking “ideas worth spreading”
Fintech Lab from CreativeHQ, apply by Oct 29th
Rule #4 - Know the Locals
Note: there are many AI showcases going on, we’re trying to pick the ones more generic and more geared towards you all, rather than listing all of them.
NEXT TWO WEEKS:
Wed Oct 22nd, 6.30pm, Wellington Address from Power of Three, celebration of Wellington by Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Te Awe Maori Business Network, and Wellington Pasifika Business Network.
Thu Oct 23rd, 5pm, Wahine Fuelled Tech - Deep dive into Creative Tech, features speakers from animation, games, VR and design.
Thu Oct 23rd, 5-7pm, Morgo Game for Tech Execs - role-play real challenges faced by tech start-ups, you’ll be amazed by the things that have actually happened.
Thu Oct 23rd, 5pm, Digital Health Lightning Talks, first one is Erika Butters talking about Volition and their amazing work with disabled people, along with Scott from Noted.
Thu Oct 23rd, 5.20-7.20pm, AI + Engineering: an altered perspective hosted by Wellington Architects Forum at Asteron House - “human and AI collaboration is transforming software”
Fri Oct 24th, 12-1pm, Vaccines and immunotherapies tailored for T Cell Immunity, Malaghan Institute seminar, Prof Ian Hermans giving an overview of the latest research.
Fri-Mon, Oct 24th-28th, POWER UP! Game Jam for Women, a virtual event but being run out of Wellington by XEquals based on Cuba.
Fri-Sun, Oct 24th-26th, Victoria Design School 50 Year Celebrations, excellent range of talks from alumni that have gone on to great things.
Tue, Oct 28th, 4-6.30pm, AI and HR, at the BNZ Partners Centre, includes talks from AutoHive.
Wed, Oct 29th, 8-9am, Women in Health Tech Coffee at Lab XXCQ in the Deloitte Building.
Weds, Oct 29th, 5-7pm, AI Agents and Agentic AI, a meet up run by Wellington AI group on Level 13, 10 Brandon Street.
Wed, Oct 29th, 7-9pm, WellyForge5 Halloween Edition (Details & Tickets), sponsored by What Founders Want, and note the 9pm+ after party "Dead Startups Halloween Party” (Details & Tickets)
Thu, Oct 30th, 8-9am, Coffee with Ruth McDavitt at CreativeHQ. Open invitation, casual, friendly faces from a range of groups.
Thu, Oct 30th, 12-1.30pm, “Westpac Smarts: Go from asking to automating with AI”, run by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, with local legend JD Trask as key speaker.
Thu, Oct 30th, 6.15-8.00pm, “HerAIStory” being run by the AI Assembly at CreativeHQ.
Fri, Oct 31st, 12-1pm, Getting Started with AI, intro course supported by WellingtonNZ
Fri, Oct 31st, 8-5pm, Royal Aeronautical Society Symposium & Awards being held at Parliament.
Tue Nov 4th, 10.30-11.45am, Eliminating cervical cancer, a lecture by NZer of the Year, Prof Bev Lawton from Victoria at the Embassy Theatre as part of U3A Lecture series.
Wed Nov 5th, 6-7pm, Antarctic Update 2025 by Professor Tamsin Edwards at the Hunter Building at Victoria in Kelburn.
Thu Nov 6th, 4.30-7.30pm, Wellington Start-Up Collective, meet other founders (young & old) and talk through just about anything in a supportive atmosphere
Thu-Sat, Nov 6-8th, Kawaiicon 2025, at the Michael Fowler Center, hacker paradise
Thu Nov 6th, iSANZ (Cybersecurity) Awards Gala Dinner, Shed 6
Fri Nov 7th, 8.30-12, Supercharge your Business Productivity with AI, at Rutherford House, Victoria Uni hosted by Dascha Cooper.
Fri Nov 7th, 12-1.30pm, NZ Product Accelerator Talk, at the National Isotopes Centre at Gracefield in Lower Hutt. Having used this group recently, I can confirm it was excellent in linking us up with experts in a very niche field.
KNOWN, MAJOR, FUTURE EVENTS
Mon-Wed, Nov 10-13th, ICDE (International Council for Open & Distance Education) is being hosted at Takina with AI a major focus
Thu Nov 13th, Capital Capital Summit 2025, a whole day summit for founders & investors, starting with the basics, moving into growth, and ending with the AngelHQ annual showcase. Going be a big day.
Fri-Sun, Nov 14-16th, Start Up Weekend Wellington is Back! Sponsored by WellyForge! Get along, get active, and get things moving.
Mon-Fri, Nov 17th-21st, Pacific Rim International Conference on AI (PRICAI) is being held at Takina 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
Fri Nov 21st, 6pm. Wellington Regional Business Excellence Awards 2025 in Upper Hutt
Fri-Sun Nov 21-23rd, Kiwi PyCon (Python!) at Shed 6
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), 23rd Oct, Kapiti Start-Up Network Meet-Ups
Fridays (every other), 31st Oct, Founders Meet Up at Southern Cross