Hey everybody 🥶
The coolest little capital is a little too literal a term this week, but, boy does Welly look pretty in the sunshine! Lots going on with the Aurora Climate Tech Summit taking centre stage among a ton of science and AI talks. The wins are pretty chunky, too, with CullBeck’s record-setting $20M raise for clean tech 🦸
A logistical note: I’ll be a proper European and go on holiday for most of August. I won’t be spending much time on LinkedIn so this means I’ll put together a light newsletter for the next three instalments. Send me your events and wins if you like, so I can share with the community. You can reply to this email, easy-peasy!
Summit of Mt Olympus IRL
Rule #1 - Celebrate the Wins
Holy smokes, congratulations to Vic spinout CullBeck for a $20 million raise to commercialise green steelmaking research! I am told this is NZ’s largest recorded deep-tech first funding round—plus they reportedly have signed a $1B anchor customer 🤩
Amazing work Wellumio with an oversubscribed $9.75 million pre-Series A, including two new international (Aus, US) investors 🍾
Catch OpenStar CEO Ratu Mataira on Bloomberg Tech where he mapped their commercialisation roadmap and levitated dipole approach to clean fusion energy 📰
Welly earns the top spot as the #1 City in ANZ in the 2026 Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards. I agree! Number ooooone! 🏆
Rule #2 - Understand Your Environment
It’s still all about the data centres. We have demand versus regulation, plus an angle I hadn’t considered: NZ-based orgs involved in building elsewhere 🤔
Mercury NZ invests US$30 million for a 12.7% stake in Datagrid's 360MW Southland project to back long-term renewable power for AI datacentres.
Adam Holt highlights how AI infrastructure expansion now demands power capacity equivalent to entire national grids while stressing necessary containment mechanisms.
PM confirms that MBIE and Ministers are crafting a regulatory compact to govern incoming international datacentre investments.
Morrison joins forces with Orange in a $5.9B deal to launch European sovereign cloud and AI datacentres.
There is lots of debate on the financial modelling regarding the Wellington amalgamation proposal by MartinJenkins:
RNZ reports a summary of the model: that establishing a combined Wellington metro authority will cost $270 million upfront, with net structural savings projected to take 25 years to materialise.
The Post reports on current councillors and other commentators who present the model as defined by geographic catchments instead of population size.
Market expansion and needs, and a new Welly aviation connection:
Revolut secures an Australian banking licence to solidify its trans-Tasman stance while awaiting Reserve Bank approval in NZ.
Infometrics research quantified TikTok’s impact on NZ’s economy at $1.2 billion in annual GDP supporting nearly 10,000 jobs.
Chatswood details why New Zealand's insurance market urgently requires local tech transformation.
Air New Zealand will soon launch a direct flight to Western Sydney from Welly.
If you are a startup founder, have a look at Lane Litz’s post on VC Teardowns to get your pitch ready.
Rule #3 - Nothing Falls Thru The Gaps
Local impact:
Creative HQ and Wellington City Council partnered to host Aotearoa's first Claude Impact Lab hackathon on August 8th to build civic AI tools for emergency response.
Check out this Creative HQ profile of Hello Cashflow on building intuitive, visual cash management tools for SMEs worldwide.
An NBR podcast unpacks the Montoux journey, a cautionary note for local founders. navigated aggressive corporate litigation from a major US incumbent.
Hellish menopause turns into thriving supplement business is a nice profile on Ooh La V on The Post.
Nominations are open for two rad opportunities:
The 2026 GEN NZ Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Awards recognise top supporters and ecosystem champions across six categories.
The BioTechNZ Executive Council is all about national biotech advocacy. This is expecially pertinent with the Gene Technology Bill soon going to second reading.
Practical AI implementations in healthcare:
A Pacific healthcare provider cut nurse travel time in half by implementing an AI-powered remote patient monitoring tool.
NZ Health Group can handle two million patient calls by deploying an AI-driven contact centre platform.
As always, take AI hype seriously, but not as fact:
Highlighted in Adam Holt's analysis is coverage of an autonomous agent escaping sandbox constraints during cybersecurity testing.
But it isn’t that clear cut, argues Prof. Michael Witbrock, amplifying commentary from John Thickstun and Sean. This is a caution against self-serving AI panic hype but a recognition of these models' narrow point-solution strength.
Not the most diplomatique way to run an AI headline 🤣
GoGenerosity helps retailers empower their customers to support charities and environmental projects as part of everyday shopping. This week they were picked up by London-based Virtue, but they are sticking around and looking for a part-time Marketing Manager in Wellington.
Anybody wanna buy the “Digital” part of Spark and bring it to the coolest little tech capital?
And what better message to wrap on than this: “EatKinda and Fix & Fogg - two Kiwi brands with big ambitions, taking on the USA”
Rule #4 - Get Inspired, Meet the Locals
Highlighted entries are new from last week.
Coming week:
Tonight, 5:45–7pm, Café Scientifique: Life at the (plate) boundary, at Southern Cross.
Tonight, 6–7:30pm, John Lekner Royal Society Lecture: Electroporation in Cancer Therapy, and Beauty in Physics.
Tonight, 6–8pm, NZ Tech Rally Meetup: AI assisted coding: Productivity, fatigue or tech debt.
Thu, Jul 30th, Aurora Climate Tech Summit. Apparently the Ambassador of Spain will be there, so wear your formal Birkies, Welly 🎩 🩴
Thu, Jul 30th, 12–2pm, Supercharge your Business Productivity with AI at Rutherford House.
Thu, Jul 30th, 5–6.30pm, Showcasing insurance-related data projects and insurtechs in Wellington.
Fri, Jul 31st, 4:30–6:30pm, Biotech ‘n’ Beers: Speaker Series with Prof Emily Parker.
Fri, Jul 31st, 4–5:30pm, John Daniel Trask at AI and Society.
Mon, Aug 3rd, Building world-class Fintech from Wellington.
Tue, Aug 4th, 7:30–8:30pm, Subterranean Critters: Understanding Biodiversity Aotearoa.
Coming eight weeks:
Wed, Aug 5th, 7-7:45pm, The changing landscape of allergic disease research and treatment by immunology legends Franca Ronchese and Maia Brewerton, online. ICS link here, Teams link is dodgy.
6–7 Aug, the AI Hackathon is back at AWS 🛠
Fri, Aug 7th, 4–5:30pm, Putting Human Rights at the Centre panel at AI and Society—ticketed, look for info later.
Tue, Aug 11th, Digital Trust Hui Taumata at Te Papa.
Tue, Aug 11th, The CEO Table gathers eight leaders under Chatham House to discuss the topic of ‘Governing for the Future: Rethinking the purpose of boards inside growing New Zealand businesses’.
Wed, Aug 12th, Shadow Tech offers girls in years 9-11 an opportunity to discover the world of tech, spark their curiosity and explore career pathways.
Fri, Aug 14th, 2—4pm, GTM Engineering: automate, scale, win by KiwiSaaS.
Wed, Aug 19, 12:30pm, AI and digital transformation in Allied Health Scientific and Technical webinar by Health Informatics NZ.
Aug 24–25, GEN NZ Unconference and Workshops at Rutherford House. I’ll post more about this soon 🙂
Tue, Aug 25th, 7:15–8:30am, Beehive to Business session six by Chamber of Commerce.
Fri, Sep 4th, 4–5:30pm, The AI-driven future of biotechnology in New Zealand at AI and Society.
8–9 Sep, Aotearoa AI Summit at Tākina.
Fri, Sep 11th, 4–5:30pm, All the time in the world: AI-driven computation hones lab work and frees human hands and brains for creative work at AI and Society.
Mon, Sep 14th, 5–7pm, Summer of Tech Intern Job Fair at Hnry Stadium ✨
Thu, Sep 24th, SaaSpocalypse Now at Hnry Stadium, early bird to Aotearoa’s premier SaaS gathering by hosted by KiwiSaaS.
Much later:
Fri, May 7th 2027, NZ Tech Rally on a Super Early Bird launch.
Recurring events:
The Atom at Victoria is open for any unfunded Founders (Students, Early Stage, Idea Stage) and is run by Tania Jones, with entrepreneurs in Residence, Parisa Shademan, Jack Shennan, and Alistair St Pierre and investors in residence Dave Moskovitz, Aaron Scott + Ralph Highnam. Email or join the Facebook community.
Mondays 8–9am, Atom Founder Mentoring online.
Weds 12–1pm, Atom Founder Support drop-in hour.
Thursdays (every other) at 8am, Kapiti Start-Up Network meetups.
Fridays (every other) at 5pm, Wellington ENTrepreneur meetup at Southern Cross.