Thanks to a quick-witted government, compliant population and geographical fortitude, Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa is the nation’s Maori name) has suffered the effects of COVID-19 less than perhaps any other developed economy on earth. Businesses are open, workers are heading to the office – and the country’s budding startup scene is pushing on with—domestically at least—little headwind.
According to a 2020 report by NZTech, a trade body, Aotearoa New Zealand was home to almost 20,000 tech companies in 2019, up 3% from 2018, employing just under 115,000 staff (of a nationwide workforce of 2.7m). Today tech contributes around 8% of the country’s GDP – a significant level given its infancy. Kiwi tech exports are growing at a 15% CAGR. So fast has tech grown that startups are struggling to find the right hires – something the coronavirus crisis has worsened.
Given its location in the Pacific Ocean, straddling antarctic and tropical climates, it’s unsurprising that biotech firms comprise a large number of Aotearoa New Zealand’s tech startups.
Yet fintech is the nation’s fastest-growing tech sector. Its $241m revenue represents over a quarter of tech’s output on the islands. With more and more companies eyeing relocations due to the pandemic or political instability, expect Kiwi tech to become a lot more prominent.
But which three companies stand out more than the rest? It’s a tough task, but here is a trio of firms doing interesting things, to look out for this strange and promising year.
1. PredictHQ
Founded in 2015, Auckland’s PredictHQ is a B2B demand intelligence brand that has raised $33.5m, and has large-scale clients including Domino’s, Uber and Booking.com under its belt. Founders Campbell Brown and Rob Kern have pivoted to helping multinationals spearhead their emergence from COVID-19, doing things such as forecasting live sports TV to help food outlets get back in the black.
2. Halter
Halter is a smart collar for cows – a good bet for a country with a high level of livestock per capita (there are roughly 6.11m bovines and 5m humans in Aotearoa New Zealand). The solar-powered and mobile-commanded wearables help farmers remotely fence their stock, and keep track of key metrics including when a cow is in heat. It allows farmers to hold cows without fences, draw invisible lines around their land, and streamline the dairy and meat industries at scale.
3. Nyriad
Hamilton, Waikato-based Nyriad has raised a shade under $24m since its 2014 founding. The firm uses leading-edge tech to help businesses manage their data storage needs, developing a “unique software architecture which enables their High-Performance Storage Controller to take advantage of the unique processing characteristics of the CPU and GPU.”