Innovation Nation 2020 – Otago

Otago-based Jobamatch is an alternative to traditional recruiting and job websites, with an easy-to-use platform that brings employers to job seekers, instead of the other way around.   When COVID-19 began to take off in New Zealand, Investamatch Business Relationship Manager Clare Perry approached Otago’s Chamber of Commerce to see if the platform, one that connects […]

Dunedin startup Living Juicy aims to solve recurring head lice problems in Kiwi families with a solution that’s cheap, easy to apply, non-toxic – and comes with a personal touch. Though during much of this year it was hard to market to schools, Living Juicy founders Joseph (Joe) and Lawata Coote have spent 2020 building […]

Queenstown outdoor adventure business Ziptrek is finishing the year with a range of new business products and approaches, having learned lessons about resilience, innovation and ‘super-niches’ during lockdown. Lesson 1: look at using the infrastructure you already have to bring in new business, even if that means trying to put on a concert up in […]

Inspired by the COVID tracing app, Otago-based startup Equall.app is aiming to help communities and businesses identify and stamp out discrimination. For Duncan Faulkner, a tech entrepreneur from Otago, 2020 was always going to be the year of change. After spending the last five years building and growing Auditz, an app helping small to medium-sized […]

Wanaka entrepreneur Chanelle O’Sullivan has taken a generations-old alcoholic beverage, given it a distinctly New Zealand flavour and has sent it sparkling into the 21st Century. Her startup company Borage & Bee Meadery has launched, with the honey-infused drink rolling out onto shelves around the country and online this month. Unfamiliar with mead? It’s traditionally […]

New online Kiwi marketplace ‘Needed’ aims to provide an ‘income vaccine’ for the growing number of Kiwis looking for a further sense of financial security. Around 5% of Kiwis currently work as self-employed contractors or freelancers* – with that number expected to rise as people seek out multiple sources of income in a pandemic-stricken economy. […]

Founder: James Burnes HQ: Queenstown, NZ When COVID-19 began to shut down the global economy, governments took the extreme step of ordering businesses to shut down that were deemed non-essential. This had a twofold affect: 1) A very limited number of large scale grocers and pharmacies took on the work of exclusively supplying an entire […]

InvestaMatch is the name of a new “matchmaking” portal aiming to make it easier for Kiwi entrepreneurs to find investors. The brainchild of a Central Otago family, InvestaMatch allows business owners and startups to get their business investment opportunity in front of potential investors from around the country by completing a simple form within the […]