NZ has a thriving technology start-up ecosystem with many organisations working together to provide Kiwi founders with support, knowledge, funding and connections throughout their entrepreneurial journeys. In this four-part series by NZ Growth Capital Partners we meet technology start-ups from a range of industries and the people helping them grow. This week, Cropsy.
About Cropsy
Cropsy was founded in 2019 by Leila Deljkovic and Ali Alomari (later joined by co-founders Rory Buchanan and Winston Su) with a vision to transform fruit-growing for people and planet through ground-breaking technology.
Cropsy’s purpose is to unlock the full potential of growers’ land with insights that were previously impossible to achieve. They’ve created a complete vineyard management system that’s powered by real-time AI and tracks the performance of every vine. Their technology allows growers to understand their whole crop, and track how it changes over time. In a nutshell, this means to bring omniscience to fruit-growing.
With the team’s focus on viticulture, they’ve been able to build novel hardware that allows growers to better understand an entire crop without disruption to their daily operations. Within the wine sector, they are developing strong relationships with early adopters of tech innovation such as Pernod Ricard winemakers.
Funding from investors enable the likes of the Cropsy team to grow, to continue their research and development (R&D), expand, and get their technology into the hands of more users.
Kiwi investors are passionate about making a difference, about the impact they can make and the opportunity to help the next NZ business get started. As an angel investor we help transform the next big idea into reality, by helping pave the path to commercialisation. And that path to commercialisation is not just about developing a viable business model for monetising technology, it’s also about helping to future-proof the business to grow and scale that technology, usually in offshore markets and often deploying a beachhead strategy.
Tracey Atkin – Angel Investors Marlborough (AIM)
Watch
Programmes and partners
Sprout: Accelerator 2021
Startmate: Accelerator 2021
AGMARDT: Grant
Phase One Ventures: Networking & Mentoring
NZTE: Advisory, InvestHER 2021 Investment Showcase (with ARC Angels)
Callaghan Innovation: Getting Started Grant, Career Grant, R&D Loan
Investors
NZGCP, Angel Investors Marlborough (AIM), K1W1, Icehouse Ventures, Angel HQ, Enterprise Angels, Impact Enterprise Fund
About NZ Growth Capital Partners
NZGCP is a Government entity that exists to support New Zealand early-stage businesses and investors to be world-class. We operate two funds:
Our Aspire NZ Seed Fund invests directly into early-stage Kiwi technology start-ups alongside other like-minded investors.
Our Elevate NZ Venture Fund is a fund of funds, investing into venture capital firms; aimed at filling the Series A and B capital gap for high-growth New Zealand technology companies.
Check out the new Start-up Resources content on NZGCP’s website to find support for founders and investors within our technology start-up ecosystem
