Welcome

For years Central Environmental founder, Ian Butcher, had been increasingly frustrated by all the construction waste going to landfill, so he decided it was time to do something about it – and now it’s paving roads in the Manawatu. Since 2002, Central Environmental’s sister business, Central Demolition (which Butcher also founded), has been removing asbestos […]

For a region with only 1% of Aotearoa New Zealand’s population, Marlborough packs a punch, producing 80% of our wine exports each year and driving innovation across a number of sectors. This includes developing AI for mussel farming, being the base for the first electric-powered flight and having an active and supportive angel investment group […]

Five young entrepreneurs have accelerated through the R & D process and are gearing up to take their multi-purpose shaving product to the market. Renee Murphy spoke to the founders. Palmerston North-based company Cutly Limited has developed a shaving product that is made of 100 percent natural ingredients. Suitable for use as a moisturiser, shaving […]

It all started because Lincoln Raikes loves a challenge, and now the stainless steel polished spheres turned out by his company Global Stainless Ltd are sought after by artists globally. He shared his story with Katherine Blaney. Lincoln Raikes started his career as a fitter turner/machinist but found he liked the stainless steel fabrication more. […]

PowerON has a vision of touchy-feely robots – and this will be their strength. There is so much faith in taking PowerON’s sensitive robotic technology to market that the company, which operates between Auckland and Germany, has just oversubscribed and closed its seed round of capital raising, bringing in $3.1m to pay for further R&D […]

When David Sole’s University lecturer challenged him to invent something that would replace 100 years of standard veterinarian practice, he got straight to work, with 2020’s COVID-19 lockdown proving to be a blessing in disguise for the thirty one year old. He spoke to Erin Harrison about his business Soletech. David Sole remembers the exact […]

In the same month Chris Muller won an innovation award for co-developing drone-based VHF radio-tracking equipment for monitoring endangered species, he was challenged with cancer. Instead of throwing him off, Muller doubled down on the goal of revolutionising wildlife tracking and now has customers ready and waiting. Michael Botur tells his story. For three years […]

A Taranaki company offering printed and digital farm management products is minimising inefficiencies for farmers, with the inventor still getting up each morning to rear calves herself. Michael Botur spoke to the founder. Farmers have cultivated our land pretty successfully for hundreds of years, though it wasn’t until the 2010s that Taranaki entrepreneur Gemma Adams […]

Palmerston North business duo Jessica Wong and Micah Hatch founded their ecommerce business The Peach Builder Co. in 2018. Since then, they’ve served over 20,000 customers and have plans for further growth. Renee Murphy spoke to the pair to learn more. When Jessica, a keen gym-goer suffered back pain after lifting heavy weights, she did […]

Our world is changing, and fast. With the pandemic, climate crisis, global economic shifts and rapidly changing consumer markets, it is clear that many businesses of today will no longer be relevant tomorrow. If we want to maintain and support sustainable economic growth while meeting the broader needs of society, we will need an economy […]

From plant-based ‘tuna’, to technology that uses insect odorant receptors to make a device that can smell and taste, Sprout Agritech is boosting agtech and foodtech companies around Aotearoa. Starting as an accelerator based out of The Factory in Palmerston North in 2015, they created their own company in 2019 and now run two cohorts […]

To put together the Wellington software company’s latest artificial intelligence business solution, Arcanum drew upon experienced staff whose expertise brings Silicon Valley to Welly. Michael Botur chatted to CEO Asa Cox. Around the time of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, the team working with Wellington business software developer Asa Cox were called upon […]