In late August about 900 well-healed potential investors filed into Spark Arena with a booklet containing the details of some of New Zealand’s most promising start-ups.
Those start-ups, and their founders, had the chance to present at the Icehouse Showcase, and potentially pull in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fresh investment, needed to help these firms become tomorrow’s Rocket Lab.
Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck gave a speech at the beginning of the night, where he outlined the tremendous potential NZ startups have, which he says is the potential to change the world.
He pointed to his own success in building Rocket Lab from New Zealand, and described how it's now a serious space company competing with the best in the world, from Mahia and Auckland.
The theme this year, if there was one, was that these were mostly science and tech-heavy companies trying to solve difficult problems.
Eleven speakers at varying stages of their founder journey pitched their start-ups to investors from Simplicity’s Sam Stubbs to former National Party president Peter Goodfellow.
Among those pitching for cash was fusion energy company, Openstar, dairy seed system Miruku, natural packaging company Mushroom Material, and medical technology company Alimetry, which has a medical device and system for performing body surface gastric mapping — potentially replacing current invasive tests for those with gastric issues.
Alimetry has pioneered a “fitbit for the gut”.
Alimetry says it has invented a revolutionary diagnostic solution to assess patients with chronic gastric symptoms. It has a wearable medical device which helps diagnose gastric disease by measuring the pattern and intensity of electrical waves in the stomach.
Alimetry came out of years of research done at Auckland University and already has two approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration regulator to allow its technology to be used there.
Co-founder and chief executive officer, Professor Greg O’Grady who is also a surgeon, says clinicians lack the tools needed to reliably diagnose gastric disorders, which contributes to the frustration and suffering of patients.
He says he has seen too many patients go through laborious, invasive and expensive rounds of repeat diagnostic testing, only to end up with inconclusive results and confusion.
The start-up team invented Gastric Alimetry to help address this need. The device is worn over the stomach, and has a “stretchable array” which contains electrodes that collect data by sensing the activity of the stomach.
The Gastric Alimetry test is performed in a clinical setting like those more invasive tests currently available, with recordings taken before and after a meal, while patients input their symptoms into the Gastric Alimetry App.
The Alimetry device is already used in New Zealand hospitals, both clinically and in trials, and has already raised $16 million in 2022 and with that all-important US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval has a real chance at being a global player.
Another firm pitching for funding was Neocrete, a start-up making high-performing, carbon neutral concrete.
The company has a lofty ambition. It says its products are the future of concrete.
Founded in New Zealand in 2018 by Zarina Bazoeva and Matt Kennedy-Good, Neocrete says its story actually began 2,000 years ago in Rome with the building of the Pantheon and other durable concrete structures, which were made with volcanic ash.
Neocrete says it combines the strength and durability of volcanic ash with nano-technology to create low carbon concrete with "the qualities required for modern construction".
The company says it can reduce carbon in concrete by 50%, and wants to eventually produce carbon-neutral concrete.
Neocrete was raising about $4 million to build its first plant, and also looks primed for success with huge interest globally in replacing construction products with more carbon-friendly options.
Each company was pitching for different amounts of money, some had already made it such as Openstar the energy fusion company, while others were still seeking cash to complete their funding rounds.
Among the previous Icehouse successes are farming tech company Halter, beauty business Ethique, Dawn Aerospace and some really big names such as Rocket Lab, toy company Zuru, Sharesies and Pushpay.
Icehouse Ventures says it has pulled in about $380 million in start-up investments through both its funds and investments it has facilitated, and the showcase is a landmark event as it looks to drive more investment into NZ companies.
How the start-ups fared in pulling in investment is yet to be revealed. There are usually weeks, or maybe months, of discussions and negotiations that need to happen before we will get the final investment result.
5 Comments
This is fantastic and needs to be grown hugely from R&D in science and technology, which we unfortunately lag waaaaay behind on. Unfortunately short term political cycles and a short term focussed electorate means that won't change anytime soon. Alimetry shows our universities are super important for the future wealth of the country and investment in them is almost the only way we will grow and keep competitive in the future.
Zuru is interesting. While the toy business is out of this world in terms of what they have achieved, the FMCG business is mysterious. Monday shampoo and Rascal & Friends diapers have these claims surrounding them that suggest they're outperforming the likes of the world's leading brands from P&G, etc. These companies have huge R&D budgets and spend, but that piece of the puzzle seems missing with Zuru. They have financial resources but each business unit does not seem independently large enough to have a sizeable R&D budget that matches the competition.
Nick is already promoting the factory housing business model. Once again, sounds brilliant. But how will they compete with the likes of Panasonic? Few things don't add up to me. Unless of course the Mowbrays are genii. I don't dispute that this might be the case.
Using spent coffee grounds to replace some of the sand in concrete makes the material stronger and could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coffee grounds in landfill. Concrete can be made 29% stronger by incorporating recycled coffee grounds.
An estimated 18 million tonnes of spent coffee grounds are produced globally each year, with most ending up in landfill. Their decomposition in landfill releases methane, which has a global warming effect 21 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2388570-recycled-coffee-grounds-ca…
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