WellyForge - 16th July 2025

Forging a dynamic, vibrant, science & city innovation culture

Author

Ralph Highnam
July 16, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Hello Everyone:

WellyForge2 on 30th July is filling up for Optimation and OpenStar with just 10 tickets left. Litmaps have kindly agreed to sponsor the event [TICKETS].

WellyForge3 on 20th Aug is now live, we have the Wellington City mayoral candidates talking about tech, science & innovation, MCed by Peter Griffin [TICKETS].

Note the celebrations of the Booster/Victoria relationship on August 7th, over $7m invested into 13 start-ups, that’s 80+ local jobs and over $200m enterprise value, that’s a great start!

Okay, we have redesigned the layout for the rest of this email, please let us know if you have any further suggestions - there’s so much going on! (what a great problem to have).

Rule #1 - Celebrate the Wins

  • Roady (based at Taiawa) celebrates 25,000 downloads of their travel app in Australia since launching last month. NBR article.

  • ikeGPS (started in Wellington, offices on Boulcott Street) do software to help maintain utilities pole infrastructure especially in the US have an underwritten A$22m capital raise underway via the NZX/ASX. NBR article.

  • Black Pearl who are an AI company here in Wellington helping “drive business action”, have announced plans to buy US start-up B2B Rocket for US$5m+ subject to certain conditions (like listing on the ASX). NBR article. 

And recent media coverage:

Rule #2 - Meet the Locals

Thurs 17th July, 5.30pm, Hutt Valley Innovation Talk Series, talks include Glen Cameron & Steve Cowper talking about biometrics and identity; David Morrison talking about “How to Do a Good Job with AI”

Friday 18th July, 4-5.30pm Rutherford House (RH105), “New Zealand’s AI Strategy: A first look” run by Professor Ali Knott from Victoria. [TALK INFO]

Weds 23rd July, 5.30-6.30pm, Fabian Society will be hosting Rob Campbell, Tim Naish & Michael Baker to consider how to get political decision makers to understand evidence. That’s at 2/57 Willis St. [TICKET & INFO] 

Thurs 24th July, 5.30-7.00pm, Quantum Frontiers event at the British High Commission with Prof Andrew Daley from Oxford and Dr Nathaniel Davis from the Dodd-Wallis Centre. Please contact James Araci ([email protected]) if interested.

Friday 25th July, 4.30pm, Biotech & Beers, Fortune Favours.

Weds 30th July, 12 noon, Deep Tech Network Lunch hosted by the MacDiarmid Institute at the new offices of Advemto, contact: Kevin Sheehy

Weds 30th July, 6-8pm, WellyForge2 at Undercurrent on Tory Street, main speakers will be Neil Butler, founder of Optimation and Hi-Tech Award winner along with one of the top execs at OpenStar Technologies. We’ll also have three short introductory talks, including from Jack Weekly, founder of Bupper, NZ’s first quantum computing company and two PhD students [TICKETS].

Thurs 31st July, 12.30pm, Hutt Valley Science Community Meeting

Thurs 31st July, 4.30-7pm, Wellington Start Up Collective at CreativeHQ, come along for lots of non-advice (please do register).

Friday 1st Aug, 4.30pm at Dockside, Talent Army’s 10th Anniversary Party

Thurs 7th Aug, 5.30pm, at Rutherford House, Booster & Victoria celebrate 7 years of partnership which has seen $7.2m invested into 13 spin-outs, leading to 80+ jobs and a combined enterprise value of over $200m [TICKETS]

Mon Aug 11th Quantum & Infrastructure Events in Wellington with Dr Cathy Foley (invite only, organized by Zahra Champion).

Tue/Wed Aug 12/13th at AWS offices in Wellington, AI Hackathon Festival 2025 run by AI Forum of New Zealand

Weds Aug 13th, NZ Energy Excellence Awards in Wellington

Weds Aug 13th, 6-7.30pm, Professor Richard Beasley who runs the Wellington-based Medical Research Institute of New Zealand and was the 2024 Rutherford Medal winner will be talking at the Royal Society about his research and how it has directly influenced patient care especially around asthma.

Weds Aug 20th, 6-8pm, WellyForge3 with Peter Griffin and the mayoral candidates for Wellington City - what are their plans for economic prosperity and how do they see science & tech playing into them? [TICKETS]

Aug 27th-30th, RustForge is in Wellington run by Tim McNamara with plenty of Wellington speakers, including OpenStar, who are using Rust to “design a superconducting magnet powerful enough to lift an aircraft carrier”.

Nov 19th-21st, Synbio (synthetic biology) is in Wellington, organized by Mark Calcott from Vic Uni.

Recurring Events:

The Atom at Victoria is open for any unfunded Founders (Students, Early Stage, Idea Stage) and is run by Entrepreneur in Residence, Adiraj Gupta:

  • Mondays 8-9am, Atom - Founder Mentoring

  • Weds 12-1pm, Atom - Founder Support Drop-In Hour

  • Fridays (Every Other), 25th July, Atom - Founder Meet Up at Southern Cross

  • Kapiti Start-Up Network Meet-Ups (every 2 weeks), 17th July

Reminders:

Rule #3 - Understand the Wider Environment

Rule #4 - Your Local Community Index

WellyForge