Hello Everyone:

Thank you to everyone that attended WellyForge4 last week, the speakers were great and we particularly liked the way people were still socializing an hour afterwards. You can read Dascha Cooper or Diana Minnee’s report. This is Matt Hayter on the Undercurrent stage telling us about why ProjectWorks won the HI TECH Emerging Company award:

Last week an Australian VC approach me for a chat, it was great to be able to name check a series of Wellington companies that might be of interest to them. Make sure you are on the Ecosystem Map. On that subject, we’re keen to understand numbers of start-ups per year that get started in Wellington, expect requests for info - great to read about Feijoa, NextWork, OutFox and OrbaShoes this week.

Of the things listed below, please particularly note these:

• Vision for Wellington event this week, Thu Sept 25th, 5-6.30pm, Harbourside with the WCC mayoral candidates - the local elections are very important for many things including region-wide innovation planning, see the Vision for Wellington report, and make sure you vote!!

• WellyForge5, the Halloween Edition, will be Weds Oct 29th 7-9pm, please delete earlier calendar invite and click the link to register for tickets.

• The Govt AI & Procurement announcements.

Rule #1 - Celebrate the Wins

• PHF Science (the new ESR) wins Trailblazer in AI Innovation at the AI Forum for their AI-driven digital twin of NZ’s population (ALMA) allowing simulation of many different scenarios, such as disease outbreaks. PHF Science is based in Porirua. We need to get them on stage.

• Andrew Lensen at Victoria wins “Rising AI Star” at the AI Forum Awards for leadership, scholarship and contribution to NZ’s AI community. With the biggest AI & data department in ANZ, great to see them venturing outside.

• Start-Up World Cup Finalists - 5/13 from Wellington, we need that $1m, Wellington! Being held in Kapiti - CreativeHQ are running a bus from Wellington.

• Feijoa “Open banking meets Kiwisaver” [The Post], founders Ben Davin and Mark White-Robinson both appear to be Wellington based. More for the stage.

• Personal Admin Manager (PAM) has done a first close of $500k [NBR] in a $800k raise, well done Nicole Retter. Investors included Flying Kiwi Angels, Icehouse and AngelHQ.

• TEQ Talk Sell-Out, last Thursday saw the latest TEQ talk featuring Wellington film & gaming companies all coordinated by Jason Galeon and others. It was excellent, and an awesome way to bring film, games and tech together. Listening to the talks it reminded me again how similar scientists are to creatives, particularly around needing to keep exploring, but also seeking perfection.

And recent media coverage of local interest:

• MBIE announces $70m funding over 7 years for ambition, high-impact AI research as part of the NZ Institute for Advanced Technology - let’s make sure a big chunk of that comes into Wellington!! There is a focus on industry/academic partnerships.

• NZ Govt announces centralization of $13Bn digital IT procurement [Post] sounds positive, BUT, will it kill innovation as local champions will not be able to try stuff out? See Post article from Andrew Bowater from Orion Health.

• Matt Hayter from ProjectWorks talking on Startup Founders Club

• Advemto (spin out from Vic) have dropped an excellent 1 minute video explaining, simply, what they do and why as part of their Biotools Innovation work. Of course, we’re not saying this, but if you like that video then that could be another $10k for the Wellington based start-up!!

Rule #2 - Meet the Locals

Weds Sept 24th, 6.30pm, Angel HQ | Booster Event to hear from 3 companies funded by the Booster Innovation Fund (Wellumio, Inhibit and Macso) [Enquires to Melissa Yiannoutsos]

Thu Sept 25th, 5-6.30pm, “From Vision to Action” at Harbourside Function Venue, hear the WCC mayoral candidates respond to the Vision for Wellington report & ideas.

Thu Sept 25th, 7-8pm, “Earthquakes on the Alpine Fault” by Prof John Townend in the Old Govt Buildings at Vic. (Btw, I’m fascinated by these talks because of the quakes and the science, but also the tech behind the computing).

Thu-Sat, Sept 25-27th, NZ Game Developers Conference 2025 at Takina, celebration of NZ’s gaming industry

Fri Sept 26th, 4.30-6.30pm., BioTech N Beers “From Banks to BioTechs” the John Robson & BioOra story at 76 Manners St.

Tue Sept 30th, 6-8pm, Ask an Astrobiologist at Vic, three top astrobiologists talk about many deep subjects, like, how did life begin?

Thu Oct 2nd, 12-1pm, “Geophysical Sensing Using Distributed Acoustic Sensing” by Prof John Townend in Kelburn

Thu Oct 2nd, 5.30-6.30pm, “Making Clean Metals” by Prof Chris Bumby at the Hunter Building at Vic (Inaugural lecture)

Fri Oct 3rd, 5-5.30pm, “AI in Government 201”, at Rutherhood House, Victoria.

Tue Oct 7th, 8.30-10.00am, Sustainable Business Network. Victoria and the MacDiarmid Institute are co-hosting a network meeting at the Marae at Victoria

Thu Oct 9th, 5-8.30pm, Startup World Cup, NZ Final hosted in Kapiti

Fri-Sun, Oct 10-12th, Startup Weekend Wellington at Rutherford House

Tue Oct 14th, 1-4pm, AI Supercharge Build Your First AI Agents at Rutherford House with Serge van Dam and Dascha Cooper

Thu Oct 16th, 8.30am-6pm, AI for Adults: A Mind-blowing Exploration for Tech Companies, Level 12, Rutherford House, organized by Taiawa & Vic.

Fri-Mon, Oct 24th-28th, POWER UP! Game Jam for Women, a virtual event but being run out of Wellington by XEquals based on Cuba.

Wed, Oct 29th, 7-9pm, WellyForge5 Halloween Edition (Tickets & Calendar Invites, details to come)

Thu Nov 6th, 4.30-7.30pm, Wellington Start-Up Collective, meet other founders (young & old) and talk through just about anything in a supportive atmosphere

Thu-Sat, Nov 6-8th, Kawaiicon 2025, at the Michael Fowler Center, hacker paradise

Thu Nov 6th, iSANZ (Cybersecurity) Awards Gala Dinner, Shed 6

Mon-Wed, Nov 10-13th, ICDE (International Council for Open & Distance Education) is being hosted at Takina with AI a major focus

Mon-Sun, Nov 17-23rd, KohaCon25, conference for the world’s open source library system (Koha).

Mon-Fri, Nov 17th-21st, Pacific Rim International Conference on AI (PRICAI) is being held at Takina with plenty of input from the AI people at Victoria

Wed-Fri, Nov 19th-21st, Synbio (synthetic biology) is at Te Papa, organized by Mark Calcott

Fri Nov 21st, 6pm. Wellington Regional Business Excellence Awards 2025 in Upper Hutt

Fri-Sun Nov 21-23rd, Kiwi PyCon (Python!) at Shed 6

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 - Email [email protected] , or join the Facebook community.

• Mondays 8-9am, Atom - Founder Mentoring ON-LINE

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

• Thursdays (every other), 25th Sept, Kapiti Start-Up Network Meet-Ups

• Fridays (every other), 3rd Oct, Atom - Founders Meet Up at Southern Cross

Reminders:

• TedXWellington is back and seeking “ideas worth spreading”

• Taiawa incubator has space - contact [email protected] for details

• Fintech Lab from CreativeHQ, apply by Oct 29th

Rule #3 - Understand the Wider Environment

• N/A (but see the AI & NZ Govt IT announcement above)

Reminders:

• Applied Doctorates in energy research now open for industry & academic partners (NB: Reach out if you are in industry and want us to find you a local academic!).

Rule #4 - Your Local Community Index

• AngelHQ for contacting the local angel community

• Angelic Drop In (ADI) Clinics in Wellington, and general info

• Atom at Victoria, contact Entrepreneur in Residence, Adiraj Gupta

• Ecosystem Map 

• Glean Report for a full round down of knowledge events in Welly

• LabMates for scientists of any career stage to connect & collaborate

• MacDiarmid Institute invites companies with R&D challenges to present to their Science Advisory Panels for science matchmaking

• Momentum for students with ideas

• Morgo for NZ entrepreneurs (run from Wellington by Jenny Morel)

• Movac, Wellington’s local VC

• Start-Up Coaching (Free, via CreativeHQ)

• Start-Up Wellington (the people behind Start-Up Weekend)

• Taiawa Wellington Tech Hub (WCC/Vic), run by Dascha Cooper

• Virtual CXO’s, you can filter under each role for Wellington

• Wellington Gold Awards (Hall of Fame)

• Wellington NZ Business Support

• Wellington Start Up Collective to meet non-advising fellow start-up nuts

• WhatFoundersWant useful stuff from Wellington-based Lane Litz

WellyForge