Showcase, an annual event run by Icehouse Ventures - a big investor in start ups here in New Zealand Photo: Zahn Trotter
At the Icehouse Showcase, tech startups vie for the attention - and cash - of some of New Zealand's richest, in a stark contrast to the economic slump across the country.
After years of relentless headlines about recessions, unemployment and the crippling cost of living, for many it feels like the economic doldrums are here to stay.
But that's not the case for one tiny community in New Zealand.
Money is flowing into high-tech startups, as captured one night last week when 1000 of the country's wealthiest people gathered for a banquet at Spark Arena where they were asked to pledge millions of dollars.
The event is so exclusive you can't buy a ticket, but those carefully selected guests are told that they are transforming the future of Aotearoa.
"It's a very curated group," said event organiser, Icehouse Ventures chief executive Robbie Paul. "So its 1000 investors in the room, some representing big families, some prolifically wealthy, some not prolifically wealthy but still really bullish on this space. Folks from all walks of life."
Robbie Paul is the Chief Executive of Icehouse Ventures Photo: Smoke Photography Ltd
One investor also told The Detail that among the guests were rich foreigners eyeing up the local tech companies and tapping into the newly relaxed 'golden visa' requirement.
The nine entrepreneurs had four minutes each to pitch their ambitious projects and persuade the room that they were the ones to back.
They ranged from a pioneer in sustainable space travel to technology that fools hackers, to a carbon free product created by a team of geologists and engineers. Some already have millions invested and are already international.
Interest was so strong in Dawn Aerospace, said Paul, that before its co-founder Stefan Powell even got on the stage to pitch, an investor at Showcase had made a commitment.
"That's pretty unique to not even wait for the presentation to happen," he tells The Detail.
Co-founder and chief scientist at Opo Bio, Laura Domigan, said investors were messaging interest on the night. Opo Bio is New Zealand's first cultivated meat company that specialises in cell line development for biomanufacturing.
Laura Domigan, co-founder of Opo Bio Photo: Sharon Brettkelly
The firm has already raised most of the funds in its latest round of $1.8 million, which will be used to prove its new animal-free collagen product and produce it at scale.
"We're really just looking for an extra couple of hundred thousand," said Domigan.
"There's a feeling of optimism. I think there's a feeling that, okay if we can sort ourselves out, get our productivity going and actually start bringing these products to market, that we could see a real step change for New Zealand."
Sharesies co-founder Leighton Roberts tells the crowd that his company was seen as "uninvestable" eight years ago because there were six young co-founders, some of them couples.
"It turns out there's a bit of a recipe for startup investing and I think this has changed over time but eight years ago that was a thing and we didn't fit that recipe."
Roberts said one of his favourite statistics is that roughly every 15 to 20 minutes, $1m goes through the investment platform.
"It took us the best part of a year to get the first million dollars in total and now we get those sort of numbers, 750,000 New Zealanders, close to 150,000 Australians and customers in 10 countries using a B2B [Business to Business] product."
Investor and Icehouse director Anne Catley said a new trend is the investment in New Zealanders overseas. She said it should not be seen as a brain drain but an opportunity.
"It's part of a mature ecosystem, people go away, some come back. There's opportunities that come out of it."
A small number of Kiwi startups have now broken the billion-dollar mark in value but not all survive and thrive, said Paul. Of the 120 startups that have presented at Showcase in the last 15 years, 26 have failed, 12 have sold and the rest are still going.
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