Non-profit trust Ministry of Awesome, which has developed a start-up pipeline with support from Christchurch City Council’s economic development agency, ChristchurchNZ, says founder-led innovation is on the rise as newcomers gravitate to the city to grow their businesses.
Start-ups are applying AI, fintech and satellite connectivity as solutions to problems costing industries time, money and trust.
A network of mentors, advisers and investors is being credited partly to business founders flourishing and helping them to access customers and capital early.
“Christchurch is showing what happens when a community truly backs its entrepreneurs.’’
He said the start-up momentum was fuelling high-value jobs, stronger industries and economic growth.
ChristchurchNZ business growth and innovation head Dianna Rhodes said start-ups were being quickly connected to capability, customers and capital.
“What we see time and again is that start-ups in Christchurch don’t grow in isolation.
‘‘Founders here can access mentors, customers, research expertise and capital early and that connectedness helps them move faster and build stronger, more scalable businesses.”
She said the start-ups reflected a shift towards export innovation and companies building real products, solving industry pain points and targeting scale.
The region was growing in strength as a place to start, test and grow technology, she said.
Christchurch start-ups are tackling costly inefficiencies across insurance, healthcare, small business marketing and industrial connectivity.
AI-driven automation and real-time data tools are being developed to help companies work faster, safer and with greater accuracy.
Many of the ventures are being built for global markets, with international partnerships and scalable technology.
The Ministry of Awesome and ChristchurchNZ singled out six local start-ups to watch this year:
• Traft AI is speeding up insurance claims and construction costing.
• Backkr was built for businesses that cannot afford a marketing agency but need to grow.
• Lightning Pay is developing payment infrastructure using the ‘‘Bitcoin Lightning Network’’ for fast, low-cost transactions and transfers.
• Script Sense is a health-tech start-up taking on medicine-related errors with a cloud-based pharmacy management system to reduce manual data entry and automate non-clinical tasks.
• Contented records conversations and transforms them into outputs teams can use such as action tables, decision logs, strategic planning analysis, proposals, compliance checklists, marketing material and training content.
Founded by Lucy Pink and Hannah Hardy-Jones, the start-up has built traction with companies seeking accuracy, privacy and a strong transcribing performance.
• RIVIR is tackling the challenge of keeping assets connected in places with little or no mobile coverage.
