Finalists named for Gen-i NZ Incubator Awards
July 28, 2008
Finalists named for Gen-i New
Zealand Incubator Awards
Ten of New Zealand’s most dynamic start-up companies, including companies developing GPS tracking systems and utilising robotic technologies, have today been named as finalists in the 2008 Gen-i New Zealand Incubator Awards.
The finalists will contest four categories, with the winners to be announced in Wellington on Tuesday, 5 August. An additional award will be made to a company that has graduated from the incubation environment and excelled in their recent business achievements.
The Awards were introduced by Incubators New Zealand in 2005 with the aim of celebrating the knowledge-based start-ups that business incubators are helping to grow.
Incubators New Zealand Chairman Jonathan Kirkpatrick congratulated the finalists and believed they should be applauded for their achievements.
“Creating an outstanding business requires more than a great idea. It takes an incredible amount of commitment and perseverance, particularly when you’re also taking on the world, and all of these companies deserve recognition for what they’ve achieved,” he said.
Principal sponsor Gen-i's GM of Wellington Key Clients and Enterprise, Paul Wilson, congratulated the finalists and said that sponsoring the Awards is just one way Gen-i encourages emerging ICT businesses.
"The Gen-i Incubator Awards are all about recognising the innovation shown by emerging New Zealand businesses and entrepreneurs. We are committed to supporting these successful companies whose skills and ideas contribute to building a strong local ICT industry. Hopefully their achievements will provide the inspiration for other New Zealand entrepreneurs," he said.
The finalists for the 2008 Gen-i New Zealand Incubator Awards are:
• Start-Up of the Year
•
Blackhawk Tracking Systems Limited (Auckland)
• INRO
Technologies Limited (Auckland)
• TracPlus Global
Limited (Dunedin)
Start-Up Exporter of the Year
•
CropLogic (Christchurch)
• Hector’s World
(Auckland)
• TracPlus Global Limited
(Dunedin)
Innovation of the Year
• iMonitor Limited
(Auckland)
• PowerbyProxi Limited (Auckland)
•
TracMap NZ Limited (Dunedin)
Start-Up Entrepreneur of the
Year
• Carmine Masiello – eBUS Limited
(Auckland)
• Chris Hinch – TracPlus Global Limited
(Dunedin)
• Neil Fitzpatrick – Oh! Group Limited
(Wellington)
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
About
Incubators New Zealand
Incubators in New Zealand are
organisations that give fledgling entrepreneurs an
opportunity to develop their innovative ideas and set up new
businesses in order to commercialise them. The
entrepreneurs' term of activity in the incubator
considerably enhances their prospects of raising the
financial investment they need, finding strategic partners,
and emerging from the incubator with businesses that can
stand on their own two feet.
Incubators New Zealand was established in 2003 as an industry body and charged with driving and guiding the development of incubation. The association is tasked with providing New Zealand’s regional incubators with the tools, capability and networks to significantly increase their chances of growing the next wave of Kiwi start-up entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit www.incubators.org.nz.
About Gen-i
Gen-i
is at the forefront of helping customers take advantage of
the convergence of technology and telecommunications, and
the new opportunities this makes possible. Gen-i works
alongside its 3,300 corporate, government and business
customers to deliver seamless and integrated ICT solutions.
A member of the Telecom New Zealand Group, Gen-i achieves
this with the support of 3,300 highly skilled people in 17
locations across New Zealand and Australia. For more
information on Gen-i, visit www.gen-i.co.nz
The following
information relates to each of the finalists.
The text in
brackets is the incubator that they are/were resident
in.
BLACKHAWK Tracking Systems Limited (The ICEHOUSE,
Auckland)
The only event-based telematics company in
Australasia, BLACKHAWK’s products are designed for car
finance companies, hire equipment firms, refrigerated
container companies and personal vehicles. Combining
internet mapping, GSM and GPS tracking, BLACKHAWK sends a
text to a vehicle or asset owner when an event happens and
the owner can then track its position using GPS viewed
online or on a nominated mobile phone. This event could be
when an asset moves from within a set perimeter or when a
vehicle is in an accident. BLACKHAWK have already secured
significant angel investment, and seen staff numbers grow to
10 employees.
CropLogic (Canterbury Innovation
Incubator)
CropLogic, a start-up from the New Zealand
Institute of Crop & Food Research, provides internet based
supply management and forecasting services to food
processors, the fresh produce supply chain and crop
management advice to their suppliers. CropLogic services
deliver improved quality and yield, better economic returns
and a reduced environmental footprint. With their first
Product, the Potato Calculator, CropLogic already has
contracts with the world's five largest potato processors
and their major suppliers, with over 90% of revenue coming
from export sales.
eBUS Limited (The ICEHOUSE,
Auckland)
eBUS has developed cutting edge software that
allows production teams, creatives and their clients to
access and work on the same piece of video footage at the
same time no matter where in the world they are. It is
little surprise that the original TradeMe angel investment
company Movac and TradeMe founder Sam Morgan have recently
invested $1.25m in eBUS when you consider that it has over
50% market share in New Zealand and promising signs from
international markets in South East Asia and India.
Hector’s World (The ICEHOUSE, Auckland)
Hector’s
World offers high quality and reliable products that help
children become wise and confident users of information and
communication technologies. A charitable subsidiary of New
Zealand’s internet safety group, NetSafe, Hector’s World
is a social entrepreneurship venture. Their products are
designed to work well alongside existing cyber-safety
programs in a country and already it has been launched
across Britain, through UK primary schools, by a UK
Governmental organisation.
iMonitor Limited (AUT
Technology Park, Auckland)
iMonitor is an Auckland
company that has developed wireless technology that enables
people to monitor and control situations at remote
locations, in real time, from practically anywhere on the
planet. Having grown in eighteen months from 2 to 12 staff,
iMonitor is now installing their technology into food cool
stores which can not only save the operator energy costs but
will reduce cool store product losses worth millions of
dollars annually.
INRO Technologies (The ICEHOUSE,
Auckland)
INRO Technologies uses robotics to automate
customers’ existing vehicles, autonomously moving products
within warehouses and cold stores. In the past year the
company has grown from volunteer staff to over 20 full-time
staff and received one of the largest angel investments ever
in New Zealand.
Oh! Group Limited (Creative HQ,
Wellington)
Oh! Group is an independent drinks innovation
and marketing company based in Wellington. Their first
product, Loud&Lola Cocktails, was launched in late 2007 in
conjunction with DB Breweries and is now distributed to over
150 liquor stores nationally. This is only the first step
for a company that is actively creating new products and
entering new markets.
PowerbyProxi Limited (The ICEHOUSE,
Auckland)
A spin-out from the University of Auckland,
PowerbyProxi is a pioneer in the design and development of
turnkey wireless power solutions, which eliminate the need
for a physical or frictional power connection to electronic
devices. Their first product, Proxi-Ring a completely
contactless slip ring, is ready to be launched after a 12
month development effort with John Deere.
TracPlus Global
Limited (Upstart Business Incubator, Dunedin)
Recent
winners of the Global Technium Challenge, this Dunedin
company has developed a revolutionary tracking service for
commercial, government and non government agencies that is
now operating in 14 countries and areas, including the
Antarctic. TracPlus allows users to not only monitor the
status and location of their assets, but also to securely
share that information with other users, regardless of
tracking hardware and network chosen.
TracMap NZ Limited
(Upstart Business Incubator, Dunedin)
TracMap provides a
complete agricultural and horticultural GPS guidance and
proof of placement mapping package for vehicles operating in
demanding outdoor environments. For fertiliser spreading
contractors it can achieve a 15% productivity gain and
reduce environmental impact from fertiliser application. In
less than two years TracMap has grown from 2 to 14 staff,
sold over 300 units nationally and developed a product
variant for the aviation
industry.
ENDS