Lightning Lab Welcomes Chinese Startup

Lightning Lab Welcomes Chinese Startup to Accelerate their Business Alongside New Zealand’s best

For Immediate Release – March 8th

Lightning Lab, New Zealand’s premier business accelerator programme is happy to announce the inclusion of a Chinese startup into their Wellington based Lightning Lab XX programme this March.

The Chengdu based startup “LiangMa” is working on sourcing ethically produced chickens and creating end-to-end authentication and certification of food items from producer to consumer, driven by Chinese consumers’ continuing demand for safe and high-quality products. A concept that might potentially also be of interest to New Zealand’s primary sector selling into China.

Cofounders Denny Zou and Steve Xin will fly to NZ to join the programme in order to validate their concept over the duration of the programme. The team will present their progress, along with the other 8 NZ based startups participating in the accelerator, at the concluding ‘Demo Day’ showcase event.

Demo Days are a standard final event for Lightning Lab programmes, allowing the teams to pitch their business to a room of investors from around NZ. As an extension of the Chinese team attending the programme, a delegation of Chinese investors will be invited to attend the event, creating a wider range of potential investment opportunities for the whole cohort.

Hosting an overseas team is a first for Lightning Lab, and will allow for a cultural exchange between NZ and Chinese startup ecosystems to be established. The inclusion of the Chinese team is also likely to increase awareness of opportunities in China for the NZ based teams, as a result of sharing knowledge and direct connections during the programme.

Lightning Lab is powered by Creative HQ, and CEO Stefan Korn is excited about the opportunity to host an overseas team. “It’s great to see an international dimension to the programme, the first step towards Lightning Lab not only leading the way for acceleration in NZ but worldwide. We’d like to increase the exchange of entrepreneurs, startups and investors between China and NZ – and we also see an opportunity to establish a great relationship on innovation between Chengdu and Wellington.”

Alistair Crozier, New Zealand’s Consul-General in Chengdu, is equally enthusiastic about the opportunity for Lightning Lab to connect New Zealand and Chinese startup ecosystems. ”Chengdu has a very strong reputation in China as an innovation, technology and education hub. Every day here I see the same creative spirit that is also a hard-wired part of New Zealand’s DNA. LiangMa’s participation in the Lightning Lab programme has great potential to generate new ideas and inspiration for both sides.”

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