Air NZ And Fonterra Lose To Three Man Startup

Air NZ And Fonterra Lose To Three Man Startup At TUANZ

9 September 2009 –

Dunedin-based web startup PocketSmith won the Commerce Award at the 2009 TUANZ Innovation Awards dinner at SkyCity in Auckland on Thursday, the 3rd of September.

The annual TUANZ (the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand) Innovation Awards celebrates the most innovative products and services in the New Zealand telecommunications market. PocketSmith presented its unique product and approach to business at final judging merely hours before the event, to beat industry giants Air New Zealand and Fonterra for the Commerce Award.

PocketSmith is a calendar-based budgeting web application that offers a unique way for people to manage their money. Air New Zealand's entry was a new customer web portal, myairnz, and Fonterra presented software that streamlines the input of sales data over the wire.

"We were delighted to be nominated as finalists, and winning is pretty unreal," says PocketSmith co-founder James Wigglesworth. "It is such an honour to have our work recognised by TUANZ, and be chosen to win by the judging panel."

Co-founder Jason Leong hopes PocketSmith's win will help pave the way for other small start-ups with global ambitions. "We're thankful that TUANZ recognises the potential of the weightless export, regardless of size," he says. "We're out to prove that funding is not a barrier to early-stage innovation and growth for SaaS companies."

The judges recognised PocketSmith's unique approach towards managing money as well as its open approach to business, which to date has netted it thousands of users in 75 countries and a partnership with a US-based industry leader. The company has also co-founded a free incubator called The Distiller, in which it collaborates with 11 other start-ups seeking rapid growth on a shoestring.

Now back in Dunedin, the team at PocketSmith are now at work tackling a number of global opportunities. In the words of co-founder Francois Bondiguel in his acceptance speech at the dinner, "This is just the beginning."

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