Lightning Lab announces 2014 teams

Lightning Lab announces 2014 teams

Ten of New Zealand’s best startup business prospects will start Lightning Lab’s second digital startup acceleration programme on Monday (3 March).

Lightning Lab’s second programme garnered 150 startup enquiries from across New Zealand and internationally. Lightning Lab director Dan Khan says the Lightning Lab team worked with interested startup founders right through out the application period to help develop ideas and teams.

“We ran workshops and talent events with the entrepreneurial community countrywide to help founders with great ideas build those into impressive applications for the Lab. Also we wanted to help those with weaker propositions to find the right way to develop their ideas and prospects.”

Applications were received from all over New Zealand and places as far flung as Ukraine, Vietnam, and New York. The intake for this year’s programme (listed overleaf) is all about picking quality, and doing more work up front paid off, Khan says.

“We’ve seen an increase in quality applications and the right teams were obvious because they engaged, came to workshops and worked up their applications with us. The companies in Lightning Lab 2014 are more rounded, more experienced and have a stronger sense of business savvy. That said, there’s still more work to do to get a real step change in New Zealand.”

Chosen by the Lightning Lab founding investors, each of the final ten teams is funded with $18,000 in exchange for 8% equity. The teams, from Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Levin and Wellington, will base themselves in Wellington for the programme.

Lightning Lab 2014 is improved based on key learnings from the inaugural 2013 programme. “We are supercharging the tools and methods for mentors, and have a greater number of world class thought leaders clocking in, especially around design,” Khan says.

Lightning Lab 2014 will start on 3 March and culminate on a Demo Day late May to showcase the startups in the programme to the New Zealand investment community.

Lightning Lab 2014

Cavaltech: tools and analytics for the horse shoeing industry >> cavaltech.co.nz
Glass Jar: automated management for shared bank accounts >> glassjar.co.nz
Common Ledger: unifying accounting data standards >> commonledger.com
Twingl: online note-taking and sematic linking tool for researchers >> twin.gl
Cogo: inspiring people to achieve goals through donations >>join.cogodigital.co.nz
TradeIntel: pricing and recommendations tools for online auctions >> tradeintel.co.nz
Cloud Cannon: website content management for graphic designers >> cloudcannon.com
Keen: spontaneous matching people to shared activities >> keen.to
CoachSeek: marketplace for professional sports coaches >> coachseek.co.nz
WaterGenie: smart water monitoring meters in the cloud >> watergenie.org

About Lightning Lab
Lightning Lab is the first digital accelerator programme in New Zealand and will supercharge 10 digital startups within an intensive 12-week pathway to prove, build and launch their businesses. The programme puts up to $18,000 of seed investment into startup teams and pushes them to make their business idea fly, with support from dedicated technical and business interns, and mentorship from more than 100 leading NZ and global entrepreneurs and business experts.

Founded by startup incubator Creative HQ, Lightning Lab is open to teams of startup founders across New Zealand and internationally. Lightning Lab 2014 is the second programme. Lightning Lab is the exclusive NZ member of the Global Accelerator Network (GAN), which comprises 51 of the top accelerators globally.
Lightning Lab has sponsor partnerships with Citylink, FX Networks, Xero, Ninetwenty, Morrison Kent, The Wellington Company, Microsoft NZ, Microsoft Ventures and Weta Digital.

www.lightninglab.co.nz

ENDS

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