I’ve also had a long-term interest in wine. I’ve been involved in the New Zealand wine industry for more than 20 years. While immersing myself in the wine industry, I came across the word, “terroir.” In France, terroir captures the idea that wine is influenced by the land on which the grapes are grown, the weather conditions and the local culture of wine makers.

As I have become more engaged with the New Zealand innovation economy, I feel that terroir applies also to innovation ecosystems. Aoteoroa’s unique combination of location, physical geography and Kiwi culture creates a great crucible for innovation.

Plans have been unveiled for a Christchurch-based aerospace company to launch its reusable space planes in the United States.

Dawn Aerospace has signed a memorandum of understanding with Colorado Air and Space Port, which outlines future plans for launches. The port, which has two 2.4-kilometre runways, is one of 12 licensed commercial launch sites in the US.

Winely, a Dunedin-based tech startup, has recently closed a capital funding round of $2m to help its mission towards bringing revolutionary technology to the global winemaking industry.

Marama Labs, a deep-tech sensor and data analytics company based in Wellington, New Zealand has received NZ$500,000 in funding from Quidnet Ventures, a New Zealand-based venture capital fund with operations in Auckland, NZ, San Francisco and New York. Marama Labs has developed CloudSpec: the world's first UV-Vis spectrophotometer that can simultaneously measure absorption, extinction, and scattering spectra of clear and turbid liquids. This round brings Marama Labs's total raised to date to NZ$2M.

Litmaps, a Science software company based in Wellington, New Zealand has received NZ$125,000 in funding from Quidnet Ventures, a New Zealand-based venture capital fund with operations in Auckland, NZ, San Francisco and New York. Litmaps has built a research navigation platform that allows scientists, engineers, and other experts to more rapidly and deeply navigate peer reviewed research and patent literatures, accelerating breakthroughs and allowing them to work more effectively in R&D teams.

RosterLab, a newly-formed rostering software company, has closed NZ $150,000 in Pre-Seed funding from Quidnet Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund based in New Zealand. The NZ $500,000 total round was led by Matū Fund, with participation from Quidnet Ventures and the University of Auckland Investors' Fund.

In Auckland, PowerON, a spin-out company developing research originating from the Biomimetics Lab at the Auckland Engineering Institute, is aiming to become the world centre of research into dielectric elastomer technology.

Investors have shown their faith in this local vision of turning soft robotics into reality, with PowerON’s $3.1 million fundraising in September 2021 oversubscribed. Early investors IP Group, Matū Fund, and the University of Auckland Inventors’ Fund were joined by new investors Booster Investment Management, NZ Growth Capital Partners, Quidnet Ventures, K1W1, Greenlight Ventures NZ, Pacific Channel, and Angel Investors Marlborough.

Drawing on his science education, tech career, an extensive US network, and long-time connection with New Zealand, Dr Mark Bregman of Quidnet Ventures champions science-based Kiwi startups demonstrating a “terroir” of innovation.

For Bregman, one of the key attractions of Kiwi innovation has been that famous No. 8 wire thinking. He uses the viticulture term “terroir”, defined as the blend of factors – the soil, climate, terrain and human input – that shape the unique qualities of a wine. 

Congrats! You’ve started a business. Now, you’d like to keep the doors open, and grow. In order to do this, you may need outside funding (not your own). How do you fund your new business? There is more than one way to do this. We’re going to focus on two options: venture equity, and venture debt.

We think differently than some of our counterparts in the U.S., and we’re in good company in N.Z. New Zealand is exploding with new start-ups and funds that are thinking about a secure future. We’re building something new, and special. And in light of that, we’re going to myth-bust a few “old-school” assumptions about venture capital while we’re at it. Hopefully, this will be helpful for emerging funds and businesses.

Quidnet Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund. We look at Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A companies; meaning that we look at a range of companies—from companies that are pre-revenue and raising a few hundred thousand dollars,  to companies that have proven traction and are raising a few million dollars.

What are we looking for in general, and what are we looking for at each stage? We’ll tell you.