Roundtable: A 'fizzy' tech sector seeds New Zealand's next IPOs
- Wed 21 October 2026
- 5 MIN READ
Known for exceptional primary production, a turbo-charged tourism sector and disruptive global tech firms, New Zealand’s economy is becoming increasingly vibrant. Attractive visa settings are drawing global business superstars to the market, while famous Kiwi investors and founders are also going home to the land of the long white cloud.
This backdrop is the foundation for the next generation of Kiwi-born, successful ASX-listed businesses. In this roundtable, we look at what’s happening in New Zealand, the emerging sectors hungry for capital and funding the next generation of leading listed companies.
Alexandra Cain, moderator, Listed@ASX: What sectors are emerging in New Zealand and how are they transforming the nation?
Olivia Wensley, Partner Investor Relations, Outset Ventures: There’s been a significant shift towards deep tech, taking 34% of New Zealand’s invested dollars last year, the first time hardware has outraised software-as-a-service (SaaS). Add health, climate and AI and together they make up almost 60% of New Zealand funds invested last year.
Jo Wickham, Partner, Icehouse Ventures: About 40% of our companies sit in that deep tech space, but we are also seeing cottage industries build up around verticals where there's been prior success stories, for example, aerospace with Rocket Lab and fintech with Xero. The founders of agtech firm Halter and automotive tech firm Partly came out of Rocket Lab; the founders of online investing firm Sharesies came from Xero. You can really see that recycling of talent starting to happen.
Olivia: What Canva and Atlassian have done in terms of talent and spinouts in Australia is what Rocket Lab has done for New Zealand deep tech.
Camille Hunt, Network Investment and Growth Manager, Mainland Angels: Recycling and talent is super important in Christchurch, which is focused on aerospace, clean tech and health tech. It's nice to see the dense hub of resources, skills and materials needed to build these companies. We are still seeing interest in SaaS companies, especially with an AI element.
"What we see from the database is agtech, fintech, cleantech, biotech and aerospace is up."
James Hurman, Co-Founder of Tracksuit, Previously Unavailable VC and Caffeine: At Caffeine, we've built an enormous database of start-ups across New Zealand and we can see activity going back to the turn of the century. What we see from the database is agtech, fintech, cleantech, biotech and aerospace is up. Enterprise software is way down. I'll give a nod to marketing technology as well, given our companies, brand tracking firm Tracksuit, rapid insights firm Ideally, and PR and comms platform Drumbeat. In the global marketing world, everyone wants to know what's going on in New Zealand and Australia.
James: We also do pasture, methane, land, space, wood and wood chemistry and that’s advantage-based, as opposed to imitation-based. New Zealand is finding a strong identity and an ability to commercialise what we have that no-one else has. This is more sustainably valuable on the world stage than just playing where everyone else is playing. Those changes reflect a maturing industry and the ability to build uniquely valuable companies.
Listed@ASX: How is the return of some of the Kiwi diaspora reshaping the talent pool?
James: The more interesting story is the recycling of capital, talent and experience founders and their teams are bringing back to New Zealand, as well as what the experience of big looks like. When you grow up in a small country, you don't see giant companies. Founders and people working for them are going out into the world and seeing what big looks like and coming back home and being able to think in a much bigger way.
Olivia: The returners are highly technical people, who have not been able to have jobs here previously; propulsion engineers, cryogenic specialists and materials scientists. These people used to be un-hireable here. So a lot of them are able to return now. What's also interesting is the talent in terms of investors. At Outset, we're attracting extraordinary, technical investors. Hardware is a ten-year timeline. You have to have an appetite for it and a deep understanding of why it will work. These investors understand things a generalist wouldn't. They come and they're part of the community, whether they're Kiwi or from offshore.
Jo: We've been thinking about how we can galvanise the Kiwi diaspora. New Zealanders have always travelled and many come back. We're seeing both Kiwis who come home and those that stay abroad really open up networks for New Zealand founders. We recently expanded our mandate to invest not just in Kiwi companies, but also in companies with Kiwi founders, like online publishing platform Substack in the US and autonomous driving firm Wayve in the UK. Another portfolio company, Crimson Education, is creating a pipeline of Kiwis getting into Ivy League and other top-tier universities, who then spin out and start companies of their own. We're trying to invest in those companies and build connections and bridges between New Zealand and the world.
"We're seeing both Kiwis who come home and those that stay abroad really open up networks for New Zealand founders."
Camille: I spent ten years abroad and it did me good to go out and experience the world and come back and contribute my skills and talent. A lot of expats come back for the same reasons. It's great to have your horizon elevated and take that vision back and believe you can build something and influence others as well.
Listed@ASX: How has the golden visa scheme influenced this? Is it bringing more money and talent into New Zealand?
Olivia: I live in Queenstown and remarkable tech talent who have had multi-billion-dollar exits come here and they are an excellent support for companies. They are willing to do direct investments, which is brilliant. But they want to be part of a community; they find their people that way. It's not about money. The investment is nice, but it’s about the talent and how they want to give back to companies.
James: They are also underpinning a lot of big new funds, which are going to enable us to take bigger bets and participate in later rounds. The funding ecosystem has come an enormous way in the past five years.
Listed@ASX: Having built and invested in scaled companies, how does New Zealand compare to other markets?
"the fundamentals are there and there are great people finding good problems to solve and solving them with strong solutions backed by good money."
James: My friend, Silicon Valley PR doyenne Andi Cunningham, thinks the New Zealand start-up scene is the Valley in the 80s when it was cool; before it had been corporatised. She's not effusive unnecessarily. But it’s easy to be impressed by the quality of the companies and founders in New Zealand, the maturing of the venture capital ecosystem and this excitement that there’s a lot of good ideas, a lot of energy, a lot of insane capital efficiency – because we need that in a smaller market.
There's not much holding us back. Some tax settings here and there could benefit from change. But the fundamentals are there and there are great people finding good problems to solve and solving them with strong solutions backed by good money. You can feel that fizzing out of the ecosystem.
Jo: We have the right ingredients, but it’s still relatively nascent compared to Silicon Valley. The scale and speed at which everything happens over there is hard to comprehend from New Zealand. We need to tell these stories more and show that it’s possible to build great companies from New Zealand. We have a unique opportunity to take the good parts of Silicon Valley and leave the bad parts behind.
James: Our tech bros are way less bro-ey.
“A Brighter Future” is a visual map of the New Zealand startup ecosystem, celebrating 230+ Kiwi startups and the future those companies are trying to build. The illustration is by the talented and award-winning Kiwi artist James Stewart, commissioned by Icehouse Ventures.
Listed@ASX: Camille, the South Island has its own economic ecosystem. What's driving growth?
Camille: We have a small population and we're doing really well. In our portfolio, seven companies from Queenstown have raised capital with us and we have a bunch of companies from Christchurch and the rest of the South Island. We invest into companies all over New Zealand, but we love supporting South Island companies. The Christchurch rebuild, following the 2011 earthquakes, has led to this growth mentality and resilience.
James: It feels like there are three centres of excellence. Auckland has the largest population and everything that comes with that. In Queenstown and Wanaka there’s a concentration of incredible people from all over the world with ridiculous experience. Christchurch is really strong in terms of support for start-ups. Partly is one of the most exciting stories and AI platform Contented is an exciting, early-stage AI company. These firms are popping out of a place that wasn't historically expected to produce companies like that.
Listed@ASX: What’s happening in sectors like agtech and climate tech?
Jo: Climate tech is really strong, but demand for climate tech from offshore VCs has softened somewhat and there is a change in the narrative around how those stories are told. These companies have very long, capital-intensive pathways, which is a real challenge in such a capex-heavy sector. In agtech, it makes sense we're strong – you have to innovate in primary industries or die. Our founders are doing exactly that.
“It will be about 2035 when tech will become a bigger export than dairy. At that point, to be good at creating really valuable technology companies from New Zealand’s natural advantages will be more important to the economy, as well as having a stable export sector."
James: Obviously dairy is so strong and we have an amazing canvas to play on. It's very easy to access farms and animals and there are a lot of people who know a lot about that industry. So finding strong problems to solve and working out solutions is easier than in a market that doesn't have such a base of agriculture. It's the same with cleantech and we've always been a leader in renewables. It will be about 2035 when tech will become a bigger export than dairy. At that point, to be good at creating valuable technology companies from New Zealand’s natural advantages will be more important to the economy, as well as having a stable export sector. We've matured to a place where our founders and companies are getting better at leveraging that natural advantage. We need to double down on areas where we have an advantage against the rest of the world.
Listed@ASX: How likely are New Zealand tech companies to IPO?
Olivia: From the deep tech lens they need to IPO out of necessity. You can't build a reactor or a launch vehicle on venture capital forever. But the listing pathway varies from industry to industry. The venue where the listing will happen will follow comparables and analyst coverage. Where I think Australia is really good is industrial companies, advanced manufacturing and resources. Australia is an excellent pathway for companies like that.
Blair Harrison, Head of New Zealand listings, ASX: New Zealand companies are becoming larger and more global. They're looking at where their capital is going to come from and they want access to larger amounts of capital to scale into a global presence. That’s when the IPO becomes a viable discussion. If you’re a New Zealand business, there’s this big pool of capital just across the Tasman and that pool is getting bigger and deeper and is looking for a home that will give your company a platform for growth.
"If you think of all the world’s most consequential companies, very few of them are not listed public companies. If you're going to build a globally consequential company, listing is an essential path you need to take."
James: If you think of all the world’s most consequential companies, very few of them are not listed public companies. If you're going to build a globally consequential company, listing is an essential path you need to take.
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