New Zealand Innovations November Newsletter
Kia Ora friends!
Fund update
We have now deployed capital into 15 exciting startups and continue to see plenty of opportunities into the year end. Unity’s $1.6B acquisition of Weta Digital highlights the global relevance of New Zealand’s tech space. It’s notable that Unity is acquiring the tools and engineering team of Weta (not the visual effects artists team), which goes to show the power of NZ tech talent. Think New Zealand when your favorite video game involves running through “a thousand years of vegetation growth across an abandoned cityscape.”
Weta Digital’s acquisition tells you why we love our most recent investment into Sensori, founded by an ex-Weta team.
Startup of the month: Sensori
Sensori provides photogrammetry and 3D modelling for the construction industry. During routine construction site walkthroughs, the users can walk around with a regular video camera with a fisheye-lens and take photos of the construction site. This is then uploaded into the Sensori system which is a fully automated pipeline for processing video data into 3D scenes and delivers the results to the user as easily accessible web links. The product is designed for construction companies who have to respond to requests for information and QA related inquiries, which otherwise results in multiple site visits and digging through reams of photographs. City councils also love it as a tool for virtual consenting and are pushing for wider adoption driven by Covid.
Co-founder Roddy has a PhD in computer vision and over 15 years experience building and commercialising 3D scanning and imaging software. He worked on streaming of holograms at 8i, wrote scanning and tracking tools for Weta Digital, and built maps of Mars for the ESA Mars Express mission. He has always been interested in building 3D Models of the environments using spatial tracking algorithms. He met co-founder Brett Skinner at Weta Digital where Brett had spent 13 years in digital effects. The two of them saw the potential of their 3D mapping technology in construction sites photo documentation which can act as a source of truth for all parties.
As apparent from Unity’s acquisition of Weta Digital, 3D imaging has huge potential applications in the metaverse as well as mapping the physical world. This is a Weta Digital team with significant experience (and IP) in simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) that is working on solving a very meaningful problem in the construction industry. The fact that the tech is smart enough to be used with off-the-shelf hardware gives it major advantages in adoption versus the competition. Aside from construction, we appreciate the role this technology could play in bringing the real world environs into the metaverse in an affordable way. The team sees the construction industry as a way to show off the use cases, but the really exciting applications will happen once FANG companies begin to need more tech to build out their metaverses and will find Sensori as an affordable way to license the tech or buy the company.
We are delighted to support Brett and Roddy in this exciting journey!
New Zealand border update
Happy to share the border reopening update we received courtesy EHF.
From April 30, 2022, all fully vaccinated individuals will be able to travel to New Zealand without going into managed quarantine. There will be a requirement for self isolation for seven days, along with pre and post travel testing. But MIQ will no longer be mandatory.
We have to note however that April 30 is not a 'big bang' re-opening to all travellers - it will be phased over time, potentially by visa type: the government is still working through details. We believe bringing great talent into NZ will be a priority.
If you need to come in earlier, there is also a pathway. Fully vaccinated kiwis and other eligible travellers - such as those with permanent residence or a border exception - will be able to travel to NZ from Monday, February 14, 2022 without going through MIQ. If coming from Australia, the date is January 16, 2022.
Speed Dating at AANZ Runway
Our partner Ajay joined the Angel Association New Zealand’s final Runway session of the year. Suse Reynolds, Chair of Angel Association runs this useful event for startups to come and practice their pitches with investors. Startups like Loaded (performance management for hospitality) and Press Patron (easy contributions to media sites) joined the session. It’s great to see the collaborative spirit of NZ’s venture capital landscape.
Fun fact about NZ: Did you know…
… that New Zealand’s early stage venture investment ecosystem is undergoing impressive growth with a 60% increase in deal volume and a 78.4% increase in dollars invested in H1 2021 vs 2020 (H1 is March-September period). Following are some interesting charts to look at courtesy Startup Investment, October 2021 issue by PWC, AANZ and NZGCP. While SaaS has traditionally been the biggest sector, Deep Tech has gained almost the same $ share now.
Source: https://www.angelassociation.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/128006165_Startup-Investment-Magazine_v06-4.pdf
Best regards,
Mark Pavlyukovskyy, Ajay Gupta, and Glen Anderson