Innovation

By Fiona Rotherham July 22 (BusinessDesk) –  Al Monro has been appointed to the board of government-funded business innovation agency Callaghan Innovation, replacing Sir Peter Maire who’s stepping down after two years to focus on his business interests. Callaghan Innovation was set up in 2013 to support kiwi businesses in science and technology-based commercialisation. Board chair Sue Suckling said Maire, …

The New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, the Crown-funded start-up investor, has taken its 7.1 percent stake in ikeGPS inhouse, after Number 8 Ventures opted to distribute the shares at the end of the remote measurement tool maker’s lock-up period. The fund owns 3.5 million of the 50.1 million ikeGPS shares on issue, worth about $2.28 million at today’s price of 65 …

Pushpay Holdings, the mobile payments app developer, boosted revenue 39 percent in the first quarter as growth in its US faith-based merchants offset a decline in its SMS business. Total annualised committed monthly revenue was $12.8 million at June 30, up from $9.2 million three months earlier, the Redmond-based company said in a statement. Merchant ACMR, which tracks its clients who use the PushPay …

LanzaTech New Zealand, the NZ-founded carbon recycling company, narrowed its annual loss as the company shifts into commercialisation from its previous development phase. The company reported a loss of $34.7 million in calendar 2014, smaller than the loss of $40.5 million a year earlier, according to financial statements lodged with the Companies Office. Including $2.8 million of exchange differences on foreign …

New Zealand’s largest primary sector businesses, including meat companies Silver Fern Farms and Alliance Group, seafood groups Sanford and Sealord, and milk processors Fonterra Cooperative Group and Miraka, are on a bootcamp in the US this week to work together on ways to add value to the country’s primary goods exports. The group of 50, which includes chief executives of …

The NZ US Partnership Forum provided the opportunity to present recommendations for what should come next in the relationship between New Zealand and the United States. There was overwhelming support for New Zealand to lobby for entrepreneur visas, similar to the E-3 visas granted to Australians. New Zealand has a large pool of entrepreneurs that want to drive the creation …

GeoOp, the workforce management app, said annual sales doubled after a strong pick up in customers in the last month of its financial year. Subscription revenue rose to $1.27 million in the 12 months ended March 31, from $610,000 a year earlier, the Auckland-based company said in a statement. Licensed users rose to 17,839, from 9,509 the previous year. It …

Nuplex Industries, the specialty chemicals manufacturer, is exploring more investment opportunities across Asia, having shifted its businesses away from the firm’s traditional markets in Australia and New Zealand.  The Auckland-based company officially opened a US$35 million plant in China’s Changshu, and is already considering expansion plans for the site, where it holds a 50-year lease. The company was caught out …

Kiwa Digital Ltd (KIWA), a world leading production house for experiential digital books based in New Zealand, is to deliver interactive cartoon stories to mobile devices in China. In a breakthrough international publishing and licensing agreement with leading Chinese television company, Beijing Kaku Media, KIWA will bring popular children’s characters to life digitally in the Chinese language. The agreement was …

Kiwi scientist Dr Phil Rolston has been awarded the Chinese Government’s most prestigious science prize for his work in grasslands seed development.  Dr Rolston, Senior Scientist at AgResearch Lincoln, received the award at a ceremony in The Great Hall of the People which was attended by President Xi Jinping, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, and Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang. …