Top 15 Life Science VC Funds & Investors in New Zealand (August 2026)

Portfolio highlights

• ESP — ESP is an energy solution provider.
• Carbn Group — Carbn Group is a car fleet management company that makes car fleet services sustainable and accessible to more users.
• Ruminant BioTech — Ruminant BioTech is a company that creates slow-release devices for long-term controlled-release methane mitigation.

Portfolio highlights

• Rumin8 — Rumin8 - Solving livestock methane emissions
• Ruminant BioTech — Ruminant BioTech is a company that creates slow-release devices for long-term controlled-release methane mitigation.
• Āmua Innovation — Āmua Innovation specializes in developing solutions for pasture-based farming to lead natural food production.

Portfolio highlights

• Ruminant BioTech — Ruminant BioTech is a company that creates slow-release devices for long-term controlled-release methane mitigation.

Portfolio highlights

• Vivici — Our mission is to meet the world's growing need for sustainable, nutritious and great tasting animal-free proteins.
• DNAiTECH — At DNAiTECH we develop innovative portable isothermal amplification instruments for point of care diagnostics, in-field applications, and rapid DNA testing.
• POP — Strengthen your dog's immunity with Pop-Topper. Developed with top animal scientists and food innovators, our formulas leverage clinically proven superfoods to reduce inflammation and promote longevity. Backed by science, our daily meal topper seamlessly integrates into your dog's routine for optimal health benefits.

Portfolio highlights

• Scanabull — Scanabull is a 3D vision to measure cattle live weight quickly and accurately, reducing handling stress and giving farmers, agents, and processors clear, real‑time weight data. It makes weighing easy, analysis simple, and sharing seamless for everyone who relies on live weight or carcass weight decisions.
• Wallo Pay — Wallo Pay, incorporated in July 2023, is a New Zealand-based fintech startup transforming digital payments for consumers and businesses. Operating across Aotearoa and with plans to expand into Australia, our founder-led team is building a B2C and B2B payments platform powered by banking APIs, enabling direct, real-time account-to-accounttransactions. By bypassing traditional card networks, Wallo Pay slashes merchant service fees from 1.5–2.5% to 0.6% or less, potentially saving New Zealand businesses $700M annually. Our product suite includes a Consumer Mobile App with QR-based and unique digital ID based payments, a Business Mobile App, and a Business Web Portal, targeting retail, hospitality, and other businesses accepting payments from end customers.Aligned with New Zealand’s Consumer Data Right (2025), Wallo Pay’s open API infrastructure empowers developers, fintech startups, and public agencies to build innovative solutions, from loyalty programs to interoperable transport payments. Our platform fosters an inclusive ecosystem, enabling business of all sizes and innovators to participate in the digital economy with low-cost, scalable payment tools. Since starting MVP development in June 2024, Wallo Pay is gearing up for an alpha pilot in Q3–Q4 2025, driving transparency, affordability, and trust in Aotearoa’s payment landscape.
• Forever Harvest — We are an Aotearoa New Zealand based cellular horticulture company, partnering with food & beverage manufacturers to develop new fruit & nut food solutions.

Portfolio highlights

• VeriQuantix — VeriQuantix was spun out of the University of Queensland. VeriQuantix is an Australian startup specializing in cybersecurity, focusing on quantum technology to enhance the security of optical fiber communication networks. Their core innovation, Quantum Link Verification (QLV), is designed to detect and alert network operators to physical tappingattempts and intercept cyber attacks on fiber optic networks. This technology leverages quantum principles, specifically entangled photons, to verify the trustworthiness of network links by ensuring that any unauthorized access disrupts photon entanglement and triggers immediate alerts.
• Granular Energy — Granular Energy provides solutions for managing and trading clean energy. We are the leading provider of energy certificate management software for utilities, helping to streamline certificate managment processes and enabling utilities to launch next-generation green offers, including transparency down to the hourly level.
• Liquid Instruments — Redefining the way scientists, engineers, students, and professionals experience test and measurement with Moku software-reconfigurable hardware platforms

Portfolio highlights

• N.Light — N.Light is a Metaverse 3D design software that allows individuals to effortlessly turn their ideas into reality.
• Hemispheric — Hemispheric develops fundamental AI technologies aimed at deciphering brain activity for innovative applications.
• MUV Interactive — MUV Interactive designs and develops innovative technology for active human sensing, providing a natural and fluent interactive experience with any type of digital application, from displayed content, and smart home appliances to IOT (Internet of Things) devices, drones and AR/VR applications. The company’s flagship product, Bird, is anintuitive device that is worn on the index finger, which transforms any space into a 3D Interactive Environment. Bird is the first device to integrate the entire spectrum of input and control methods – including touch, remote touch, gesture control and mouse functionality. This gives users the flexibility to interact with each type of digital content in the most intuitive way, whether up close or from a distance of up to 100 feet away.

Portfolio highlights

• Ruminant BioTech — Ruminant BioTech is a company that creates slow-release devices for long-term controlled-release methane mitigation.

Portfolio highlights

• POP — Strengthen your dog's immunity with Pop-Topper. Developed with top animal scientists and food innovators, our formulas leverage clinically proven superfoods to reduce inflammation and promote longevity. Backed by science, our daily meal topper seamlessly integrates into your dog's routine for optimal health benefits.
• Animol Discovery — Animol is building its own pipeline of break-through proprietary veterinary small molecules led by a team of animal health industry experts with vast experience in bringing drugs to market. With our unique and powerful technology platform we deliver innovative medicines that are specifically designed for the needs of veterinary patients.
• Berkeley Yeast — Better yeast for better beer. Make cleaner tasting beer with ultra low diacetyl strains, brew non alcoholic beer that tastes more like actual beer, or unlock bright grapefruit and passionfruit notes with the cleanest thiol yeast.

Portfolio highlights

• Longas — Longas Technologies, a Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology developer, has provided details on its Morphoseq™ library prep and associated software technology at the ‘Sequencing, Finishing and Analysis.
• Myricx Bio — Myricx Pharma is a small molecule drug discovery company engaged in developing novel proprietary inhibitors of human N-myristoyltransferases (NMT), with a primary focus in oncology but also exploring potential applications across other diseases.
• Cincera Therapeutics — Cincera Therapeutics is a privately held biotechnology company.

Portfolio highlights

• Ruminant BioTech — Ruminant BioTech is a company that creates slow-release devices for long-term controlled-release methane mitigation.
• Key Carbon — Carbon Neutral Royalty operates a permanent capital vehicle designed to finance projects in the Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM) through a prepayment in exchange for a portion of future carbon credits. The company specializes in financial support for the project and sells carbon credits to corporations that have made net zero pledges to help themmeet their climate, biodiversity, and community commitments.Carbon Neutral Royalty was established in July, 2021 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
• Digital Prime Technologies — Full-Service Institutional-Grade Prime Brokerage for Digital Asset Management. DLCC offers full-service Prime Brokerage solutions for digital assets. Our all-in-one user interface leverages both API and Saas product offerings to connect clients with a growing network of liquidity providers to transact, borrow, and lend digital assets, and managecollateral. Our product suite also offers traditional Prime Brokerage services, such as consultation and capital introduction.

Portfolio highlights

• TULU — TULU is a smart platform and amenity services provider to over 10,000 people in 50 buildings across the United States, Europe and Israel. Founded in 2019, TULU provides urban tenants with on-demand access to hundreds of brand name appliances, grocery staples, micro-mobility and entertainment devices, and more. TULU’s IoT-based modular units arecustomized to provide the most necessary and useful items, while leveraging advanced machine learning tools to analyze behavioral patterns, optimize usage, refine inventory, and create a personalized experience for our users. The outcome is a new way of living, encouraging more responsible consumption, reducing the cost of living in the city, and consistent with the trend to smaller and smaller living spaces.
• Hullbot — Hullbot offers an autonomous, frequent cleaning service for vessel hulls and propellers using specialized underwater robotics technology. This proactive cleaning prevents biofouling buildup, which reduces drag and results in fuel savings and increased fleet performance for operators. The robotics system is designed to work with all hull coatingsand provides routine inspections, asset intelligence, and real-time analytics on vessel performance without requiring divers.
• Colorifix — Colorifix is a biotechnology company that has pioneered the first entirely biological process to produce, deposit and fix pigments onto textiles. Using a synthetic biology approach, it offers a radically different solution to incumbent dyeing technologies that entirely cuts out the use of harsh chemistry and leads to huge reductions in waterconsumption. Colorifix’s investors include Cambridge Enterprise, H&M, Mills Fabrica, Primera Impact and Sagana, whose collective backing is funding its expansion. For more information, visit www.colorifix.com

Portfolio highlights

• Advemto — Advemto is the manufacturer and developer of ultrafast spectroscopy systems that help researchers.
• Inhibit Coatings — Inhibit Coatings is a New Zealand based company developing novel antimicrobial and antifouling coatings.
• Captivate Technology — Captivate Technology company operates a clean-tech carbon capture platform. The platform enables cement manufacturers, geothermal power plants, and biogas producers to reduce pollution and contribute to environmental initiatives by using a metal-organic framework for CO2 adsorption as a solid-state material.

Portfolio highlights

• Captivate Technology — Captivate Technology company operates a clean-tech carbon capture platform. The platform enables cement manufacturers, geothermal power plants, and biogas producers to reduce pollution and contribute to environmental initiatives by using a metal-organic framework for CO2 adsorption as a solid-state material.
• Ampersand Technologies — Ampersand Technologies, custom diagnostic insights for precision decision-making and improved outcomes. Point-of-need diagnostic testing for real-time disease detection in agriculture, horticulture, and the environment.

Portfolio highlights

• Hectre — Award winning, simple to use orchard apps for performance and cost management optimization.
• Scentian Bio — Scentian Bio operates as a platform that provides ultimate sensing solution.
• Ruminant BioTech — Ruminant BioTech is a company that creates slow-release devices for long-term controlled-release methane mitigation.