Top 20 Sports Startup Investors in New Zealand (October 2026)

Portfolio highlights

• Hnry — Hnry automatically pays and files all taxes for contractors, freelancers, and sole traders, so they never have to think about tax again.
• Vessev — Electric hydrofoiling vessels built for commercial use. Quiet, efficient, and better for the world.
• First Table — The Earlybird Gets The Dinner Deal! Book the first table of the night and you'll get 50% off meals for 2 to 4 diners! Email social@firsttable.co.nz

Portfolio highlights

• Hnry — Hnry automatically pays and files all taxes for contractors, freelancers, and sole traders, so they never have to think about tax again.
• LawVu — Our all-in-one connected platform enables your legal team to manage all legal matters, contracts, spend and legal operations. Book your free demo now.
• Migco Pharmaceuticals — Migco Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company focused on designed to develop new drug therapies for migraine headache.

Portfolio highlights

• Emanda — Thinking about selling your business in Australia? Emanda guides you through every step: business valuation, health check, corporate compliance, and sale process. Start with a business valuation.
• Auric Essentials — Auric - The Power of Scent. Revolutionise your well-being with Auric. Discover our state-of-the-art AI-powered AromaSphere diffuser and app, designed to personalise your aromatherapy experience.
• Bitwise Agronomy — Bitwise Agronomy uses AI to analyze crop video footage and provide growers with insights into crop health, growth, and yield potential.

Portfolio highlights

• Cloud M — Cloud M pioneered mobile-first, B2B applications for leading organizations in education, healthcare and public safety. Clients include both private and public sector. Notable product innovations include the Alerter Platform for New Zealand's Civil Defence and Emergency Management agency and the initial development of the Blerter product.
• LearnCoach — Learn from 2500+ video tutorials and practice questions for 80 NCEA standards. LearnCoach covers everything you need to master NCEA and get your best results ever!

Portfolio highlights

• Biossil — Biossil is an applied AI drug discovery platform to create specialized treatments for distinct patients.
• EnduroSat — Enabling profitable LEO satellite constellations with standardized satellites and fixed-cost space service. 100+ satellites deployed to orbit
• Quantcast — We are taking an entirely new approach to advertising on the open internet.

Portfolio highlights

• Vessev — Electric hydrofoiling vessels built for commercial use. Quiet, efficient, and better for the world.
• Heidi Health — Heidi Health is a healthtech company that develops an AI medical scribe platform that automates clinical documentation and related tasks.
• Gilmour Space Technologies — Gilmour Space is a rocket company in Australia that is developing and launching low-cost small satellite launch vehicles. All orbits, all planets: https://www.gspacetech.com

Portfolio highlights

• Spalk — Virtual commentary studio for live sports. 90,000+ broadcasts, 52 languages, 30+ sports. Remote production, talent marketplace & AI commentary. Save up to 85%.
• Tagboard — Tagboard is an Emmy-nominated audience experience platform designed to help storytellers in sports, news, and entertainment produce the most engaging content in the world with a fraction of the resources required by traditional graphics systems.

Portfolio highlights

• Akka — Akka is a platform to build and run apps that are elastic, agile, and resilient. Industry titans and disruptors rely on Akka when application responsiveness must be guaranteed. Engineering teams use a simple SDK and powerful libraries to build transactional, durable, and real-time services that distribute logic and data together. Operations arefully automated in serverless and BYOC environments, and a self-hosted option is available.
• Vessev — Electric hydrofoiling vessels built for commercial use. Quiet, efficient, and better for the world.
• Dawn Aerospace — Delivering hardware to space. Positioning satellites on orbit. Returning products to Earth.

Portfolio highlights

• Marquee — Marquee turns football data into decision-ready insights in seconds, unifying external and internal data and filtering it through your club's sporting DNA.
• Northern Super League — Northern Super League operates a professional women's soccer league, offering matches, stats, and news online.
• International Dance League — The Global Professional Dance League Teams: Royal Family, Quick Style, 1MILLION, Jam Republic, Brotherhood, GRV

Portfolio highlights

• Ascenix —
• Lambda Robotics —
• Procedural Robotics —

Portfolio highlights

• Spalk — Virtual commentary studio for live sports. 90,000+ broadcasts, 52 languages, 30+ sports. Remote production, talent marketplace & AI commentary. Save up to 85%.
• Exclusible — Step into the future with Exclusible. Explore how we're driving innovation in the Metaverse, Roblox, and Fortnite, helping brands create impactful digital experiences.

Portfolio highlights

• Spalk — Virtual commentary studio for live sports. 90,000+ broadcasts, 52 languages, 30+ sports. Remote production, talent marketplace & AI commentary. Save up to 85%.
• Ārepa — Ārepa founder Angus Brown began exploring the relationship between nature, neuroscience and nutrition. He was fueled by a desire to better understand the brain and the conditions for optimum cognitive performance and to provide a solution that was better for you vs a typical energy drink. With that ambition and desire, the Ārepa journey began.Working with internationally recognised neuroscientists and food-technologists, Angus developed a patented formula containing unique New Zealand plant extracts that support Mental Clarity during moments of pressure and stress. With co-founder, mate and design guru Zac, he and a team around them spent the next five years optimising and clinically testing the formula and manufacturing process.

Portfolio highlights

• Pilgrim — Pioneering a biologically enhanced future for humanity.
• Solcoa Industries — Solcoa Industries develops carbon-zero rare earth metals for critical supply chain needs and promote sustainable industrial practices
• Neros Technologies — Neros is vertically integrating production of unmanned defense systems in the United States, securing the autonomous supply chain. Are you with us?

Portfolio highlights

• Vessev — Electric hydrofoiling vessels built for commercial use. Quiet, efficient, and better for the world.
• Flocean — Flocean delivers sustainable subsea desalination, providing industrial-scale freshwater as global water demand outpaces supply by 2030.
• 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.

Portfolio highlights

• Inaam — inaam is an Australian impact investing app. Pick five themes, customise them yourself, and read every company you hold by name. A flat $10 a month subscription, and a $100 minimum to start in the fund.
• PayToMe.co — PayToMe.co offers innovative and secure payment solutions including text-to-pay, digital invoicing, and digital checkbook services.
• Kybele's Garden — Kybele's Garden focus on algae-based bioponics and algae fermentation methods. Their differentiation strategy boosts harvest yield, source efficiency, and functional content, while improving sensory attributes and shelf life. These technologies can be used in agrifood and skin care, and integrated into existing producers' systems.

Portfolio highlights

• Vessev — Electric hydrofoiling vessels built for commercial use. Quiet, efficient, and better for the world.
• SYOS — SYOS designs and manufactures a multi-domain portfolio of advanced uncrewed autonomous systems across air, land, sea, and subsurface.
• Andromeda Surgical — Empowering surgeons with autonomous precision

Portfolio highlights

• Hyades — Hyades is an AI-powered hyperspectral intelligence platform that offers soil and land insights.
• Vessev — Electric hydrofoiling vessels built for commercial use. Quiet, efficient, and better for the world.
• First Table — The Earlybird Gets The Dinner Deal! Book the first table of the night and you'll get 50% off meals for 2 to 4 diners! Email social@firsttable.co.nz

Portfolio highlights

• Vessev — Electric hydrofoiling vessels built for commercial use. Quiet, efficient, and better for the world.
• Caruso — AI-native fund administration for private markets. Trusted by 900+ real estate, private credit, and PE funds to save time and grow AUM.
• Outlier Space — Outlier Space is an aerospace startup that builds a scalable, uncrewed, and reusable satellite platform designed to unlock access to microgravity. The company provides breakthrough infrastructure to safely return orbital payloads back to Earth. This technology allows sectors like pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and advanced materials to manufactureand research products beyond Earth's atmospheric limits.

Portfolio highlights

• hometouch — Hometouch provides high quality live-in care, dementia care & private live in care across UK. Speak to a Care Advisor to discuss elderly live in home care.
• George Medicines — George Medicines is a drug manufacturing company that improves the management of non-communicable diseases.
• Office of Planetary Observations — Providing environmental analytics from satellite in near real-time for city planning purposes | #Cities #UrbanGreening #GreenInfrastructure #SatelliteData

Portfolio highlights

• OneMRI — A comprehensive whole-body MRI. Radiation-free, clinically reviewed, and explained by doctors.
• Enrola — Looking for online training courses? Discover the perfect course for you with our easy course advisor quiz. Get individual guidance and apply directly.
• BarterAds Pty Ltd — BarterAds is a programmatic advertising exchange that enables businesses to acquire customers without cash spend by converting unused ad inventory into a tradable asset. Instead of paying in fiat, companies earn and spend a proprietary internal currency called Barter Dollars, which are issued when they display ads on their owned media propertiessuch as websites, apps, or platforms.The platform operates as an auction-based exchange, similar to traditional ad networks, where advertisers bid for impressions using Barter Dollars. Inventory is matched contextually and priced dynamically through real-time bidding, ensuring efficient allocation of supply and demand across the network. This allows both advertisers and publishers to maximize the value of otherwise underutilized inventory.BarterAds primarily targets startups, SaaS platforms, marketplaces, gaming companies, and content publishers that have traffic but are constrained by rising customer acquisition costs. By removing the need for upfront cash spend, the platform provides a capital-efficient growth channel, particularly for small and mid-sized businesses.The system includes controls for brand safety, fraud prevention, and inventory quality through business verification, campaign approvals, and continuous monitoring. Barter Dollars are non-transferable and expire periodically, preventing hoarding and ensuring continuous circulation within the ecosystem.BarterAds is designed as a hybrid between barter networks and modern ad exchanges, combining the scalability and automation of programmatic advertising with a closed-loop, cashless economy. The company is headquartered in Australia and is focused on building a global network of advertisers and publishers who both contribute inventory and run campaigns within the platform.