NEWSROOM

VentureLab start-up incubator graduates 2022 cohort

10 August 2022

The University of Auckland VentureLab incubator programme has wrapped up for 2022 with an impressive showcase of the cohorts’ learnings. Ventures incubated address a wide variety of problems including water safety, making friends and 3D printing services.

VentureLab is administered by the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and is designed to provide the five winning teams of the Velocity $100k Challenge with the mental and physical space needed to get their ventures off the page and out into the real world. With six months in the incubator, teams are connected to industry leaders and a range of mentors, have weekly support meetings with entrepreneurial legend Ken Erskine, and receive free desk space and a $10,000 stipend.

CIE’s Programme Manager Judith Marecek says, “Before VentureLab’s inception in 2018, it was often challenging for the winners of the Velocity $100k Challenge to know what their next steps should be. Thanks to the VentureLab incubator, in the past five years we have seen an increase in the number of ventures that stay the distance.”

As with previous years, the 2022 VentureLab incubator has been vital in getting more aspiring ventures off the ground. Sara from Supercarbon says, “I wasn’t so sure about the next steps after winning the Velocity competition, and I wasn’t very confident that I had the skills to work towards the commercialisation of the idea. I gained knowledge, confidence, inspiration, and a better understanding of my capabilities during the VentureLab program. I got a clearer idea about the entrepreneurial environment and learnt how to present to early investors and industry partners. Words cannot express my gratitude for all the wisdom, support, encouragement, and guidance that Ken and our mentors imparted with passion to our team. Working with them has changed me for the better and inspired me to progress.”

Due to the often stressful and isolating nature of working in a start-up, a major highlight for the teams is having each other to lean on for support and motivation. Michael from Fistbump says, “Creating strong friendships driven by common goals enabled us to be more motivated and inspired. Before we started VentureLab we were at our first version of the app. It was very buggy and the whole morale was low as two people had left the team. However, with the guidance of Ken and the support of others we were able to keep moving forward. Now we are on our way to finishing a product that our users will absolutely love, and we will be able to create a sustainable business in the near future.”

The 2023 cohort for VentureLab will begin in February, following the announcement of this year’s Velocity $100k Challenge winners.

2022 VentureLab cohort:

Delta Waterways – Delta Waterways’ product, driven by the latest in satellite imaging and machine learning technology, significantly enhances the frequency, resolution, coverage, and accessibility of environmental monitoring data. It represents a radical paradigm shift in the monitoring of freshwater and enables a much better understanding of environmental degradation, informing policy, and driving positive change.

Fistbump – Fistbump is a friendship service designed to help users meet like-minded people, hang out and make genuine friends. So far, Fistbump has over 300 users and has helped make over 80 friendships (in just two small launches). Fistbump is a purely platonic app that matches based on interests and personality. Users can match and chat anonymously and decide if they want to be friends. Fistbump is now expanding into coffee hangouts, events, and gamification. – ask if there are updated states for this?

PrintGig – PrintGig is passionate about creating a world where 3D printing is integrated into everyone’s daily lives and makers can make money doing what they love. PrintGig will achieve this by connecting experienced freelancers with consumers who want easily accessible and affordable 3D printing services. 

RisosEnterprises – Waterborne E. coli testing is a monumental effort, prohibitively expensive and takes days to yield results. Eighty percent of New Zealanders are not only unhappy with environmental water but especially with their drinking water. RisosEnterprises is working on technology that is much faster and more accurate than any existing water testing instrumentation to date. This cuts down testing costs and reaction times to critically enable widespread testing for effective countermeasures. RisosEnterprises are creating the Waicorder (TM), a star-trek inspired water tricorder that everyone can use to sense water quality anywhere, anytime. Communities will benefit from a healthier environment and drinkable water, while private industry cuts down on production losses, especially beverage manufacturers. 

Supercarbon – Supercarbon is a ground-breaking technology with sustained antimicrobial and antiviral properties that at the same time provides beneficial microcurrent to stimulate cell growth and proliferation. The technology has a promising prospect in the lab-grown meet market to eliminate the use of antibiotics and accelerate cell-growth rate. Other possible applications for SuperCarbon with promising markets are:

• Electroceutical wound dressings.
• Anti-pathogen air filters.
• Anti-ageing beauty facial devices