NEWSROOM

University of Auckland alumni win big at the 2022 NZ Hi Tech Awards

9 August 2022

The NZ Hi-Tech Awards celebrate New Zealand’s most successful hi-tech companies and highest achieving individuals. University of Auckland alumni crowded the 2022 NZ Hi-Tech Awards finalists list, with alumni present in every category.

The Gala Dinner was held in Wellington with a record crowd of close to 1100 in attendance including the Prime Minister and the Mayor of Wellington. The NZ Hi-Tech Awards judges said the calibre of this year’s entrants was at an all-time high, making the job of selecting winners exceedingly challenging for the more than 70 local and international judges.

Director of the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Darsel Keane says “It is thrilling to see so many of our alumni named Winner or Highly Commended in this year’s awards. The University of Auckland puts a lot of effort into creating an enabling environment for nascent entrepreneurs to thrive through its research commercialisation company UniServices and CIE. The University of Auckland Inventors’ Fund is invested in Alimetry, Kara Technologies and StretchSense. CIE’s role is to create a pipeline of innovative and entrepreneurial talent for New Zealand through delivering free co-curricular entrepreneurship education opportunities to the University’s students and staff. Many of this year’s winners went through our Velocity entrepreneurship development programme, including the founders of retail crime intelligence and loss prevention platform Auror, sign language avatar venture Kara Technologies, hand motion capture solution StretchSense and Alimetry, who had remarkable success this year.”

Alimetry make advanced clinical solutions for investigating gastric disorders. They took home a record three awards, including Most Innovative Hi-Tech Hardware Product, Most Innovative Hi-Tech Creative Technology Solution and the Most Innovative Deep Tech Solution categories.

New Zealand Hi-Tech Trust chair David Downs says, “A key theme that came through from the finalists and winners is that New Zealand makes technology with purpose – caring for people, and the planet.”

Keane says “Entrepreneurs enable the economic, social and environmental prosperity of New Zealand, developing solutions to the mighty challenges that we face both now and in the future. A futuristic outlook and technological capability are essential and we’ll continue to do our part to develop graduates with these skills.”

The 2022 NZ Hi-Tech Award winners:

Xero Hi-Tech Young Achiever
Winner: Jamie Beaton
Highly Commended: Imche Fourie

Visa Best Hi-Tech Solution for the Public Good
Winner: GNS Science & NIWA
Highly Commended: Kara Technologies

IBM Most Inspiring Individual
Winner: Brooke Roberts

Tataki Auckland Unlimited Most Innovative Hi-Tech Creative Technology Solution
Winner: Alimetry
Highly Commended: Writer’s Toolbox

Callaghan Innovation Hi-Tech Maori Company of the Year
Winner: Agrisea

Duncan Cotterill Most Innovative Hi-Tech Software Solution
Winner: Auror

Endace Most Innovative Hi-Tech Hardware Product
Winner: Alimetry
Highly Commended: StretchSense

Kiwibank Most Innovative Hi-Tech Service
Winner: FirstAML
Highly Commended: Hnry

NZTE Most Innovative Hi-Tech Agritech Solution
Winner: M2X

Halo Consulting Best Contribution to the NZ Tech Sector
Winner: Summer of Tech

Punakaiki Fund Hi-Tech Start-up Company of the Year
Winner: Seen Safety

Pacific Edge Hi-Tech Emerging Company of the Year
Winner: UBCO
Highly Commended: Auror

Soul Machines Most Innovative Deep Tech Solution
Winner: Alimetry

PwC NZ Hi-Tech Company of the Year Award
Winner: Seequent

Tait Communications Flying Kiwi Award
Recipient: Ian McCrae

Full list of University of Auckland alumni finalists

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