Over 500 startups thrive in NZ, even as VCs invest over USD 140 mn: Report

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With a population of fewer than 5 million people, the New Zealand startup ecosystem is up and thriving.

There are about 500 startups across several verticals, VC investment has ranged between $90 million and $140 million in the past three years, and New Zealand has been named the #1 country in the world for ease of doing business.

While 2017 has been weaker than previous years in terms of IPOs (the country only had one) and VC investment, the ecosystem has shown long-term improvement.

An important part of the ecosystem long-term development has come from the growing angel investor community—there are 3x times as many angel networks as ten years ago, and the capital deployed by them has grown 310% from $21 million in 2006.

Courtesy: StartupGenome.com

The main focus areas of startups from New Zealand are govtech, agri-tech and biotech, even as startups in Clean Energy and Artificial Intelligence are gaining ground. Universities such as University of Auckland, University of Olago, Massey University and Victoria University in Wellington are playing a key role.

Source: Startup Genome Report 2018

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