Creative HQ

📣 New Zealand, meet your next generation of Fintechs joining our fastest-growing tech sector. 👏 🇳🇿 🚀 Fintech Lab kicks off in January, and we are delighted to announce the 14 teams joining our biggest Fintech accelerator ever. Innovative solutions to improve payments, investing, lending, and other finance-related challenges are being developed among these teams. They’re starting their journey now, but many of these startups could soon become household names. Let’s all throw our support behind them in 2025. When our Fintechs thrive, the benefits ripple through our entire economy. 🙌 👉 Here are your Fintech Lab 2025 teams: https://lnkd.in/gqeFafa3 🔸 Scores4All 🔸 Otto NZ 🔸 Money Sweetspot 🔸 IPromise 🔸 Sevaka 🔸 IndigiShare 🔸 Rebit Money Transfer 🔸 Homely 🔸 Indus | India’s Markets In 3 Minutes For Kiwis & Aussies 🔸 Project Mosaic: projectmosaic.click 🔸 Goldie 🔸 PolicyCheck 🔸 eccuity 🔸 Paysquad Come meet them on 23 January at our Fintech Launch party 🎉: https://lnkd.in/g2ggbKsJ MASSIVE THANK YOU to all our partners and sponsors (more to be announced soon 👀) Callaghan Innovation NZ Growth Capital Partners Banzpay Booster NZ NZ Fintech Fund FinTechNZ Financial Markets Authority - New Zealand Payments NZ WellingtonNZ Colm Kearney Joe Slater Chris O'Neill

🌍 Hey impact-driven founders - this one’s for you. If you’re working on a startup to combat climate change, we’ve got some exciting news: applications for our next climate tech accelerator are now open. 🚀 Introducing the ✨Aurora Climate Lab ✨. Why Aurora? We’ve named this after the incredible natural phenomenon - because we think people coming together to solve the biggest challenge of our time is just as spectacular. Ambitious people taking the plunge with their ideas, energy, and cutting-edge innovation is something we can all look up to. This accelerator is designed for early-stage climate-tech founders. While we’re particularly excited about technology-focused start-ups at the pre-seed and seed-stage, all applications will be considered. ⏱️ It takes ~5 minutes to apply, but it could be the start of your startup’s rise to new heights in 2025. The program will provide up to $50k of investment per team, and substantial support and guidance from climate-tech experts and investors. We’re particularly excited to announce that Alice Havill (Ex LanzaTech and Breakthrough Energy) will be designing and delivering the Aurora curriculum alongside CreativeHQ. Ready to make an impact? 🌏 apply today 👉 https://lnkd.in/gjR_8MAk. Applications close 30 January 2025. Read about our previous accelerator if you’d like more info - or reach out to our team 👋 https://lnkd.in/gD37a5Hm Motion Capital Callaghan Innovation Fractal Climate Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation Ara Ake Joe Slater Holly Beals Lachlan Nixon

📰 Big news... HUGE: Introducing Mastercard as this year's Fintech Lab Foundation partner.  💥 👂 Yes, you heard right, Mastercard is backing Fintech Lab 2025 and its incredible founders. It’s a match made in heaven. Who better to support our next generation of Fintech startups than a global payments leader and disruptor? Mastercard shares our vision for a finance sector powered by Fintech in New Zealand - and has come on board to support these ambitious startups in turning bold ideas into real-world impact. 🌏 Thank you to Mastercard for making this programme possible. These 14 startup teams can go further with your support - and the whole ecosystem will be stronger as a result. Come along to the Fintech Lab launch party next month: https://lnkd.in/g2ggbKsJ Scores4All Otto NZ Money Sweetspot IPromise Sevaka IndigiShare Rebit Money Transfer Homely Indus | India’s Markets In 3 Minutes For Kiwis & Aussies Project Mosaic Goldie PolicyCheck eccuity Paysquad Joe Slater Colm Kearney Chris O'Neill

🎨 How important is design in validating and scaling your startup? It's more important than you think. Save the date for a workshop on 12 February led by the amazing Caspian Ievers, Creative Director of KISSLabs Studio. 👨🎨 In this Startup Session, Caspian will share his 20+ years of experience leveraging strategic design for business growth. 🌿 💡 Caspian will walk us through key concepts of brand building, validating business ideas, design investment, market positioning and growth. 🗓 Mark those calendars, register your spot and we'll see you there: https://lnkd.in/gdAVm7Hs #creativehq #StartupSessions #innovation Callaghan Innovation WellingtonNZ Wellington City Council Chris O'Neill

Shoutout to these amazing entrepreneurs from #esBee who visited Creative HQ last week from Northcote College. 🌺 These founders practiced their pitch with us before they took to the stage for the Young Enterprise National Awards, which recognises our young change-makers of Aotearoa. We also had great time running a mini innovation session to walk through future brand and product development with this passionate team. 🧑💻 🐝🕯Check out their all-natural Slic Stic and what all the hype is about: https://lnkd.in/gnKvbfAa #creativehq #innovation #youngentrepreneurs Nedra Fu Colin Kennedy

2025 is around the corner, BUT FIRST… 🥁 Creative HQ is proud to present our 2023/24 annual report. As we reflected on this challenging year, we were more inspired than ever by the incredible entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and lifelong learners we’ve had the privilege of working with. ✨ History has shown that some of the world's most successful ventures emerge during the most difficult of economic climates: WhatsApp, Uber and AirBnB, for example, all emerged during the GFC. Closer to home, companies like Dawn Aerospace, Mint Innovation, FTN Motion and Halter demonstrated the ability for 🥝 Kiwi Entrepreneurs to develop and scale successful businesses during the Covid pandemic. 📈 🧡 Creative HQ continues to nurture Kiwi entrepreneurs where support matters most, celebrating those who trust us to guide their journey. We thank our community for making this work possible - because, as we say, it takes a village. Grab a cuppa and enjoy the inspiring stories we’re proud to share: https://lnkd.in/gxR6fgSx #creativehq #innovation #impact WellingtonNZ Wellington City Council Callaghan Innovation Catherine Jones Chloe Narain Brett Holland Colin Kennedy Nedra Fu

👋 See you online tonight at 5:30 pm to chat with a global business leader, Bill Padfield, about expanding your business. 🎟️ There's still a chance to sign up so get amongst it: https://lnkd.in/gVwrquGm Chris O'Neill Salamander Advisory Services - Helping technology companies realise ambitions

These founders are truly ones to watch. 👏✨ Well done to this incredible group who brought their ideas, energy, and passion to Creative HQ’s latest Impact Mini Accelerator. We’ve been inspired by the ambitious missions driving each of your startups. Among you are changemakers tackling food waste, the energy crisis, the housing crisis, and so many other critical challenges facing our planet. 🌍💡 This is just the beginning, and we can’t wait to follow your journeys from here. 🚀💪 Dr Lucy Huang Raechel Osborne Tamara Novak Finn Shewell Joanna Clouden Sabrine van Rossum Fokko van der Schans Stuart Edwards Hans P. Victoria Anderson Dr Nan Yang Holly Beals Callaghan Innovation WellingtonNZ

"Wellington is great at growing smart, innovative companies and brands.” I couldn't agree more. Thank you Gill South for highlighting the incredibly positive and inspiring Startup ecosystem that exists here in Wellington. Creative HQ https://lnkd.in/gydpDGmQ

⏰ See you this Wednesday for an awesome Startup Session with Bill Padfield. 🌏 Want to learn about expanding your business globally and how to secure VC funding? Bill is the co-founder Salamander Advisory Services - Helping technology companies realise ambitions, and he's got some insights and secrets to share. 👇 Reserve your FREE spot here: https://lnkd.in/gVwrquGm #creativehq #innovation #startupsessions