New Zealand businesses can now be connected with funders, incubators, multinationals and other collaborators thanks to a recently launched free online platform from Callaghan Innovation.
As reported, Scale-Up NZ delivers accurate insights on ambitious innovative New Zealand companies. It removes information gaps that prevent businesses from achieving their potential.
Free trustworthy information
Scale-Up NZ contains crowdsourcing information from the companies themselves. Add to that a team of Callaghan Innovation data analysts who will verify data on the platform.
The platform has the potential to foster much greater collaboration in the economy.
NZ’s Innovation Agency worked with over 2,800 companies in the previous year and found out that many of them are struggling to locate partners or funders that could help take their business to the next level.
The Agency will be doing most of the work in curating the platform as a trusted, secure and high-quality source of intelligence so that innovative businesses are more visible and the potential for collaboration is more obvious.
Companies on Scale-Up NZ will be able to showcase their innovations so that potential investors and collaborators here and globally can discover and connect with them more easily.
Brief background
The platform is based on the hugely successful Start-Up Nation Finder, which provides information on over 7,000 companies that make up Israel’s innovation ecosystem.
Thousands of people use Start-Up Nation Finder every day to search for Israeli start-ups, potential partners and investors.
With the same basic platform as Start-Up Nation Finder, Scale-Up NZ will be able to benchmark itself against, and learn from, Israel, Ireland and other small advanced economies that are on this or similar platforms.
Easy to search and navigate
The platform has aspects of business networking and directory tools that profiles New Zealand businesses, investors and multinationals and the relationships between them.
This offers more context and verified information in one place than ever before.
The platform groups together companies in similar areas of innovation based on an advanced tagging system.
With My Collections, registered users can follow and analyse companies, investors, hubs, and multinationals in one easy to manage interface.
Users can request mediated introductions, which also has potential to help job seekers connect with possible employers.
Launching the platform allows the innovation system to witness the power of the platform and help build out the data faster.
The number of profiles on the platform is expected to reach thousands within a year or so as more New Zealand businesses realise the value of the connections and collaborations it enables.
How does it work?
Scale-Up NZ offers ways to help NZ businesses to grow and collaborate by:
- Tūhura: Find
The platform enables users to find the accurate information they need, when they need it, in multiple ways.
The ecosystem can be navigated to explore new technology and business trends. For more in-depth analysis, browse for specific information using the platform’s comprehensive search feature.
The advanced search options filter companies by business model, funding stage, geographic location, product stage and more.
- Tūhono: Connect
Find potential partners or complementary businesses in sectors and locations of interest and ask for facilitated introductions to key people.
This enables users to extend their networks and helps create connections that matter. Contact requests will be mediated to ensure their mutual value.
- Turuki: Grow
Similar networks overseas are growth engines for ambitious companies, innovation communities and national economies.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, Scale-Up NZ will supercharge innovation and help build world-beating businesses.
Interested parties can visit the website here.