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A New Innovation Model for New Zealand
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A New Innovation Model for New Zealand
The brief was to advise New Zealand on how to replicate Israel’s success, while making the proper adjustments for cultural, regulatory, legal and other locally-relevant elements. To ensure a solid foundation to the new ecosystem, IdealityRoads devoted the first year of operations in New Zealand to developing the knowledge and management capabilities the government needed for a successful public-private partnership.
Working both remotely and locally, IdealityRoads covered all aspects of designing and maintaining government involvement in a thriving high-tech ecosystem. For a full year, the company closely mentored its partners in the New Zealand government in areas including: effective management processes; unique methodology for managing the National Dynamic Tender (NDT) for the technology incubator; corporate governance structures; government incentives; and day-to-day incubator management. As part of its broader engagement with the new innovation policy, IdealityRoads also advised on New Zealand’s Regional Research Institute (RRI) – an initiative created to establish innovation hubs in peripheral regions of the country, linking academia to industry to directly stimulate cutting-edge, commercially-focused, industrially-usable research.
Following the launch of the Technology Incubator Program in 2014, IdealityRoads maintained ongoing contact with incubator management and stakeholders, speeding up relevant learning processes, and adjusting the program, as needed, to reflect feedback from incubator management, entrepreneurs and government officials.
The four-year pilot program made a significant contribution to the country’s technology ecosystem, yielding three fully-operational incubators with over 45 new science-based start-ups, attracting significant investment and creating high-value tech jobs.
In light of the success of the pilot, the New Zealand government is investing further in a new, improved technology incubator program, which will have a strong policy focusing on excellent commercialisation experience, access to investment and pathways to global markets. Launching in 2020, this initiative will run for eight years. It will give science-based start-ups access to four tech incubators - one more than in the pilot. Incubated ventures will be eligible for repayable grants of up to $1,000,000 ($750,000 in the form of a government grant, matched by $250,000 co-funding from the incubator) – a significant increase in the amount of $600,000 offered during the pilot. The selected incubators themselves will have access to 50% co-funding for operational expenses, up to $1,500,000 per year.
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