Wellington UniVentures recognises entrepreneurship as a major driver of innovation and we actively engage with students and academics to connect research with business. Being located in Wellington, with ready access to Government and private sector entrepreneurship hubs, as well as extensive national networks, Wellington UniVentures is well positioned to connect.

We are a shareholding member of KiwiNet (Kiwi Innovation Network) - 18 research organisations working towards 1 common goal… transforming scientific discoveries into new business, for all.

We partner with organisations like Return on Science and the tech incubators to create better networked and supported startups.

Wellington UniVentures takes an expansive view of funding, seeking out new partnerships and opportunities to complement more traditional funding models in the entrepreneurial and commercialisation space.

In 2018 we launched a new partnership between Wellington UniVentures and New Zealand financial services company Booster, called the New Zealand Innovation Booster, which will see Booster invest a minimum of $2 million a year for five years in a portfolio of new start-ups. Booster is one of the nine government-appointed default KiwiSaver scheme providers, with $2.5 billion currently under management on behalf of over 120,000 investors across KiwiSaver and other superannuation and investment schemes, and this partnership marks the first time a New Zealand financial institution has joined forces with a university to invest in its start-up companies.

https://www.wellingtonuniventures.nz/news/booster-partnership-invests-10m-in-start-ups/

Victoria University of Wellington prides itself in having researchers working at the leading edge of technology - and its these researchers that form the talent that steps into our startups - particularly early career researchers.

Raising the profile of commercialisation activities and startups as a career choice for PhD students and Post Doctoral Fellows has long been an activity at Wellington UniVentures, and we incubate projects so that the founding team can develop the necessary entrepreneurial skills to complement their deep technical capabilities. This year, we are increasing our level of support and professional development for future founders, including identifying prospects and creating opportunities to learn and engage with the wider ecosystem with or without a commercialisable project.

With an growing pipeline of projects coming out of the research at Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington UniVentures focuses on developing entrepreneurial talent alongside the development of ideas. We create well-rounded, capable people and highly developed, and well-protected ideas.

Our Commercialisation Managers take an active role partnering with academics and coaching future founders towards achieving their their startup. In 2020 - we began putting project agnostic professional development alongside our future founders and entrepreneurial academics - to further strengthen their capability and optimise their chances of success as entrepreneurs.